Godard began to think about his own audiovisual history of cinema in the late 70s. He began thinking of the project as a collaboration with Cinémathèque Française director Henri Langlois, then developed a series of lectures at Concordia University, and then started working on what would develop into an 8-part series one chapter at a time in the mid-80s. The result, a massive meditation on cinema within the framework of the 20th century and the greater history of visual art, is a truly monumental work.