The facts:

• 1969 made-for-TV film by Jean-Luc Godard.
• The voice-overs are largely adapted from the Communist Manifesto.
• Godard claimed that the “news presenter” text was adapted from speeches by contemporary politicians.
• The “feminist” text is written and recited by Sheila Rowbotham.
• Some of the Essex students shown went on to form the Angry Brigade.
• The arm at the end is Godard’s own. Even though it looks fake, the blood is real.
• London Weekend Television inevitably refused to show it.

“The film has the stiff and self-punishing feel of a cinematic hair-shirt” – Richard Brody

Talking about a series of five made-for-TV films made by Godard at this time—of which British Sounds is the first—Colin MacCabe has written:

“Considered as conventional documentaries they are unwatchable; considered as experiments in sound and image they contain lessons even more relevant today than when they were made.”