Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the
French New Wave
French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...
film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...
,
Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda (; born Arlette Varda; 30 May 1928 – 29 March 2019) was a Belgian-born French film director, screenwriter, photographer, and artist. Her pioneering work was central to the development of the widely influential French New Wave film ...
,
Éric Rohmer
Jean Marie Maurice Schérer or Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer, known as Éric Rohmer (; 21 March 192011 January 2010), was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and teacher.
Rohmer was the last of the post-World ...
, and
Jacques Demy
Jacques Demy (; 5 June 1931 – 27 October 1990) was a French director, lyricist, and screenwriter. He appeared at the height of the French New Wave alongside contemporaries like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Demy's films are celebrat ...
. He was arguably the most influential French filmmaker of the
post-war era
In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period c ...
.
According to
AllMovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
, his work "revolutionized the motion picture form" through its experimentation with narrative,
continuity,
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
, and
camerawork
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to focus ...
.
His most acclaimed films include ''
Breathless'' (1960), ''
Vivre sa vie
''Vivre sa vie'' (french: Vivre sa vie: film en douze tableaux, lit=To Live Her Life: A Film in Twelve Scenes) is a 1962 French New Wave drama film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film was released in the United States as ''My Life ...
'' (1962), ''
Contempt
Contempt is a pattern of attitudes and behaviour, often towards an individual or a group, but sometimes towards an ideology, which has the characteristics of disgust and anger.
The word originated in 1393 in Old French contempt, contemps, ...
'' (1963), ''
Band of Outsiders
Band or BAND may refer to:
Places
*Bánd, a village in Hungary
*Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
*Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania
* Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...
'' (1964), ''
Alphaville'' (1965), ''
Pierrot le Fou'' (1965), ''
Masculin Féminin
''Masculin Féminin'' (french: Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis, , "Masculine Feminine: 15 Specific Events") is a 1966 French New Wave romantic drama film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. An international co-production between France and Sweden, ...
'' (1966), ''
Weekend'' (1967), and ''
Goodbye to Language
''Goodbye to Language'' (french: Adieu au Langage) is a 2014 French-Swiss 3D experimental narrative essay film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It stars Héloïse Godet, Kamel Abdeli, Richard Chevallier, Zoé Bruneau, Jessica Erickson ...
'' (2014).
During his early career as a film critic for the influential magazine ''
Cahiers du Cinéma
''Cahiers du Cinéma'' (, ) is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.Itzkoff, Dave (9 February 2009''Cahiers Du Cinéma Will Continue to Publish''The New York TimesMacnab, Ge ...
'', Godard criticised mainstream French cinema's "Tradition of Quality", which de-emphasised innovation and experimentation. In response, he and like-minded critics began to make their own films, challenging the conventions of traditional
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
in addition to
French cinema
French cinema consists of the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe; with primary influ ...
. Godard first received global acclaim for his 1960 feature ''
Breathless'', helping to establish the New Wave movement.
His work makes use of frequent homages and references to
film history
The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art form created using film technologies that began in the late 19th century.
The advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined. However, the commercial, public scr ...
, and often expressed his political views; he was an avid reader of
existentialism
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
and
Marxist philosophy
Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew fro ...
, and in 1969 formed the
Dziga Vertov Group with other radical filmmakers to promote political works. After the New Wave, his politics were less radical and his later films are about human conflict and
artistic representation "from a
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
rather than Marxist perspective."
Godard was married three times, to actresses
Anna Karina
Anna Karina (born Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer; September 22, 1940 – December 14, 2019) and
Anne Wiazemsky
Anne Wiazemsky (14 May 1947 – 5 October 2017) was a French actress and novelist. She made her cinema debut at the age of 18, playing Marie, the lead character in Robert Bresson's ''Au Hasard Balthazar'' (1966), and went on to appear in several ...
, both of whom starred in several of his films, and later to his longtime partner
Anne-Marie Miéville
Anne-Marie Miéville (; born 11 November 1945) is a Swiss video and filmmaker whom ''Sight & Sound'' has called a "hugely important multimedia artist."
Biography
Miéville was a practising photographer when she met Jean-Luc Godard, who would be ...
.
His collaborations with Karina—which included such critically acclaimed films as ''
Vivre sa vie
''Vivre sa vie'' (french: Vivre sa vie: film en douze tableaux, lit=To Live Her Life: A Film in Twelve Scenes) is a 1962 French New Wave drama film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film was released in the United States as ''My Life ...
'' (1962), ''
Bande à part'' (1964), and ''
Pierrot le Fou'' (1965)—were called "arguably the most influential body of work in the history of cinema" by ''
Filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
'' magazine.
In a 2002 ''
Sight & Sound
''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'' poll, Godard ranked third in the critics' top ten directors of all time. He is said to have "generated one of the largest bodies of critical analysis of any filmmaker since the mid-twentieth century." His work has been central to
narrative theory
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...
and has "challenged both commercial narrative cinema norms and film criticism's vocabulary." In 2010, Godard was awarded an
Academy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award – instituted in 1950 for the 23rd Academy Awards (previously called the Special Award, which was first presented at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929) – is given annually by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Moti ...
.
Early life
Jean-Luc Godard was born on 3 December 1930
in the
7th arrondissement of Paris
The 7th arrondissement of Paris (''VIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''le septième''.
The arrondissement, ca ...
, the son of Odile (''née'' Monod) and Paul Godard, a Swiss physician. His wealthy parents came from
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
families of Franco–Swiss descent, and his mother was the daughter of Julien Monod, a founder of the
Banque Paribas. She was the great-granddaughter of theologian
Adolphe Monod
Adolphe-Louis-Frédéric-Théodore Monod (21 January 1802 – 6 April 1856) was a French Protestant churchman. His elder brother was Frédéric Monod.
He was born in Copenhagen, where his father, Jean Monod (Sept. 5, 1765 – April 23, 1836; himse ...
. Other relatives on his mother's side include composer
Jacques-Louis Monod
Jacques-Louis Monod (25 February 1927 – 21 September 2020) was a French composer, pianist and conducting, conductor of 20th century music, 20th century and Contemporary classical music, contemporary music, particularly in the advancement of th ...
, naturalist
Théodore Monod
Théodore André Monod (9 April 1902 – 22 November 2000) was a French naturalist, humanist, scholar and explorer.
Exploration
Early in his career, Monod was made professor at the ''Muséum national d'histoire naturelle'' and founded the '' Inst ...
, pastor
Frédéric Monod
Frédéric Monod (17 May 1794, in Monnaz - 30 December 1863, in Paris) was a French Protestant pastor. He was the older brother of minister Adolphe Monod. He was born citizen of the Republic of Geneva, and obtained the French citizenship in 18 ...
, and former Prime Minister and later President of Peru
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski
Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter.
The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...
. Four years after Jean-Luc's birth, his father moved the family to Switzerland. At the outbreak of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Godard was in France, and returned to Switzerland with difficulty. He spent most of the war in Switzerland, although his family made clandestine trips to his grandfather's estate on the French side of
Lake Geneva
, image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg
, caption = Satellite image
, image_bathymetry =
, caption_bathymetry =
, location = Switzerland, France
, coords =
, lake_type = Glacial lak ...
. Godard attended school in
Nyon
Nyon (; outdated German language, German: or ; outdated Italian language, Italian: , ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Nyon District in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilomet ...
, Switzerland.
Not a frequent cinema-goer, he attributed his introduction to cinema to a reading of
André Malraux
Georges André Malraux ( , ; 3 November 1901 – 23 November 1976) was a French novelist, art theorist, and minister of cultural affairs. Malraux's novel ''La Condition Humaine'' (Man's Fate) (1933) won the Prix Goncourt. He was appointed by P ...
's essay ''Outline of a Psychology of Cinema'', and his reading of ''La Revue du cinéma'', which was relaunched in 1946. In 1946, he went to study at the
Lycée Buffon
The Lycée Buffon is a secondary school in the XVe arrondissement of Paris, bordered by boulevard Pasteur, the rue de Vaugirard and the rue de Staël. Its nearest métro station is Pasteur. It is named for Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffo ...
in Paris and, through family connections, mixed with members of its cultural elite. He lodged with the writer
Jean Schlumberger. Having failed his
baccalauréat
The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...
exam in 1948 he returned to Switzerland. He studied in
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...
and lived with his parents, whose marriage was breaking up. He spent time in Geneva also with a group that included another film fanatic, Roland Tolmatchoff, and the extreme rightist philosopher Jean Parvulesco. His elder sister Rachel encouraged him to paint, which he did, in an abstract style. After time spent at a boarding school in
Thonon
Thonon-les-Bains (; frp, Tonon), often simply referred to as Thonon, is a subprefecture of the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. In 2018, the commune had a population of 35,241. Thonon-les-Bains is ...
to prepare for the retest, which he passed, he returned to Paris in 1949. He registered for a certificate in
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
at the
University of Paris
, image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of Arms
, latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis
, motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin)
, mottoeng = Here and a ...
(Sorbonne), but did not attend class.
Early career (1950–1959)
Film criticism
In Paris, in the
Latin Quarter
The Latin Quarter of Paris (french: Quartier latin, ) is an area in the 5th and the 6th arrondissements of Paris. It is situated on the left bank of the Seine, around the Sorbonne.
Known for its student life, lively atmosphere, and bistros ...
just prior to 1950, ''ciné-clubs'' (film societies) were gaining prominence. Godard began attending these clubs—the
Cinémathèque Française
The Cinémathèque Française (), founded in 1936, is a French non-profit film organization that holds one of the largest archives of film documents and film-related objects in the world. Based in Paris's 12th arrondissement, the archive offers ...
, Ciné-Club du Quartier Latin (CCQL), Work and Culture ciné club, and others—which became his regular haunts. The Cinémathèque was founded by
Henri Langlois
Henri Langlois (; 13 November 1914 – 13 January 1977) was a French film archivist and cinephile. A pioneer of film preservation, Langlois was an influential figure in the history of cinema. His film screenings in Paris in the 1950s are often c ...
and
Georges Franju
Georges Franju (; 12 April 1912 – 5 November 1987) was a French filmmaker. He was born in Fougères, Ille-et-Vilaine.
Biography Early life
Before working in French cinema, Franju held several different jobs. These included working for an i ...
in 1936; Work and Culture was a workers' education group for which
André Bazin
André Bazin (; 18 April 1918 – 11 November 1958) was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist.
Bazin started to write about film in 1943 and was a co-founder of the renowned film magazine '' Cahiers du cinéma'' in 1951, ...
had organised wartime film screenings and discussions and which had become a model for the film clubs that had risen throughout France after the Liberation; CCQL, founded in about 1947 or 1948, was animated and intellectually led by
Maurice Schérer Maurice may refer to:
People
*Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr
*Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor
*Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and Lo ...
. At these clubs he met fellow film enthusiasts including
Jacques Rivette
Jacques Rivette (; 1 March 1928 – 29 January 2016) was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine ''Cahiers du Cinéma''. He made twenty-nine films, including ''L'amour fou' ...
,
Claude Chabrol
Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...
, and
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...
. Godard was part of a generation for whom cinema took on a special importance. He said: "In the 1950s cinema was as important as bread—but it isn't the case anymore. We thought cinema would assert itself as an instrument of knowledge, a microscope... a telescope.... At the Cinémathèque I discovered a world which nobody had spoken to me about. They'd told us about
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
, but not
Dreyer
Dreyer is a common German surname originating from Grübe in Holstein Germany. Notable people with the surname include:
* Benjamin Dreyer (1958– ), American writer and copy editor
* Benedikt Dreyer (1495–1555), German sculptor, carver and pai ...
. ... We watched silent films in the era of talkies. We dreamed about film. We were like
Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
in the
catacombs
Catacombs are man-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a burial place is a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire.
Etymology and history
The first place to be referred ...
."
His foray into films began in the field of
criticism
Criticism is the construction of a judgement about the negative qualities of someone or something. Criticism can range from impromptu comments to a written detailed response. , ''"the act of giving your opinion or judgment about the good or bad q ...
. Along with Maurice Schérer (writing under the to-be-famous pseudonym
Éric Rohmer
Jean Marie Maurice Schérer or Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer, known as Éric Rohmer (; 21 March 192011 January 2010), was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and teacher.
Rohmer was the last of the post-World ...
) and Jacques Rivette, he founded the short-lived film journal ', which saw the publication of five issues in 1950. When Bazin co-founded the influential critical magazine ''
Cahiers du Cinéma
''Cahiers du Cinéma'' (, ) is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.Itzkoff, Dave (9 February 2009''Cahiers Du Cinéma Will Continue to Publish''The New York TimesMacnab, Ge ...
'' in 1951, Godard was the first of the younger critics from the CCQL/Cinémathèque group to be published. The January 1952 issue featured his review of an American melodrama directed by
Rudolph Maté
Rudolph Maté (born Rudolf Mayer; 21 January 1898 – 27 October 1964) was a Polish-Hungarian-American cinematographer, film director and film producer who worked as cameraman and cinematographer in Hungary, Austria, Germany, France and the Unite ...
, ''
No Sad Songs for Me
''No Sad Songs for Me'' is a 1950 film directed by Rudolph Maté, featuring Margaret Sullavan in her last film role as a woman dying of cancer. It was nominated for an Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards ...
''. His "Defence and Illustration of Classical Découpage" published in September 1952, in which he attacks an earlier article by Bazin and defends the use of the
shot–reverse shot technique, is one of his earliest important contributions to cinema criticism. Praising
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor.
He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...
and "the greatest American artist—
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is not a household name."
A v ...
", Godard raises their harsh melodramas above the more "formalistic and overtly artful films of
Welles,
De Sica, and
Wyler which Bazin endorsed". At this point Godard's activities did not include making films. Rather, he watched films, and wrote about them, and helped others make films, notably Rohmer, with whom he worked on ''
Présentation ou Charlotte et son steak
''Présentation ou Charlotte et son steak'' is a Cinema of France, French short drama film written and directed by Éric Rohmer in 1951 and post-synchronised in 1961. It features Jean-Luc Godard and the voices of Stéphane Audran and Anna Karina.
...
''.
Filmmaking
Having left Paris in the fall of 1952, Godard returned to Switzerland and went to live with his mother in Lausanne. He became friendly with his mother's lover, Jean-Pierre Laubscher, who was a labourer on the
Grande Dixence Dam
__NOTOC__
The Grande Dixence Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Dixence (river), Dixence at the head of the Val d'Hérémence in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. At high, it is the List of tallest dams in the world, tallest gravity dam in ...
. Through Laubscher he secured work himself as a construction worker at the Plaz Fleuri work site at the dam. He saw the possibility of making a documentary film about the dam; when his initial contract ended, in order to prolong his time at the dam, he moved to the post of telephone switchboard operator. Whilst on duty, in April 1954, he put through a call to Laubscher which relayed the fact that Odile Monod, Godard's mother, had died in a scooter accident. Thanks to Swiss friends who lent him a
35 mm movie camera, he was able to shoot on 35mm film. He rewrote the commentary that Laubscher had written, and gave his film a rhyming title ''Opération béton'' (''
Operation Concrete
''Operation Concrete'' (french: Opération béton) (1955) is a documentary made by French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, preceding his work in narrative, fiction film. The film shows the construction of the massive concrete Grande Dixence Dam
__NOTO ...
''). The company that administered the dam bought the film and used it for publicity purposes.
As he continued to work for ''Cahiers'', he made ''
Une femme coquette
''Une femme coquette'' (''A Flirtatious Woman'') (1955 in film, 1955) was the first of four short fiction films made by French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard preceding his work in feature-length narrative film.
The short film is based on the story ''L ...
'' (1955), a 10-minute short, in
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
; and in January 1956 he returned to Paris. A plan for a feature film of Goethe's ''
Elective Affinities
''Elective Affinities'' (German: ''Die Wahlverwandtschaften''), also translated under the title ''Kindred by Choice'', is the third novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1809. Situated around the city of Weimar, the book relates the ...
'' proved too ambitious and came to nothing. Truffaut enlisted his help to work on an idea he had for a film based on the true-crime story of a petty criminal, Michel Portail, who had shot a motorcycle policeman and whose girlfriend had turned him in to the police, but Truffaut failed to interest any producers. Another project with Truffaut, a comedy about a country girl arriving in Paris, was also abandoned. He worked with Rohmer on a planned series of short films centering on the lives of two young women, Charlotte and Véronique; and in the autumn of 1957,
Pierre Braunberger
Pierre Braunberger (29 July 1905, Paris – 16 November 1990, Aubervilliers) was a French producer, executive producer, and actor.
Biography
Born into a family of physicians, Braunberger at the age of seven was already determined not have t ...
produced the first film in the series, ''
All the Boys Are Called Patrick'', directed by Godard from Rohmer's script. ''
A Story of Water'' (1958) was created largely out of unused footage shot by Truffaut. In 1958, Godard, with a cast that included
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor and producer. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward. His best known credits ...
and Anne Colette, made his last short before gaining international prominence as a filmmaker, ''
Charlotte et son Jules
''Charlotte and Her Boyfriend'' (french: Charlotte et son Jules) is a 13-minute 1958 film by Franco-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard. It is shot entirely in or from a hotel room, in which Jules (Jean-Paul Belmondo) gives Charlotte (Anne Collette) a ...
'', a homage to
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...
. The film was shot in Godard's hotel room on the rue de Rennes and apparently reflected something of the 'romantic austerity' of Godard's own life at this time. His Swiss friend Roland Tolmatchoff noted: "In Paris he had a big
Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Ins ...
poster on the wall and nothing else." In December 1958, Godard reported from the Festival of Short Films in
Tours
Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...
and praised the work of, and became friends with,
Jacques Demy
Jacques Demy (; 5 June 1931 – 27 October 1990) was a French director, lyricist, and screenwriter. He appeared at the height of the French New Wave alongside contemporaries like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Demy's films are celebrat ...
,
Jacques Rozier
Jacques Rozier (; 10 November 1926) is a French film director and screenwriter. He is one of the lesser known members of the French New Wave movement and has collaborated with Jean-Luc Godard. Three of his films have been screened at the Cannes ...
, and
Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda (; born Arlette Varda; 30 May 1928 – 29 March 2019) was a Belgian-born French film director, screenwriter, photographer, and artist. Her pioneering work was central to the development of the widely influential French New Wave film ...
—he already knew
Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais (; 3 June 19221 March 2014) was a French film director and screenwriter whose career extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included ...
whose entry he praised—but Godard now wanted to make a feature film. He travelled to the
1959 Cannes Film Festival
The 12th Cannes Film Festival was held from 30 April to 15 May 1959. The Palme d'Or went to the ''Orfeu Negro'' by Marcel Camus. The festival opened with '' Les Quatre Cents Coups'', directed by François Truffaut and closed with ''The Diary of An ...
and asked Truffaut to let him use the story on which they had collaborated in 1956, about car thief Michel Portail. He sought money from producer
Georges de Beauregard
Georges de Beauregard (23 December 1920 Marseille – 10 September 1984 Paris) was a French film producer who produced works by many of the French New Wave directors. In 1968, he was a member of the jury at the 18th Berlin International Fil ...
, whom he had met previously whilst working briefly in the publicity department of
Twentieth Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm o ...
's Paris office, and who was also at the Festival. Beauregard could offer his expertise, but was in debt from two productions based on
Pierre Loti
Pierre Loti (; pseudonym of Louis Marie-Julien Viaud ; 14 January 1850 – 10 June 1923) was a French naval officer and novelist, known for his exotic novels and short stories.This article is derived largely from the ''Encyclopædia Britannica El ...
stories; hence, financing came instead from a film distributor, René Pignières.
New Wave period (1960–1967)
Godard's most celebrated period as a director spans roughly from his first feature, ''
Breathless'' (1960), through to ''
Week End'' (1967). His work during this period focused on relatively conventional films that often refer to different aspects of film history. Although Godard's work during this time is considered groundbreaking in its own right, the period stands in contrast to that which immediately followed it, during which Godard ideologically denounced much of cinema's history as bourgeois and therefore without merit.
Films
''Breathless''
Godard's ''
Breathless'' (''À bout de souffle'', 1960), starring
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor and producer. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward. His best known credits ...
and
Jean Seberg
Jean Dorothy Seberg (; ; November 13, 1938August 30, 1979) was an American actress who lived half of her life in France. Her performance in Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film ''Breathless'' immortalized her as an icon of French New Wave cinema.
Seb ...
, distinctly expressed the
French New Wave
French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...
's style, and incorporated quotations from several elements of popular culture—specifically American
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
. The film employed various techniques such as the innovative use of
jump cuts
A jump cut is a cut in film editing in which a single continuous sequential shot of a subject is broken into two parts, with a piece of footage being removed in order to render the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera positions of the subjec ...
(which were traditionally considered amateurish),
character asides, and breaking the
eyeline match
An eyeline match is a film editing technique associated with the continuity editing system. It is based on the premise that an audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing. An eyeline match begins with a character looking at som ...
in
continuity editing
Continuity editing is the process, in film and video creation, of combining more-or-less related shots, or different components cut from a single shot, into a sequence to direct the viewer's attention to a pre-existing consistency of story across b ...
. Another unique aspect of ''Breathless'' was the spontaneous writing of the script on the day of shooting—a technique that the actors found unsettling—which contribute to the spontaneous, documentary-like ambience of the film.
From the beginning of his career, Godard included more film references in his movies than any of his New Wave colleagues. In ''Breathless'', his citations include a movie poster showing
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...
—from ''
The Harder They Fall The Harder They Fall may refer to:
* ''The Harder They Fall'' (1956 film), an American boxing film noir directed by Mark Robson.
* ''The Harder They Fall'' (2021 film), an American Western film directed by Jeymes Samuel.
* "The Harder They Fall", ...
'', his last film (whose expression the lead actor Jean-Paul Belmondo tries reverently to imitate)—visual quotations from films of
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film director, screenwriter, Film producer, producer and playwright. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, his films are known ...
,
Samuel Fuller
Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997) was an American film director, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, and World War II veteran known for directing low-budget B movie, genre movies with controversial themes, often ...
,
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
, and others; and an onscreen dedication to
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...
, an American
B-movie
A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...
studio. Quotations from, and references to literature, include
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of ...
,
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under ...
,
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He wa ...
,
Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...
,
Françoise Sagan
Françoise Sagan (born Françoise Delphine Quoirez; 21 June 1935 – 24 September 2004) was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Sagan was known for works with strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois char ...
, and
Maurice Sachs
Maurice Sachs (born Maurice Ettinghausen, 16 September 1906, Paris – 14 April 1945, Germany) was a French-Jewish writer.
Biography
Sachs was the son of a Jewish family of jewelers. He was educated in an English-style boarding-school, lived fo ...
. The film also contains citations in images or on the soundtrack—
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
,
Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
,
J. S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
,
Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...
, and
Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that " ...
. "This first-person cinema invoked not the director's experience but his presence".
Godard wanted to hire the American actress Jean Seberg, who was living in Paris with her husband François Moreuil, a lawyer, to play the American woman. Seberg had become famous in 1956 when Otto Preminger had chosen her to play
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...
in his ''
Saint Joan'', and had then cast her in his acidulous 1958 adaptation of ''
Bonjour Tristesse''. Her performance in this film had not been generally regarded as a success—''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''s critic called her a "misplaced amateur"—but Truffaut and Godard disagreed. In the role of Michel Poiccard, Godard cast Belmondo, an actor he had already called, writing in ''Arts'' in 1958, "the
Michel Simon
Michel Simon (; 9 April 1895 – 30 May 1975) was a Swiss-French actor. He appeared in many notable French films, including ''La Chienne'' (1931), ''Boudu Saved from Drowning'' (1932), ''L'Atalante'' (1934), '' Port of Shadows'' (1938), '' The H ...
and the
Jules Berry
Jules Berry (born Marie Louis Jules Paufichet; 9 February 1883 – 23 April 1951) was a French actor.
Biography
Early life
Berry and his two brothers were born to parents who sold hardware and settled in Poitou. The family moved to Paris in 188 ...
of tomorrow." The cameraman was
Raoul Coutard
Raoul Coutard (16 September 1924 – 8 November 2016) was a French cinematographer. He is best known for his connection with the Nouvelle Vague period and particularly for his work with director Jean-Luc Godard. Coutard also shot films for New Wa ...
, choice of the producer Beauregard. Godard wanted ''Breathless'' to be shot like a documentary, with a lightweight handheld camera and a minimum of added lighting; Coutard had experience as a documentary cameraman while working for the French army's information service in Indochina during the
French-Indochina War
The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam) began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between French Fourth Republic, France and Việt Minh (D ...
. Tracking shots were filmed by Coutard from a wheelchair pushed by Godard. Though Godard had prepared a traditional screenplay, he dispensed with it and wrote the dialogue day by day as the production went ahead. The film's importance was recognised immediately, and in January 1960 Godard won the
Jean Vigo Prize, awarded "to encourage an
auteur
An auteur (; , 'author') is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded but personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, which thus manifests the director's unique ...
of the future". One reviewer mentioned
Alexandre Astruc
Alexandre Astruc (; 13 July 1923 – 19 May 2016) was a French film critic and film director.
Biography
Before becoming a film director he was a journalist, novelist and film critic. His contribution to the auteur theory centers on his notion o ...
's prophecy of the age of the ''caméra-stylo'', the camera that a new generation would use with the efficacy with which a writer uses his pen—"here is in fact the first work authentically written with a ''caméra-stylo''.
Early work with Anna Karina
In 1960 Godard shot ''
Le petit soldat
''Le petit soldat'' () is a French film, written and directed by French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard in 1960, but not released until 1963. It was Godard's third film released with Anna Karina, who starred as Véronica Dreyer alongside Michel Subor (a ...
'' (''The Little Soldier''). The cast included Godard's future wife
Anna Karina
Anna Karina (born Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer; September 22, 1940 – December 14, 2019) . At this time Karina had virtually no experience as an actress. Godard used her awkwardness as an element of her performance. Godard and Karina were a couple by the end of the shoot. She appeared again, along with Belmondo, in Godard's first color film, ''
A Woman Is a Woman
''A Woman Is a Woman'' (french: Une femme est une femme) is a 1961 French Musical film, musical romantic comedy film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina and Jean-Claude Brialy. It is a tribute to Americ ...
'' (1961), their first project to be released. The film was intended as a homage to the
American musical. Adjustments that Godard made to the original version of the story gave it autobiographical resonances, "specifically in regard to his relationship with Anna Karina." The film revealed "the confinement within the four walls of domestic life" and "the emotional and artistic fault lines that threatened their relationship".
''My Life to Live''
Godard's next film, ''
Vivre sa vie
''Vivre sa vie'' (french: Vivre sa vie: film en douze tableaux, lit=To Live Her Life: A Film in Twelve Scenes) is a 1962 French New Wave drama film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film was released in the United States as ''My Life ...
'' (''My Life to Live'', 1962), was one of his most popular among critics. Karina starred as Nana, an errant mother and aspiring actress whose financially strained circumstances lead her to the life of a
streetwalker
Street prostitution is a form of sex work in which a sex worker solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as parks, benches, e ...
. It is an episodic account of her rationalisations to prove she is free, even though she is tethered at the end of her
pimp
Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...
's short leash. In one scene, within a café, she spreads her arms out and announces she is free to raise or lower them as she wishes.
The film was a popular success and led to
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
giving him a deal where he would be provided with $100,000 to make a movie, with complete artistic control.
''The Little Soldier'' and ''Les Carabiniers''
''Le petit soldat'' was not released until 1963, the first of three films he released that year. ''Le petit soldat'' dealt with the
Algerian War of Independence
The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...
. It was banned by the French government for the next two years due to its political nature. The 'little soldier' Bruno Forestier was played by
Michel Subor
Michel Subor (, born Mischa Subotzki; 2 February 1935 – 17 January 2022) was a French actor who gained initial fame with the starring role in Jean-Luc Godard's second feature, ''Le petit soldat'' (1960), but the French government banned it un ...
. Forestier was a character close to Godard himself, an image-maker and intellectual, 'more or less my spokesman, but not totally' Godard told an interviewer.
The film begins on 13 May 1958, the date of the
attempted putsch in Algeria, and ends later the same month. In the film, Bruno Forestier, a
photojournalist
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...
who has links with a right-wing paramilitary group working for the French government, is ordered to murder a professor accused of aiding the Algerian resistance. He is in love with Veronica Dreyer, a young woman who has worked with the Algerian fighters. He is captured by Algerian militants and tortured. His organisation captures and tortures her. In making ''Le petit soldat'', Godard took the unusual step of writing dialogue every day and calling the lines to the actors during filming – a technique made possible by filming without direct sound and dubbing dialogue in post-production.
His following film was ''
Les Carabiniers ''The Carabineers'' (french: Les Carabiniers; 1963) was the fifth narrative feature film by French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard.
Plot
''Les Carabiniers'' (1963) tells the story of two poor men called to serve in battle, lured by promises of the world' ...
'', based on a story by
Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...
, one of Godard's influences. The film follows two peasants who join the army of a king, only to find futility in the whole thing as the king reveals the deception of war-administrating leaders.
''Contempt''
His final film of 1963 and the most commercially successful film of his career was ''
Le Mépris'' (''Contempt''), starring
Michel Piccoli
Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...
and one of France's biggest female stars,
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot ( ; ; born 28 September 1934), often referred to by her initials B.B., is a former French actress, singer and model. Famous for portraying sexually emancipated characters with hedonistic lifestyles, she was one of the ...
. The film follows Paul (Piccoli), a screenwriter who is commissioned by Prokosch (
Jack Palance
Jack Palance ( ; born Volodymyr Palahniuk ( uk, Володимир Палагню́к); February 18, 1919 – November 10, 2006) was an American actor known for playing tough guys and villains. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, all fo ...
), an arrogant American movie producer, to rewrite the script for an adaptation of
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
's ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...
'', which the Austrian director
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
has been filming. Lang's '
high culture
High culture is a subculture that emphasizes and encompasses the cultural objects of aesthetic value, which a society collectively esteem as exemplary art, and the intellectual works of philosophy, history, art, and literature that a society cons ...
' interpretation of the story is lost on Prokosch, whose character is a firm indictment of the commercial motion picture hierarchy.
Anouchka Films
In 1964, Godard and Karina formed a production company, Anouchka Films. He directed ''
Bande à part'' (''Band of Outsiders''), another collaboration between the two and described by him as "''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'' meets
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...
."
It follows two young men, looking to score on a heist, who both fall in love with Karina, and quotes from several
gangster film
A gangster film or gangster movie is a film belonging to a genre that focuses on gangs and organized crime. It is a subgenre of crime film, that may involve large criminal organizations, or small gangs formed to perform a certain illegal act. The ...
conventions.
[ While promoting the film, Godard wrote that according to ]D. W. Griffith
David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the na ...
, all one needs to make a film is "a girl and a gun."
''Une femme mariée
Une is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. The urban centre is located at an altitude of at a distance of from the capital Bogotá. The municipality borders Chipaque in the north ...
'' (''A Married Woman'', 1964) followed ''Band of Outsiders''. It was a slow, deliberate, toned-down black-and-white picture without a real story. The film was shot in four weeks and was "an explicitly and stringently modernist film". It showed Godard's "engagement with the most advanced thinking of the day, as expressed in the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthro ...
and Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...
" and its fragmentation and abstraction reflected also "his loss of faith in the familiar Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
styles." Godard made the film during the planning phase for '' Pierrot le Fou'' (1965).
In 1965, Godard directed '' Alphaville'', a futuristic blend of science fiction, film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
, and satire. Eddie Constantine
Eddie Constantine (born Edward Israël Constantinowsky; October 29, 1917 – February 25, 1993) was an American singer, actor and entertainer who spent most of his career in France. He became well-known to film audiences for his portrayal of se ...
starred as Lemmy Caution
Lemmy Caution is a fictional character created by British writer Peter Cheyney (1896–1951). Caution was first portrayed as a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent, and in later stories as a private detective. Cheyney's first book with the ...
, a detective who is sent into a city controlled by a giant computer named Alpha 60. His mission is to make contact with Professor von Braun (Howard Vernon
Howard Vernon (15 July 1908 – 25 July 1996) was a Swiss actor. In 1961, he became a favorite actor of Spanish film director Jesús Franco and began starring in many low-budget horror and erotic films produced in Spain and France. After po ...
), a famous scientist who has fallen mysteriously silent, and is believed to be suppressed by the computer. His next film was '' Pierrot le Fou'' (1965). , an author, critic, and president of the Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
, called it both a "retrospective" and recapitulation. He solicited the participation of Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor and producer. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward. His best known credits ...
, by then a famous actor, in order to guarantee the necessary amount of funding for the expensive film. Godard said the film was "connected with the violence and loneliness that lie so close to happiness today. It's very much a film about France."
''Masculin Féminin
''Masculin Féminin'' (french: Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis, , "Masculine Feminine: 15 Specific Events") is a 1966 French New Wave romantic drama film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. An international co-production between France and Sweden, ...
'' (1966), based on two Guy de Maupassant
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...
stories, ''La Femme de Paul'' and ''Le Signe'', was a study of contemporary French youth and their involvement with cultural politics. An intertitle refers to the characters as "The children of Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 p ...
and Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...
." Although Godard's cinema is sometimes thought to depict a wholly masculine point of view, Phillip John Usher has demonstrated how the film, by the way it connects images and disparate events, seems to blur gender lines.[Usher, Phillip John. (2009)]
"De sexe incertain: Masculin, Féminin de Godard"
''French Forum'', vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 97–112.
Godard followed with '' Made in U.S.A'' (1966), the source material for which was Richard Stark
Donald Edwin Westlake (July 12, 1933 – December 31, 2008) was an American writer, with more than a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into ...
's ''The Jugger''. A classic New Wave crime thriller, it was inspired by American Noir films. Anna Karina
Anna Karina (born Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer; September 22, 1940 – December 14, 2019) stars as the anti-hero searching for her murdered lover and the film includes a cameo by Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single " As Tears Go By" and became one of the lead female artists during the British I ...
. A year later came ''Two or Three Things I Know About Her
''Two or Three Things I Know About Her'' (french: Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle) is a 1967 French New Wave film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, one of three features he completed that year. As with the other two (''La Chinoise ...
'' (1967), in which Marina Vlady
Marina Vlady (born 10 May 1938) is a French actress.
Biography
Vlady was born in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine to White Russian immigrant parents. Her father was an opera singer and her mother was a dancer. Her sisters, now all deceased, were the act ...
portrays a woman leading a double life as housewife and prostitute, considered to be "among the greatest achievements in filmmaking."
''La Chinoise
''La Chinoise, ou plutôt à la Chinoise: un film en train de se faire'' (English: ''The Chinese, or, rather, in the Chinese manner: a film in the making''), commonly referred to simply as ''La Chinoise'', is a 1967 French political film directed b ...
'' (1967) saw Godard at his most politically forthright so far. The film focused on a group of students and engaged with the ideas coming out of the student activist groups in contemporary France. Released just before the May 1968 events
Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. At the height of events, which ha ...
, the film is thought by some to have foreshadowed the student rebellions that took place.
''Week End''
That same year, Godard made a more colourful and political film, '' Week End''. It follows a Parisian couple as they leave on a weekend trip across the French countryside to collect an inheritance. What ensues is a confrontation with the tragic flaws of the over-consuming bourgeoisie
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
. The film contains an eight-minute tracking shot
A tracking shot is any shot where the camera follows backward, forward or moves alongside the subject being recorded. In cinematography, the term refers to a shot in which the camera is mounted on a camera dolly that is then placed on rails – ...
of the couple stuck in an unremitting traffic jam as they leave the city, cited as a technique Godard used to deconstruct bourgeois trends. Startlingly, a few shots contain extra footage from, as it were, before the beginning of the take (while the actors are preparing) and after the end of the take (while the actors are coming out of character). ''Week End'''s enigmatic and audacious end title sequence, which reads "End of Cinema", appropriately marked an end to the narrative and cinematic period in Godard's filmmaking career.
Politics
Godard was known for his "highly political voice", and regularly featured political content in his films. One of his earliest features, ''Le petit soldat'', which dealt with the Algerian War of Independence
The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...
, was notable for its attempt to present the complexity of the dispute; the film was perceived as equivocating and as drawing a "moral equivalence" between the French forces and the National Liberation Front. Along these lines, ''Les Carabiniers'' presents a fictional war that is initially romanticised in the way its characters approach their service, but becomes a stiff anti-war metonym
Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.
Etymology
The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...
. In addition to the international conflicts to which Godard sought an artistic response, he was also very concerned with the social problems in France. The earliest and best example of this is Karina's potent portrayal of a prostitute in ''Vivre sa vie''.
In 1960s Paris, the political milieu was not overwhelmed by one specific movement. There was, however, a distinct post-war climate shaped by various international conflicts such as colonialism in North Africa and Southeast Asia. Godard's Marxist disposition did not become abundantly explicit until ''La Chinoise'' and ''Week End'', but is evident in several films—namely ''Pierrot'' and ''Une femme mariée''.
Godard was accused by some of harbouring anti-Semitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
views: in 2010, in the lead-up to the presentation of Godard's honorary Oscar, a prominent article in ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' by Michael Cieply
Michael Cieply (born 1951) is an entertainment industry writer, first for ''The Wall Street Journal'' and then for ''Talk'' magazine and as a media correspondent for ''The New York Times''. Here he covers Hollywood for the media desk. He joined ...
drew attention to the idea, which had been circulating through the press in previous weeks, that Godard might be an anti-Semite, and thus undeserving of the accolade. Cieply makes reference to Richard Brody
Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American film critic who has written for ''The New Yorker'' since 1999.
Education
Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York, and attended Princeton University, receiving a B.A. in comparative literature in 1980. He first ...
's book ''Everything is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard'', and alluded to a previous, longer article published by the ''Jewish Journal
''The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles'', known simply as the ''Jewish Journal'', is an independent, nonprofit community weekly newspaper serving the Jewish community of greater Los Angeles, published by TRIBE Media Corp. ''The Journal'' wa ...
'' as lying near the origin of the debate. The article also draws upon Brody's book, for example in the following quotation, which Godard made on television in 1981: "Moses
Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...
is my principal enemy...Moses, when he received the commandments, he saw images and translated them. Then he brought the texts, he didn't show what he had seen. That's why the Jewish people
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
are accursed."
Immediately after Cieply's article was published, Brody made a clear point of criticising the "extremely selective and narrow use" of passages in his book, and noted that Godard's work approached the Holocaust with "the greatest moral seriousness". Indeed, his documentaries feature images from the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
in a context suggesting he considers Nazism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
and the Holocaust as the nadir of human history. Godard's views become more complex regarding the State of Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. In 1970, Godard travelled to the Middle East to make a pro-Palestinian film he didn't complete and whose footage eventually became part of the 1976 film '' Ici et ailleurs''. In this film, Godard seems to view the Palestinians
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
' cause as one of many worldwide Leftist revolutionary movements. Elsewhere, Godard explicitly identified himself as an anti-Zionist
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine ...
but denied the accusations of anti-Semitism.
Vietnam War
Godard produced several pieces that directly address the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. Furthermore, there are two scenes in '' Pierrot le fou'' that tackle the issue. The first is a scene that takes place in the initial car ride between Ferdinand (Belmondo) and Marianne (Karina). Over the car radio, the two hear the message "garrison massacred by the Viet Cong
,
, war = the Vietnam War
, image = FNL Flag.svg
, caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green.
, active ...
who lost 115 men". Marianne responds with an extended musing on the way the radio dehumanises the Northern Vietnamese combatants. The war is present throughout the film in mentions, allusions, and depictions in newsreel
A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, informa ...
footage, and the film's style was affected by Godard's political anger at the war, upsetting his ability to draw from earlier cinematic styles.
Notably, he also participated in '' Loin du Vietnam'' (1967). An anti-war project, it consists of seven sketches directed by Godard (who used stock footage
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...
from ''La Chinoise''), Claude Lelouch
Claude Barruck Joseph Lelouch (; born 30 October 1937) is a French film director, screenwriter, writer, cinematographer, actor and film producer, producer. Lelouch grew up in an Algerian Jewish Family. He emerged as a prominent director in the 1 ...
, Joris Ivens
Georg Henri Anton "Joris" Ivens (18 November 1898 – 28 June 1989) was a Dutch documentary filmmaker. Among the notable films he directed or co-directed are '' A Tale of the Wind'', '' The Spanish Earth'', ''Rain'', ''...A Valparaiso'', ''M ...
, William Klein, Chris Marker
Chris Marker (; 29 July 1921 – 29 July 2012) was a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and Essay#Film, film essayist. His best known films are ''La Jetée'' (1962), ''A Grin Without a Cat'' (1977) and ''S ...
, Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais (; 3 June 19221 March 2014) was a French film director and screenwriter whose career extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included ...
, and Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda (; born Arlette Varda; 30 May 1928 – 29 March 2019) was a Belgian-born French film director, screenwriter, photographer, and artist. Her pioneering work was central to the development of the widely influential French New Wave film ...
.
Bertolt Brecht
Godard's engagement with German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...
stems primarily from his attempt to transpose Brecht's theory of epic theatre
Epic theatre (german: episches Theater) is a theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century from the theories and practice of a number of theatre practitioners who responded to the political climate of the time through the creati ...
and its prospect of alienating the viewer ('' Verfremdungseffekt'') through a radical separation of the elements of the medium (theatre in Brecht's case, but in Godard's, film). Brecht's influence is keenly felt through much of Godard's work, particularly before 1980, when Godard used cinematic expression for specific political ends.
For example, '' Breathless'''s elliptical editing, which denies the viewer a fluid narrative typical of mainstream cinema, forces the viewers to take on more critical roles, connecting the pieces themselves and coming away with more investment in the work's content. In many of his most political pieces, specifically '' Week-end'', '' Pierrot le Fou'', and ''La Chinoise
''La Chinoise, ou plutôt à la Chinoise: un film en train de se faire'' (English: ''The Chinese, or, rather, in the Chinese manner: a film in the making''), commonly referred to simply as ''La Chinoise'', is a 1967 French political film directed b ...
'', characters address the audience with thoughts, feelings, and instructions.
Marxism
A Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
reading is possible with most if not all of Godard's early work. Godard's direct interaction with Marxism does not become explicitly apparent, however, until ''Week End'', where the name Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
is cited in conjunction with figures such as Jesus Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
. A constant refrain throughout Godard's cinematic period is that of the bourgeoisie's consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the supp ...
, the commodification of daily life and activity, and man's alienation—all central features of Marx's critique of capitalism.
In an essay on Godard, philosopher and aesthetics scholar Jacques Rancière
Jacques Rancière (; born 10 June 1940) is a French philosopher, Professor of Philosophy at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris VIII: Vincennes—Saint-Denis. After co-authoring '' ...
states, "When in ''Pierrot le fou'', 1965, a film without a clear political message, Belmondo played on the word 'scandal' and the 'freedom' that the Scandal girdle supposedly offered women, the context of a Marxist critique of commodification
Within a capitalist economic system, commodification is the transformation of things such as goods, services, ideas, nature, personal information, people or animals into objects of trade or commodities.For animals"United Nations Commodity Trad ...
, of pop art derision at consumerism, and of a feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
denunciation of women's false 'liberation', was enough to foster a dialectical
Dialectic ( grc-gre, διαλεκτική, ''dialektikḗ''; related to dialogue; german: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to ...
reading of the joke and the whole story." The way Godard treated politics in his cinematic period was in the context of a joke, a piece of art, or a relationship, presented to be used as tools of reference, romanticising the Marxist rhetoric, rather than being solely tools of education.
''Une femme mariée
Une is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. The urban centre is located at an altitude of at a distance of from the capital Bogotá. The municipality borders Chipaque in the north ...
'' is also structured around Marx's concept of commodity fetishism
In Marxist philosophy, the term commodity fetishism describes the economic relationships of production and exchange as being social relationships that exist among things (money and merchandise) and not as relationships that exist among people ...
. Godard once said that it is "a film in which individuals are considered as things, in which chases in a taxi alternate with ethological interviews, in which the spectacle of life is intermingled with its analysis". He was very conscious of the way he wished to portray the human being. His efforts are overtly characteristic of Marx, who in his ''Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844
The ''Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844'' (german: Ökonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte aus dem Jahre 1844), also referred to as the ''Paris Manuscripts'' (') or as the ''1844 Manuscripts'', are a series of notes written between Apri ...
'' gives one of his most nuanced elaborations, analysing how the worker is alienated from his product, the object of his productive activity. Georges Sadoul
Georges Sadoul (4 February 1904 – 13 October 1967) was a French film critic, journalist and cinema writer. He is known for writing encyclopedias of film and filmmakers, many of which have been translated into English.
Biography
Sadoul was ...
, in his short rumination on the film, describes it as a "sociological study of the alienation of the modern woman".
Revolutionary period (1968–1979)
The period which spans from May 1968 into the 1970s has been given various labelsfrom his "militant" period, to his "radical" period, along with terms as specific as "Maoist
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
" and as vague as "political". In any case, the period saw Godard employ consistent revolutionary rhetoric in his films and in his public statements.
Inspired by the May 68
Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. At the height of events, which ha ...
upheaval, Godard, alongside François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...
, led protests that shut down the 1968 Cannes Film Festival
The 21st Cannes Film Festival was to have been held from 10 to 24 May 1968, before being curtailled due to the turmoil of May 1968 in France.
Background
This edition was marked by the previous controversy around the Langlois affair. On February ...
in solidarity with the students and workers. Godard stated there was not a single film showing at the festival that represented their causes. "Not one, whether by Milos
Milos or Melos (; el, label=Modern Greek, Μήλος, Mílos, ; grc, Μῆλος, Mêlos) is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete. Milos is the southwesternmost island in the Cyclades group.
The ''Venus d ...
orman
Orman may refer to:
People
* Aldona Orman (born 1968), Polish actress
* Alen Orman (born 1978), Austrian football player
* Charles Orman (1859–1927), British cricketer and soldier
* Fikret Orman (born 1967), Turkish businessman
*Greg Orman ( ...
myself, oman
Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...
Polanski
Raymond Roman Thierry Polański , group=lower-alpha, name=note_a (né Liebling; 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two ...
or François. There are none. We're behind the times."
Films
Amid the upheavals of the late 1960s, Godard became passionate about "making political films politically." Though many of his films from 1968 to 1972 are feature-length films, they are low-budget and challenge the notion of what a film can be. In addition to abandoning mainstream filmmaking, Godard also tried to escape the cult of personality
A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create an id ...
that had formed around him. He worked anonymously in collaboration with other filmmakers, most notably Jean-Pierre Gorin
Jean-Pierre Gorin (born 17 April 1943) is a French filmmaker and professor, best known for his work with ''French New Wave, Nouvelle Vague'' luminary Jean-Luc Godard, during what is often referred to as Godard's "radical" period.
Jean-Pierre Go ...
, with whom he formed the Dziga-Vertov cinema collective. During this period Godard made films in England, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Palestine, and the U.S., as well as France. He and Gorin toured with their work, attempting to create discussion, mainly on college campuses. This period came to a climax with the big-budget production ''Tout Va Bien
''Tout va bien'' is a 1972 French-Italian political drama film directed by Jean-Luc Godard and collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin and starring Jane Fonda and Yves Montand.
The film's title means "everything is going well". It was released in the U ...
'', which starred Yves Montand
Ivo Livi (), better known as Yves Montand (; 13 October 1921 – 9 November 1991), was an Italian-French actor and singer.
Early life
Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, to Giovanni Livi, a broom manufacturer, Ivo held strong ...
and Jane Fonda
Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress, activist, and former fashion model. Recognized as a film icon, Fonda is the recipient of various accolades including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, sev ...
. Owing to a motorcycle accident that severely incapacitated Godard, Gorin ended up directing this most celebrated of their work together almost single-handedly. As a companion piece to ''Tout va bien'', the pair made ''Letter to Jane
''Letter to Jane'' is a 1972 French postscript film to '' Tout Va Bien'' directed by Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin and made under the auspices of the Dziga Vertov Group. Narrated in a back-and-forth style by both Godard and Gorin, the film ...
'', a 50-minute "examination of a still" showing Jane Fonda visiting with the Viet Cong
,
, war = the Vietnam War
, image = FNL Flag.svg
, caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green.
, active ...
during the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. The film is a deconstruction of Western imperialist ideology. This was the last film that Godard and Gorin made together.
In 1978 Godard was commissioned by the Mozambican government to make a short film. During this time his experience with Kodak
The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
film led him to criticise the film stock as "inherently racist" since it did not reflect the variety, nuance or complexity in dark brown or dark skin
Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation.
Other cuticle, animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have diffe ...
. This was because Kodak Shirley cards were only made for Caucasian subjects, a problem that was not rectified until 1995.
Sonimage
In 1972, Godard and his life partner, Swiss filmmaker, Anne-Marie Miéville started the alternative video production and distribution company Sonimage, based in Grenoble
lat, Gratianopolis
, commune status = Prefecture and commune
, image = Panorama grenoble.png
, image size =
, caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...
. Under Sonimage, Godard produced ''Comment ca va'', ''Numéro Deux
''Number Two'' (french: Numéro deux), by Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville, is a 1975 experimental film about a young family in a social housing complex in France. The film's distinct style involves presenting two images on screen simul ...
'' (1975) and ''Sauve qui peut (la vie)
''Every Man for Himself'' () is a 1980 drama film directed, co-written and co-produced by Jean-Luc Godard that is set in and was filmed in Switzerland. It stars Jacques Dutronc, Isabelle Huppert, and Nathalie Baye, with a score by Gabriel Yared. ...
'' (1980). In 1976, Godard and Miéville, his wife, collaborated on a series of innovative video works for European broadcast television, titled ''Six fois deux/Sur et sous la communication'' (1976) and ''France/tour/détour/deux/enfants'' (1978). From the time that Godard returned to mainstream filmmaking in 1980, Anne-Marie Miéville remained an important collaborator.
Jean-Pierre Gorin
After the events of May 1968
The following events occurred in May 1968:
May 1, 1968 (Wednesday)
*CARIFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade Association, was formally created as an agreement between Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.
*RAF Strike Co ...
, when the city of Paris saw a total upheaval in response to the "authoritarian de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
", and Godard's professional objective was reconsidered, he began to collaborate with like-minded individuals in the filmmaking arena. His most notable collaborator was Jean-Pierre Gorin
Jean-Pierre Gorin (born 17 April 1943) is a French filmmaker and professor, best known for his work with ''French New Wave, Nouvelle Vague'' luminary Jean-Luc Godard, during what is often referred to as Godard's "radical" period.
Jean-Pierre Go ...
, a Maoist student of Louis Althusser
Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy.
Althusser ...
, Michel Foucault
Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...
, and Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and pu ...
, who later became a professor of Film Studies at the University of California at San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...
, with a passion for cinema that attracted Godard's attention.
Between 1968 and 1973, Godard and Gorin collaborated to make a total of five films with strong Maoist messages. The most prominent film from the collaboration was ''Tout Va Bien
''Tout va bien'' is a 1972 French-Italian political drama film directed by Jean-Luc Godard and collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin and starring Jane Fonda and Yves Montand.
The film's title means "everything is going well". It was released in the U ...
'' (1972). The film starred Jane Fonda
Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress, activist, and former fashion model. Recognized as a film icon, Fonda is the recipient of various accolades including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, sev ...
, who was, at the time, the wife of French filmmaker Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim Plemiannikov (; 26 January 1928 – 11 February 2000) was a French screenwriter, film director and producer, as well as an author, artist and occasional actor. His best-known works are visually lavish films with erotic qualities, su ...
. Fonda was at the height of her acting career, having won an Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for her performance in ''Klute
''Klute'' is a 1971 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed and produced by Alan J. Pakula, written by Andy and Dave Lewis, and starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, and Roy Scheider. The film follows a high-priced ca ...
'' (1971), and has gained notoriety as a left-wing anti-war activist. The male lead was the legendary French singer and actor Yves Montand
Ivo Livi (), better known as Yves Montand (; 13 October 1921 – 9 November 1991), was an Italian-French actor and singer.
Early life
Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, to Giovanni Livi, a broom manufacturer, Ivo held strong ...
, who had appeared in prestigious films by Georges Clouzot, Alain Résnais, Sacha Guitry
Alexandre-Pierre Georges "Sacha" Guitry (; 21 February 188524 July 1957) was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the boulevard theatre. He was the son of a leading French actor, Lucien Guitry, and follow ...
, Vincente Minelli, George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor (; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head of ...
, and Costa-Gavras
Costa-Gavras (short for Konstantinos Gavras; el, Κωνσταντίνος Γαβράς; born 12 February 1933) is a Greek-French film director, screenwriter, and producer who lives and works in France. He is known for films with political and s ...
.
Dziga Vertov Group
The small group of Maoists that Godard had brought together, which included Gorin, adopted the name Dziga Vertov Group. Godard had a specific interest in Dziga Vertov
Dziga Vertov (russian: Дзига Вертов, born David Abelevich Kaufman, russian: Дави́д А́белевич Ка́уфман, and also known as Denis Kaufman; – 12 February 1954) was a Soviet Union, Soviet pioneer documentary f ...
, a Soviet filmmakerwho was known for a series of radical documentaries titled " Kino Pravda" (literally, "film truth") and the late silent-era
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...
feature film ''Man with a Movie Camera
''Man with a Movie Camera'' (russian: Человек с киноаппаратом, translit=Chelovek s kinoapparatom) is an experimental 1929 Soviet silent documentary film, directed by Dziga Vertov, filmed by his brother Mikhail Kaufman, and ...
'' (1929). Vertov was also a contemporary of both Soviet montage
Montage may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Filmmaking and films
* Montage (filmmaking), a technique in film editing
* ''Montage'' (2013 film), a South Korean film
Music
* Montage (music), or sound collage
* ''Montage'' (Block B EP), 2017 ...
theorists, notably Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ɪjzʲɪnˈʂtʲejn, 2=Sergey Mikhaylovich Eyzenshteyn; 11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenw ...
, and Russian constructivist and avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
artists such as Alexander Rodchenko
Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (russian: link=no, Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Ро́дченко; – 3 December 1956) was a Russian and Soviet artist, sculptor, photographer, and graphic designer. He was one of the founders ...
and Vladimir Tatlin
Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin ( – 31 May 1953) was a Russian and Soviet painter, architect and stage-designer. Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed The Monument to the Third International, more commonly known as Tatlin's Tower, whi ...
. Part of Godard's political shift after May 1968 was toward a proactive participation in the class struggle
Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor.
The forms ...
and he drew inspiration from filmmakers associated with the Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
.
Towards the end of this period of his life, Godard began to feel disappointed with his Maoist ideals and was abandoned by his wife at the time, Anne Wiazemsky. In this context, according to biographer Antoine de Baecque, Godard attempted suicide on two occasions.
Return to commercial films and ''Histoire(s) du cinéma'': 1980–2000
Godard returned to somewhat more traditional fiction with ''Sauve qui peut (la vie)
''Every Man for Himself'' () is a 1980 drama film directed, co-written and co-produced by Jean-Luc Godard that is set in and was filmed in Switzerland. It stars Jacques Dutronc, Isabelle Huppert, and Nathalie Baye, with a score by Gabriel Yared. ...
'' (1980), the first of a series of more mainstream films marked by autobiographical currents: it was followed by '' Passion'', '' Lettre à Freddy Buache'' (both 1982), ''Prénom Carmen
''First Name: Carmen'' (french: Prénom Carmen, links=no) is a 1983 French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Based loosely on Bizet's opera '' Carmen'', the film was written by Anne-Marie Miéville and produced by Alain Sarde, and stars Maruschk ...
'' (1983), and ''Grandeur et décadence d'un petit commerce de cinéma'' (1986). There was, though, another flurry of controversy with ''Je vous salue, Marie
''Hail Mary'' (french: Je vous salue, Marie) is a 1985 French erotic film, erotic drama (film and television), drama film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film is a modern retelling of the story of the virgin birth. It was entered in ...
'' (1985), which was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
for alleged heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
, and also with ''King Lear
''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare.
It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane an ...
'' (1987), an essay film on William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
and language. Also completed in 1987 was a segment in the film ''Aria
In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...
'' which was based loosely from the plot of Armide; it is set in a gym and uses several aria
In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...
s by Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully ( , , ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, ; – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, guitarist, violinist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he ...
from his famous ''Armide''.
His later films were marked by great formal beauty and frequently a sense of requiem: ''Nouvelle Vague
French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...
'' (''New Wave'', 1990), the autobiographical '' JLG/JLG, autoportrait de décembre'' (''JLG/JLG: Self-Portrait in December'', 1995), and ''For Ever Mozart
''For Ever Mozart'' is a 1996 feature film directed, written and edited by Jean-Luc Godard. The film's title is a bilingual pun intentionally meant to sound like "Faut rêver Mozart" ("Dream Mozart, dream" in French). The film was selected as the ...
'' (1996).[ '' Allemagne année 90 neuf zéro'' (''Germany Year 90 Nine Zero'', 1991) which is a quasi-sequel to ''Alphaville'', but done with an elegiac tone and focus on the inevitable decay of age. In ]1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
, Godard was presented with a special award from the National Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics (NSFC) is an American film critic organization. The organization is known for its highbrow tastes, and its annual awards are one of the most prestigious film critics awards in the United States. In January 2014, ...
. Between 1988 and 1998, he produced the multi-part series ''Histoire(s) du cinéma
''Histoire(s) du cinéma'' () is an 8-part video project begun by Jean-Luc Godard in the late 1980s and completed in 1998. The longest, at 266 minutes, and one of the most complex of Godard's films, ''Histoire(s) du cinéma'' is an examination of ...
'', a monumental project which combined all the innovations of his video work with a passionate engagement in the issues of twentieth-century history and the history of film itself.
Late period films: 2001–2022
In 2001, ''Éloge de l'amour
''In Praise of Love'' (french: Éloge de l'amour) is a 2001 French film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The black-and-white and color drama was shot by Julien Hirsch and Christophe Pollock. Godard has famously stated that "a film should h ...
'' (''In Praise of Love'') was released. The film is notable for its use of both film and video—the first half captured in 35 mm black and white, the latter half shot in color on DV—and subsequently transferred to film for editing. The film is also noted for containing themes of ageing, love, separation, and rediscovery as it follows the young artist Edgar in his contemplation of a new work on the four stages of love. In ''Notre musique
''Notre musique'' (English: ''Our Music'') is a 2004 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film reflects on violence, morality, and the representation of violence in film, and touches especially on past colonialism and the current Israeli–Pal ...
'' (2004), Godard turned his focus to war, specifically, the war in Sarajevo, but with attention to all war, including the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, the war between the U.S. and Native Americans, and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most enduring conflicts, beginning in the mid-20th century. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, alongside other ef ...
.[ The film is structured into three Dantean kingdoms: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.][ Godard's fascination with paradox is constant in the film. It opens with a long, ponderous montage of war images that occasionally lapses into the comic; Paradise is shown as a lush wooded beach patrolled by ]U.S. Marines
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the Marines, maritime land force military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary warfare, exped ...
.[
Godard's film '']Film Socialisme
''Film Socialisme'' (alternative French title ''Socialisme''; en, italic=yes, Socialism but often referred to as ''Film Socialism'') is a 2010 French postmodern drama film directed by Jean-Luc Godard.
The film was first screened in the Un Cer ...
'' (2010) premiered in the Un Certain Regard
(, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob.
The section presents 20 films w ...
section at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival
The 63rd Cannes Film Festival was held from 12 to 23 May 2010, in Cannes, France. The Cannes Film Festival, hailed as being one of the most recognized and prestigious film festivals worldwide, was founded in 1946. It consists of having films scr ...
. It was released theatrically in France in May 2010. Godard was rumoured to be considering directing a film adaptation of Daniel Mendelsohn
Daniel Mendelsohn (born 1960), is an American author, essayist, critic, columnist, and translator. Best known for his internationally best-selling and award-winning Holocaust family memoir The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, he is curre ...
's '' The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million'', an award-winning book about the Holocaust. In 2013, Godard released the short ''Les trois désastres'' (''The Three Disasters'') as part of the omnibus film ''3X3D'' with filmmakers Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway, (born 5 April 1942) is a Welsh film director, screenwriter and artist. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular. Common traits in his films are the ...
and Edgar Pera. ''3X3D'' premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival
The 66th Cannes Film Festival took place in Cannes, France, from 15 to 26 May 2013. Steven Spielberg was the head of the jury for the main competition. New Zealand film director Jane Campion was the head of the jury for the Cinéfondation and S ...
. His 2014 film ''Goodbye to Language
''Goodbye to Language'' (french: Adieu au Langage) is a 2014 French-Swiss 3D experimental narrative essay film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It stars Héloïse Godet, Kamel Abdeli, Richard Chevallier, Zoé Bruneau, Jessica Erickson ...
'', shot in 3-D, revolves around a couple who cannot communicate with each other until their pet dog acts as an interpreter for them. The film makes reference to a wide range of influences such as paintings by Nicolas de Staël
Nicolas de Staël (; January 5, 1914 – March 16, 1955) was a French painter of Russian origin known for his use of a thick impasto and his highly abstract landscape painting. He also worked with collage, illustration and textiles.
Early life
...
and the writing of William Faulkner, as well as the work of mathematician Laurent Schwartz
Laurent-Moïse Schwartz (; 5 March 1915 – 4 July 2002) was a French mathematician. He pioneered the theory of distributions, which gives a well-defined meaning to objects such as the Dirac delta function. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 19 ...
and dramatist Bertolt Brecht—one of Godard's most important influences. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival
The 67th Cannes Film Festival was held from 14 to 25 May 2014. New Zealand film director Jane Campion was the head of the jury for the main competition section. The Palme d'Or was awarded to the Turkish film '' Winter Sleep'' directed by Nuri Bi ...
, where it won the Jury Prize
A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment.
Juries developed in England durin ...
. Godard's non-traditional script for the film was described as a collage of handwritten text and images, and a "artwork" itself.
In 2015 J. Hoberman
James Lewis Hoberman (born March 14, 1949) is an American film critic, journalist, author and academic. He began working at ''The Village Voice'' in the 1970s, became a full-time staff writer in 1983, and was the newspaper's senior film critic ...
reported that Godard was working on a new film. Initially titled ''Tentative de bleu'', in December 2016 Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch, also known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang, or the Oklahombres, were a gang of American outlaws based in the Indian Territory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were active in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Terr ...
co-chief Vincent Maraval stated that Godard had been shooting ''Le livre d'image'' (''The Image Book
''The Image Book'' (french: Le Livre d'image) is a 2018 Swiss avant-garde essay film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Initially titled ''Tentative de bleu'' and ''Image et parole'', in December 2016 Wild Bunch co-chief Vincent Maraval stated that God ...
'') for almost two years "in various Arab countries, including Tunisia" and that it is an examination of the modern Arab World. ''Le livre d'image'' was first shown in November 2018. On 4 December 2019, an art installation piece created by Godard opened at the Fondazione Prada
Fondazione Prada, co-chaired by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli since 1995, is an institution dedicated to contemporary art and culture.
From 1993 to 2010, the Fondazione has organised 24 solo shows at its exhibition spaces in Milan, conceived ...
in Milan. Titled ''Le Studio d'Orphée'', the installation is a recreated workspace and includes editing equipment, furniture, and other materials used by Godard in post-production
Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments.
The ...
.
In 2020 Godard told ''Les Inrockuptibles
''Les Inrockuptibles'' () is a French cultural magazine. Started as a monthly magazine in 1986, it became weekly in 1995. Now it is a monthly again, since 2021. In the beginning, rock music was the magazine's primary focus, though every issue in ...
'' that his new film would be about a Yellow vest protestor, and indicated that along with archival footage "there will also be a shoot. I don't know if I will find what are called actors...I would like to film the people we see on news channels but by plunging them into a situation where documentary and fiction come together." In March 2021 he said that he was working on two new films during a virtual interview at the International Film Festival of Kerala
The International Film Festival of Kerala (abbreviated as IFFK) is a film festival held annually in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, India. This film festival started in 1996 and is hosted by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy ...
. Godard stated "I'm finishing my movie life yes, my moviemaker life by doing two scripts...After, I will say, 'Goodbye, cinema.
In July 2021, cinematographer and long time collaborator Fabrice Aragno said that work on the films was going slowly and Godard was more focused on "books, on the ideas of the film, and less in the making." Godard suggested making a film like Chris Marker
Chris Marker (; 29 July 1921 – 29 July 2012) was a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and Essay#Film, film essayist. His best known films are ''La Jetée'' (1962), ''A Grin Without a Cat'' (1977) and ''S ...
's ''La Jetée
''La Jetée'' () is a 1962 French science fiction featurette directed by Chris Marker and associated with the French New Wave#Left Bank, Left Bank artistic movement. still image film, Constructed almost entirely from still photos, it tells the sto ...
'' in order to "come back to his origin." Much of the film would be shot on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm film, but the expense of celluloid film stock and the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
stalled production. Aragno expected to shoot test footage that fall. He added that the second film was for the Arte
Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture.
It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plus ...
channel in France.
Aragno said that he didn't think that either film would be Godard's last film, adding "I say this often that ''Éloge de l'amour
''In Praise of Love'' (french: Éloge de l'amour) is a 2001 French film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The black-and-white and color drama was shot by Julien Hirsch and Christophe Pollock. Godard has famously stated that "a film should h ...
'' was the beginning of his last gesture. These five, or six or seven films are connected to each other in a way, they're not just full stops. It's not just one painting."[
]
Legacy
Godard has been recognised as one of the most influential filmmakers of the 20th century and one of the leaders of the French New Wave.
In 1969, film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
wrote about Godard's importance in cinema:
Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...
named a production company he founded A Band Apart
A Band Apart Films was a production company founded by Quentin Tarantino, Michael Bodnarchek, and Lawrence Bender that was active from 1991 to 2006. Its name is a play on the French New Wave classic film, ''Bande à part (film), Bande à part'' ("B ...
, a reference to Godard's 1964 film.
Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci (; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international ...
included a homage to ''Band of Outsiders'' in his film ''The Dreamers''.
Godard's works and innovations were praised by notable directors such as Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni (, ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for directing his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents"—''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and ''L'Eclisse'' (1962 ...
, Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of fil ...
, and Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
. Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
agreed to take part in Godard's film Le Mépris due to his admiration of Godard as a director. Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...
listed 'Breathless' as one of his 100 favourite films. Political activist, critic, and filmmaker Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali (; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and con ...
listed Godard's film Tout Va Bien
''Tout va bien'' is a 1972 French-Italian political drama film directed by Jean-Luc Godard and collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin and starring Jane Fonda and Yves Montand.
The film's title means "everything is going well". It was released in the U ...
as one of his ten favourite films of all time in the 2012 Sight and Sound critics' poll. American film critic Armond White
Armond White (born ) is an American film and music critic who writes for ''National Review'' and ''Out''. He was previously the editor of '' CityArts'' (2011–2014), the lead film critic for the alternative weekly ''New York Press'' (1997–201 ...
listed Godard's film Nouvelle Vague
French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...
as one of his top ten favourite films in the same poll.
Godard's films have influenced and inspired many directors, including Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...
, Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...
, Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five A ...
, George Lucas, David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Peter Bogdanovich, Brian De Palma, Oliver Stone, William Friedkin, Steven Soderbergh, Andrei Tarkovsky, Andrei Konchalovsky, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Abbas Kiarostami, Lars von Trier,[ Atom Egoyan, D. A. Pennebaker, Claire Denis,] Robert Altman, Jim Jarmusch, Takeshi Kitano, Gaspar Noé, John Waters, Mamoru Oshii, Shane Carruth, Stan Brakhage, Ken Loach, Kevin Macdonald (director), Kevin Macdonald, Abel Ferrara, Luca Guadagnino, Terence Davies, Paul Schrader, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wong Kar-wai, Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wim Wenders, Chantal Akerman, Bela Tarr, Theo Angelopoulos, Raoul Peck, Glauber Rocha, Fernando Solanas, Octavio Getino, Emir Kusturica, Terrence Malick, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, Harmony Korine, Darren Aronofsky, Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci (; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international ...
, Dušan Makavejev, Marco Bellocchio, and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Four of Godard's films are included on the 2022 edition of the British Film Institute (BFI) Sight & Sound, Sight and Sound magazine list of 100 Greatest Films: Breathless (13), Le Mépris (21), Pierrot le Fou (42), and Histoire(s) du cinéma (48).
The 60th New York Film Festival which was held in 2022 paid tribute to Goddard who died earlier that year.
Personal life and death
Godard was married to two of his leading women: Anna Karina
Anna Karina (born Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer; September 22, 1940 – December 14, 2019) (1961–1965) and Anne Wiazemsky
Anne Wiazemsky (14 May 1947 – 5 October 2017) was a French actress and novelist. She made her cinema debut at the age of 18, playing Marie, the lead character in Robert Bresson's ''Au Hasard Balthazar'' (1966), and went on to appear in several ...
(1967–1979). Beginning in 1970, he collaborated personally and professionally with Anne-Marie Miéville
Anne-Marie Miéville (; born 11 November 1945) is a Swiss video and filmmaker whom ''Sight & Sound'' has called a "hugely important multimedia artist."
Biography
Miéville was a practising photographer when she met Jean-Luc Godard, who would be ...
. Godard lived with Miéville in Rolle, Switzerland, from 1978 onwards, and was described by his former wife Karina as a "recluse". Godard married Miéville in the 2010s, according to Patrick Jeanneret, an adviser to Godard.
His relationship with Karina in particular produced some of his most critically acclaimed films, and their relationship was widely publicised: ''The Independent'' described them as "one of the most celebrated pairings of the 1960s". ''Filmmaker
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...
'' magazine called their collaborations "arguably the most influential body of work in the history of cinema." Late in life, however, Karina said they no longer spoke to each other.
Through his father, he was the cousin of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski
Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter.
The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...
, former President of Peru.
In 2017, Michel Hazanavicius directed a film about Godard, ''Redoubtable (film), Redoubtable'', based on the memoir ''One Year After'' (; 2015) by Wiazemsky. It centers on his life in the late 1960s, when he and Wiazemsky made films together. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
in 2017. Godard said that the film was a "stupid, stupid idea".
Agnes Varda's 2017 documentary ''Faces Places (film), Faces Places'' culminates with Varda and co-director JR (artist), JR knocking on Godard's front door in Rolle for an interview. Godard agreed to the meeting but he "stands them up". His nephew and assistant Paul Grivas directed the 2018 documentary ''Film Catastrophe'', which included behind-the-scenes footage, shot on the ''Costa Concordia'' cruise ship by Grivas during the making of ''Film Socialism'', of Godard working with actors and directing the film. Godard participated in the 2022 documentary '. Director Mitra Farahani initiated an email exchange between Godard and Iranian filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan, with emailed text letters from Golestan and "videos, images, and aphorism" responses from Godard.
At the age of 91, Godard died on 13 September 2022, at his home in Rolle. His death was reported as an Euthanasia in Switzerland, assisted suicide procedure, which is legal in Switzerland. Godard's legal advisor said that he had "multiple disabling pathologies", but a family member said that "He was not sick, he was simply exhausted". Miéville was at his side when he died. His body was cremated and there was no funeral service.
Selected filmography
Feature films
:The list excludes multi-director anthology films to which Godard has contributed shorts.
* 1960 '' Breathless''
* 1961 ''A Woman Is a Woman
''A Woman Is a Woman'' (french: Une femme est une femme) is a 1961 French Musical film, musical romantic comedy film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina and Jean-Claude Brialy. It is a tribute to Americ ...
''
* 1962 ''My Life to Live''
* 1963 ''The Little Soldier''
* 1963 ''The Carabineers''
* 1963 ''Contempt
Contempt is a pattern of attitudes and behaviour, often towards an individual or a group, but sometimes towards an ideology, which has the characteristics of disgust and anger.
The word originated in 1393 in Old French contempt, contemps, ...
''
* 1964 ''Band of Outsiders
Band or BAND may refer to:
Places
*Bánd, a village in Hungary
*Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
*Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania
* Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...
''[
* 1964 ''A Married Woman''
* 1965 '' Alphaville''][
* 1965 '' Pierrot le Fou''][
* 1966 '']Masculin Féminin
''Masculin Féminin'' (french: Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis, , "Masculine Feminine: 15 Specific Events") is a 1966 French New Wave romantic drama film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. An international co-production between France and Sweden, ...
''[
* 1966 ''Made in U.S.A. (1966 film), Made in U.S.A.''
* 1967 '']Two or Three Things I Know About Her
''Two or Three Things I Know About Her'' (french: Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle) is a 1967 French New Wave film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, one of three features he completed that year. As with the other two (''La Chinoise ...
''
* 1967 ''La Chinoise
''La Chinoise, ou plutôt à la Chinoise: un film en train de se faire'' (English: ''The Chinese, or, rather, in the Chinese manner: a film in the making''), commonly referred to simply as ''La Chinoise'', is a 1967 French political film directed b ...
''[
* 1967 '' Week-end''][
* 1968 ''A Film Like Any Other''
* 1968 ''Sympathy for the Devil (1968 film), One Plus One'' (''Sympathy for the Devil'')
* 1969 ''Joy of Learning''
* 1969 ''British Sounds''
* 1970 ''Wind from the East''
* 1971 ''Struggle in Italy''
* 1971 ''Vladimir et Rosa''
* 1972 ''Tout va bien''
* 1972 '']Letter to Jane
''Letter to Jane'' is a 1972 French postscript film to '' Tout Va Bien'' directed by Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin and made under the auspices of the Dziga Vertov Group. Narrated in a back-and-forth style by both Godard and Gorin, the film ...
''
* 1975 ''Number Two (film), Number Two''[
* 1976 ''Here and Elsewhere''
* 1976/1978 ''How's It Going?''
* 1980 ''Every Man for Himself (1980 film), Every Man for Himself''
* 1982 '' Passion''
* 1983 ''First Name: Carmen''][
* 1985 ''Hail Mary (film), Hail Mary''
* 1985 ''Détective (1985 film), Detective''
* 1987 '']King Lear
''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare.
It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane an ...
''
* 1987 ''Keep Your Right Up''
* 1990 ''Nouvelle Vague (film), New Wave''
* 1991 ''Germany Year 90 Nine Zero''
* 1993 ''Les Enfants jouent à la Russie, The Kids Play Russian''
* 1993 ''Hélas pour moi, Oh Woe Is Me''
* 1994 ''JLG/JLG – Self-Portrait in December''
* 1996 ''For Ever Mozart
''For Ever Mozart'' is a 1996 feature film directed, written and edited by Jean-Luc Godard. The film's title is a bilingual pun intentionally meant to sound like "Faut rêver Mozart" ("Dream Mozart, dream" in French). The film was selected as the ...
''[For Ever Mozart Review]
by Jonathan Rosenbaum)
* 2001 ''In Praise of Love (film), In Praise of Love''
* 2004 ''Notre musique
''Notre musique'' (English: ''Our Music'') is a 2004 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film reflects on violence, morality, and the representation of violence in film, and touches especially on past colonialism and the current Israeli–Pal ...
''
* 2010 ''Film Socialisme
''Film Socialisme'' (alternative French title ''Socialisme''; en, italic=yes, Socialism but often referred to as ''Film Socialism'') is a 2010 French postmodern drama film directed by Jean-Luc Godard.
The film was first screened in the Un Cer ...
''[
* 2014 '']Goodbye to Language
''Goodbye to Language'' (french: Adieu au Langage) is a 2014 French-Swiss 3D experimental narrative essay film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It stars Héloïse Godet, Kamel Abdeli, Richard Chevallier, Zoé Bruneau, Jessica Erickson ...
''[
* 2018 '']The Image Book
''The Image Book'' (french: Le Livre d'image) is a 2018 Swiss avant-garde essay film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Initially titled ''Tentative de bleu'' and ''Image et parole'', in December 2016 Wild Bunch co-chief Vincent Maraval stated that God ...
''
Collaboration with ECM Records
Godard had a lasting friendship with Manfred Eicher, founder and head of the German music label ECM Records. The label released the soundtracks of Godard's ''Nouvelle Vague
French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...
'' (ECM NewSeries 1600–01) and ''Histoire(s) du cinéma
''Histoire(s) du cinéma'' () is an 8-part video project begun by Jean-Luc Godard in the late 1980s and completed in 1998. The longest, at 266 minutes, and one of the most complex of Godard's films, ''Histoire(s) du cinéma'' is an examination of ...
'' (ECM NewSeries 1706). This collaboration expanded over the years, leading to Godard's granting ECM permission to use stills from his films for album covers, while Eicher took over the musical direction of Godard films such as ''Allemagne 90 neuf zéro'', ''Hélas Pour Moi'', ''JLG/JLG – Self-Portrait in December, JLG'', and ''For Ever Mozart
''For Ever Mozart'' is a 1996 feature film directed, written and edited by Jean-Luc Godard. The film's title is a bilingual pun intentionally meant to sound like "Faut rêver Mozart" ("Dream Mozart, dream" in French). The film was selected as the ...
''. Tracks from ECM records have been used in his films; for example, the soundtrack for ''In Praise of Love (film), In Praise of Love'' uses Ketil Bjørnstad and David Darling (musician), David Darling's album ''Epigraphs (album), Epigraphs'' extensively. Godard also released on the label a collection of shorts he made with Anne-Marie Miéville called ''Four Short Films'' (ECM 5001).
Among the ECM album covers with Godard's film stills are these:[Lake: ''Windfall Light'' (2010), pp. 415–441.]
* ''Voci'', works of Luciano Berio played by Kim Kashkashian (ECM 1735)
* ''Words of The Angel'', by Trio Mediaeval (ECM 1753)
* ''Morimur'', by Christoph Poppen & The Hilliard Ensemble (ECM 1765)
* ''Songs of Debussy and Mozart'', by Juliane Banse & András Schiff (ECM 1772)
* ''Requiem for Larissa'', by Valentin Silvestrov (ECM 1778)
* ''Soul of Things'', by Tomasz Stanko Quartet (ECM 1788)
* ''Suspended Night'', by Tomasz Stanko Quartet (ECM 1868)
* ''Asturiana: Songs from Spain and Argentina'', by Kim Kashkashian & Robert D. Levin, Robert Levin (ECM 1975)
* ''Distances'', by Norma Winstone, Glauco Venier & Klaus Gesing (ECM 2028)
* ''Live at Birdland'', by Lee Konitz, Brad Mehldau, Charlie Haden & Paul Motian (ECM 2162)
See also
* List of directors associated with art film
References
Sources and further reading
* Almeida, Jane. Dziga Vertov Group . São Paulo: witz, 2005. .
* Nicole Brenez, David Faroult, Michael Temple, James E. Williams, Michael Witt (eds.) (2007). ''Jean-Luc Godard: Documents''. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou.
*
* Dixon, Wheeler Winston. ''The Films of Jean-Luc Godard''. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.
*
* Godard, Jean-Luc (2002). ''The Future(s) of Film: Three Interviews 2000–01''. Bern; Berlin: Verlag Gachnang & Springer. .
* Godard, Jean-Luc (2014). ''Introduction to a True History of Cinema and Television''. Montreal: caboose. .
*
* Intxauspe, J.M. (2013). "Film Socialisme: Quo vadis Europa". ''hAUSnART'', 3: 94–99.
* Lake, Steve and Paul Griffiths (writer), Griffiths, Paul, eds. (2007). ''Horizons Touched: the Music of ECM''. Granta Books. . 2007.
* Loshitzky, Yosefa. ''The Radical Faces of Godard and Bertolucci''.
*
*
* Müller, Lars (2010). ''Windfall Light: The Visual Language of ECM''. Lars Müller Publishers. & .
* Rainer Kern, Hans-Jürgen Linke and Wolfgang Sandner (2010). ''Der Blaue Klang''. Wolke Verlag. .
* Silverman, Kaja and Farocki, Harun. 1998. ''Speaking About Godard''. New York: New York University Press.
* Steritt, David (1998). ''Jean-Luc Godard: Interviews''. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. .
*
* Stevenson, Diane. "Godard and Bazin" in the Andre Bazin special issue, Jeffrey Crouse (ed.), ''Film International'', Issue 30, Vol. 5, No. 6, 2007, pp. 32–40.
* Temple, Michael. Williams, James S. Witt, Michael (eds.) 2007. ''For Ever Godard''. London: Black Dog Publishing.
* Temple, Michael and Williams, James S. (eds.) (2000). ''The Cinema alone: Essays on the Work of Jean-Luc Godard 1985–2000''. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
* Usher, Phillip John (2009). "De Sexe Incertain: Masculin, Féminin de Godard". ''French Forum'', vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 97–112.
*
External links
*
*
Cinema=Godard=Cinema
a hub for academic information and discussion about Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
at the Criterion Collection
Jean Luc Godard Biography
at newwavefilm.com
Detailed filmography of Jean-Luc Godard
on unifrance.org
Jean-Luc Godard
at ''The Guardian'' Film
Jean-Luc Godard
at ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' Movies
*
*
''Guardian'' interview (29 April 2005)
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKrtdKfiv8k Interview with Jean-Luc Godard, 1972]
Film catastrophe, the shooting of Film socialisme aboard the Costa Concordia
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