Jean-Luc Godard: S and D

I've seen most of his films up to the early 80s, and really every single one is worth seeing, even if some of the D-Z ones are almost unwatchable. The best of them is 'Vent d'Est', which was intended by its financiers as a kind of 'Bullet for the General'-style Marxist western, and indeed it has Gian Maria Volonte in it. It ends up as an essay on the politics of film-making, and is so a kind of sequel to 'Le Mepris', which is probably the best point of entry for Godard.

The jazzy score for 'Breathless' is lame, and I kind of don't think of it as a Godard at all. It was co-written with Truffaut.

His politics are always going to be a sticking point: the whole Maoist craze that afflicted France in the 60s was obviously a wrong turn, and JLG was a bit of a gadfly: you wouldn't catch Marker, Varda, or Rouch (more classically 'leftist' film-makers) making the same mistake.

This being so, I prefer his D-Z films, impossible as they are, to 'Tout va Bien', which was an attempt, via stars (Fonda and Montard) to 'reconnect' with the mass audience (it's about student politics, left-wing union politics, media politics); you'd be better off watching more straightforward contemporary films on the same subject by Ken Loach and other BBC directors of that era.

If I had to pick one, I guess it would be 'Masculin-Feminin', made in the winter of 65-66, and the start of his political odyssey, following 'Pierrot le Fou', his farewell to Hollywood.

I wish Criterion made posters out of their box art. I can't wait to watch this and the short that accompanies it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002HSDD2/qid=1098643669/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_11_1/026-3737398-5990003

http://play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R2&title=162776

I think I prefer this 'Jean Vigo' thing because it has an interview with Otar Iosseliani:

http://play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R2&title=123208

I can't remember but.

I only have a 'fullscreen' portable telly to watch them on anyway.

Did you watch 'Elogie d'amour', Jerry? I taped it, on the video, off the telly, but I haven't watched it yet.

First Half: Paris. moody b/w. a sensitive young man is working on a play/novel/poem/opera. plentiful references to books JLG probably hasn't read. a scene near the canal where part of 'L'Atalante' was shot.
Second Half: Brittany. extraordinary colour. an american (working for Spielberg) is trying to buy the rights to a resistance's fighter's autobiography. how awful--the yanks have no history, they have to steal 'ours' to make films. something vague about juliette binoche.

not a very lucid film, and honestly if it wasn't godard doing it no-one would have given a toss.

and the latest Criterion news re: Godard is their forthcoming release of Masculin/Feminin

Oh man, I hadn't heard about this. I'm debating ordering it from Amazon UK.

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D

BOUT FUCKING TIME, SHEESH.

New Yorker Video is also putting out Week-end this August.

rewatching THE IMAGE BOOK (2018) as a treat to myself and wondering if the many extracts it's quilted from are anywhere definitively listed, ideally in the actual order they appear (including repeats)

(by which i mean listed on the internet: the credits do include a list which i assume is at least a start and i guess i could just grab a pencil and paper and press pause a lot -- but on this day of all days i'm allowed to be lazy and find out if any ilxors know of a solid shortcut)

https://letterboxd.com/thisisdrew/list/the-image-book/ this works?

ooh yes, that is a very good start, thank you

Ok, got to see the Rosselini Jesus movie

Finished Godard On Godard:

The first section, featuring his earliest, pseudonymous writings, is I think solely of historical interest - lots of grand pronouncements, vague tossed off sentences, recurring attempts to elevate movies by comparing them to sundry important names in literature - anything to avoid actually describing the film, criticism as an imposition of taste rather than insight into the art. This is fine - they don't teach criticism in schools, it's normal to be feeling your way around the dark at first, I certainly did - but boy was I worried that all of it would be like this.

Thankfully he does evolve: as one gets further into the book, there is much more care given to actually describing what is happening onscreen, in terms of shots, editing, acting, use of colour, etc. He does still frequently throw in some random enigmatic phrase; at this stage, I would wager that with about half of these, if you challenged him on them he would be able to (though probably not willing to) explain the reasoning that lead him to them, and half are just stuff he's saying because it sounds good. Kind of unfair to single out Godard anyway, the enigmatic aphorism is such a huge part of French intellectual thought in general. And every now and then he hits upon a sentence that sums things up perfectly, even if I can't entirely explain in what way.

I'm big on the idea that you shouldn't judge critics by what movies they like, but of course there's a sense of kinship sneaking in for me as he heaps praise on Tashlin, Ray, Welles. He's good on stuff he doesn't like, too, at least when he deigns it with a full review - much more common is the random sideswipe, so we are given to think that, say, Pagnol is worthless without much explanation why. He's surprisingly enthusiastic about Vadim early on; respectful but distanced from Antonioni; considers Visconti a metteur en scene as opposed to an auteur and I have no idea why. Worst is the Mizoguchi essay, where he casually mentions that film festival audiences split themselves into Kurosawa fans and Mizoguchi fans and then quotes some dude who is like "it's a stupid debate, Mizoguchi is way better!". I prefer Kurosawa, but what annoys here more is the implication that Japan gets to have one (1) auteur and we have to decide which one.

The final section of the book is from when he's directing, and consists of interviews as well as some letters and speeches. I was surprised by how open Godard is about his process, no attempts to appear mysterious, no lecturing the interviewer on not having understood. It's like, after all those years reporting back what's onscreen, he now can't wait to tell about how it comes about - quite endearing!

It cuts off before the estrangement from Truffaut and so the prickly Godard who turns on his friends is in no evidence - Truffaut, Chabrol, Varda, Demy, Resnais all come in for unqualified praise.

> what annoys here more is the implication that Japan gets to have one (1) auteur and we have to decide which one

i thought the lack of japanese films in the list posted above was a bit odd (although maybe the list is incomplete)

FWIW, the Japanese section of Truffaut's The Films In My Life is pretty thin too (I think it was even omitted in some editions).

See, I read that and my knee-jerk reaction is that I wish there were still Mizoguchi fans squaring off against the Kurosawa army in any tangible sense

Mizoguchi is oft canonized and criterionized still.

I don't begrudge Godard or Truffaut not knowing a lot of Japanese cinema - I'm sure it was pretty difficult to see stuff beyond Ozu, Mizoguchi and Kurosawa - it's accepting the framing of "well here's two directors from Japan, we must face them off against each other" that I find questionable.

xpost Hear hear! Team Mizoguchi all the way.

xpost
To be slightly fair to Godard and Truffaut, it was pretty difficult to see most Japanese films outside of Japan until well into the 1960s (the first international Ozu retrospective, for example, didn't take place until 1963). Kurosawa was always something of an exception.

If the S&S polls teach us anything is that once more films become available in the first place the stuff that was there before is seen in a different way.

Histoire(s) du cinéma Blu Ray anybody?

https://www.radiancefilms.co.uk/products/histoires-du-cinema-and-other-works-le

Oh go on then. The Histoire{s) DVD I've got is perfectly serviceable, but all the extras on that Radiance set are pretty undeniable - and I like the idea of the annotating subtitles (something that I think would really have annoyed JLG - good!)