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.

Was wondering.

Scorsese has a piece up on Godard:

https://www.cahiersducinema.com/actualites/martin-scorsese-godard-is-perhaps-dead/#:~:text=When%20I'm%20editing%20a,images%20made%20by%20other%20people.

Nice, thanks!

Just watched ÉLOGE DE L'AMOUR (2001), only 19 years after Jerry the Nipper referred to it at the start of the thread.

I couldn't make much sense of it. Broadly confirms the sense that while early Godard is dazzling, late Godard is rambling.

Of the Godard I've seen from the last couple decades (which is not comprehensive), that one is definitely the weakest.

He made five films from 2000. Image Book > Goodbye to Language (will we ever see it in 3D again) >>>> In Praise of Love and Our Music.

Haven't seen Film Socialisme.

Those top two films would comfortably be in a top ten for Godard.

Lots of shorts and skits and stuff outside those five features tho

(I do need to circle back and see Film Socialisme imo)

It's dire.

I have really never engaged with Godard's short film output at all..

Richard Brody of The New Yorker declared In Praise of Love the greatest film of the 2000s, stating that it is "one of the most unusual, tremulous, and understated of love stories, as well as the story of love itself; ... Godard’s third first film, thus something of a rebirth of cinema."

Unusually preposterous.

Yeah, everyone knows that's Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle

He made five films from 2000

I've seen them, at least two of them twice, but they're vaguer in memory than the superficially similar 80s and 90s movies and I need to see them again.
The first Godard I've rewatched since his death was Made in USA, not especially beloved by most, but I was surprised just how much plot (though heavily obscured) and how many speaking parts the film contains. Was it his last nod at a "genre" film (unless Detective counts)?

Unusually preposterous.

― the pinefox

That's our Richard!

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/12/19/molly-ringwald-on-filming-shakespeares-king-lear-with-jean-luc-godard

Imagine being in a film, not understanding any of it then watching it months later and it never making sense.

i mean a lot of people in POPULAR MOVIE FRANCHISE DELETED must feel like that

quite a little burgess meredith anecdote in that piece