What do you think of when you think of Jean Luc-Godard (1930-2022)?
Wednesday, September 14, 2022 at 11:10PM by Nathaniel R
In the Manhattan apartment that I spent 10 years of my life in, my then-boyfriend and I chose three movie posters framed for the living room. When we were making the choices the requirements were as follows..
1. The poster had to be a color or colors that would go well with both the room and the other 2 posters
2. One of us had to be a mega fan of the movie
3. The other one had to also like the movie enough to have it on the wall.
Despite loving literally hundreds of movies we settled on the posters quickly...
We both deeply loved the Polish poster of Sunset Blvd and the movie (of course) but couldn't find it in the right size at the time. So the Three Chosen were the red and black graphics of West Side Story (my favourite), the yellow of Breathless (his favourite) and the primary colors of the Spanish poster of All About My Mother (one of the first movies we fell for together as a couple).
Here's a photo of me with my best friends that captures a fraction of that wall display (you can see the ex reflected in Almodóvar since he took the photo)...
I've thought about those posters and about Godard's very limited place in my life a lot the past couple of days.
The Godard was his must-have choice. He spoke French, spent one of his university years in France, and loved all things French New Wave. I bought him a huge book on the topic with Godard's Contempt adorning its cover for Christmas one year. Though I'd always loved French cinema myself (it was the first "foreign" cinema I fell for - it surely helped that the country has so many legendary actresses), Godard never became a thing for me. Nevertheless I loved Breathless when he showed it to me early on in our relationship (how had I never seen it?) so I was happy to have it on the wall for the next decade of my life.
Though my ex was a big Godard fan, my own tastes in the French New Wave leaned elsewhere. I was always partial to Demy & Varda with a little Truffaut on the side. So when it came time to eulogize Godard here I drew a big blank but for the persistent memory of that poster, my ex's fandom, and of the thrill of seeing the still restless and lively Breathless for the first time in the late 1990s, long after I should have seen it as a cinephile who fancied himself a Francophile.
My own inability to eulogize Godard is not important. His influence was such that there are a ton of beautiful pieces to read online and a good portion of his movies that are currently streaming. The New Yorker calls him "Cinema's North Star", IndieWire noted 5 cinematic techniques he deployed that proved influential, The Guardian surveyed what many of the most lauded living filmmakers have said about him, while Vulture points out that he had so many contradictory impulses as a filmmaker that "everyone has their own Godard".
It's that last thought that stuck with me. When a filmmaker is that prolific, evolving, famous, and old (91) when they die, chances are everyone will have a different thing they always think of when the name pops up.
So what is it for you? Who is Godard to you?
P.S. If you're not well-versed in Godard you're in luck. One of the benefits of being very famous as a filmmaker is that it tends to be easier for later generations to discover your films. Here are the titles that are currently streaming (though several of the others are rentable on various services like Amazon and Apple TV)
- Breathless (1960) - HBOMax, Criterion Channel
- Vivre Sa Vie (1962) - HBOMax, Criterion Channel
- Contempt (1963) - Criterion Channel
- Alphaville (1965) - Kanopy
- Masculin Feminin (1966) - HBOMax, Criterion Channel
- La Chinoise (1967) - Kanopy
- Weekend (1967) - HBOMax, Criterion Channel
- Tout Va Bien (1972) - Criterion Channel
- First Name: Carmen (1983) - Kanopy
- Hail Mary (1985) - Kanopy
- For Ever Mozart (1996) - Kanopy
- Film Socialisme (2010) - Tubi, Kanopy
- Goodbye to Language (2014) - Kanopy, Plex
Reader Comments (10)
I like his movies from the 60's (Vivre sa vie is my mavorite) and I understand why he was so important but I also think he usually was so pretentious and unbereable, So mixed feeling for him.
Godard was an anti-Semite. As early as 1978, he spoke publicly of his family’s support of a victory for Nazi Germany in WWII. He proclaimed then he was anti-Zionist.
Godard once complained that Steven Spielberg had misused the image of Auschwitz in the making of Schindler’s List. He believed that Hollywood was one sided to the plight of the Jews.
Still, the Academy awarded him an honorary Oscar. When asked what the honor meant to him, he replied, “Nothing. I think it’s strange. I asked myself: Which of my films have they seen? Do they actually know my films?”
Frankly, I am not moved by him or his films.
In acknowledgment of his demise, perhaps I’ll screen Richard Gere’s remake of Breathless.
I had never heard of Godard until I was in my 20s at the time when I was just discovering cinema and learn why he's so important. A Bout de Souffle was my introduction and whoa... it couldn't have been anything different from what I was seeing at the time but also what I was discovering through IFC and Sundance when they were uncut and commercial free. Here is a list of what I've seen from him so far as I have Tout va Bien in my DVR as I hope to finish his classic new wave period soon and hopefully get to the rest of his body of work.
He is the last I think of a filmmaker that I don't think there's many of. Like John Ford, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, and Ingmar Bergman. He was a God. A titan. We don't have many of these figures right now. Martin Scorsese, Pedro Almodovar, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg, and Terrence Malick are maybe among the few that are left in terms of their influence and impact in cinema. There's no question he was controversial and probably didn't care if people liked his films or not. Yet, he did leave something behind and I think the world of cinema should be grateful for what he's done. Au Revoir Jean-Luc, you dirty rat.
It takes a special kind of ignorance to write a post like Finbar McBride’s. How exactly does saying that your family had sympathy towards the Nazi at some point make YOU an anti semitic person? The British Royal Family early on had affinity towards Hitler, there are pictures of them doing the salute. It’s also extremely ridiculous to equate anti-Zionism with anti-semitism. That’s the narrative pushed to prevent criticism of Israel. He has expressed support for Palestine in movies.
The criticism of Schindler’s List and romanticizing of Auschwitz has absolutely nothing to do with anti semitism. It’s an old position that many other directors share, even Michael Haneke repeated it in a Hollywood Reporter roundtable. I share the position. It’s absolutely discusting the idea of rebuilding such suffering like a Hollywood carnival park. Godard also said of Roberto Benigni something along the lines “if you think life at Auschwitz was beautiful, that says something about you”. It’s a position that deeply respects the suffering of victims of the Holocaust, and a few of his movies have made it clear.
However, your narrow-mindedness is clear when you talk about “not being moved” by his films. You don’t understand what Godardian cinema was in the most basic term.
Long live Godard’s legacy
Please see the Criterion Closet video with Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn. Shawn tells the most beautiful story about being taken to see Weekend. He found it terrible, but he was stuck with the movie and two days later he decided that Weekend was the best movie he had ever seen.
I love Weekend, and Shawn's experience is very similar to the one I have with some Godards. Irritating, and challenging, but when they sink in (if they sink in), you often get amazed.
For example, his Tout Va Bien with Jane Fonda. It's tetric and demanding, but so compelling!
@Gustavo
I had to google the HR video of Haneke on Schindler's List. That was absolutely brilliant. His clarity when discussing the holocaust on film was piercing. I don't always like Hanke's movies, but one has to pay attention when he speaks.
The video reminded me of Kubrick:
“Think that was about the Holocaust? That was about success, wasn’t it? The Holocaust is about six million people who get killed. Schindler’s List was about six hundred people who don’t”.
John Boorman’s comment in that Guardian article about how he thought Godard was at his best when talking about films rather than making them reminds me of an independent filmmaker I once knew who said they didn’t enjoy watching Godard’s films very much but found his philosophy of cinema so fascinating that they’d watch interviews with him for inspiration. While I personally love a lot (but certainly not all) of JLG’s films, I think it’s really interesting that even most people who say they don’t like his movies admit to being inspired by him in some way, and that’s the mark of a true giant of the medium; it’s impossible to not be influenced by him at least indirectly, because modern cinema itself is impossible without him.
I've seen most of Godard's movies from his first decade more than once, to see what I've missed. Most of the time I'm convinced I was right the first time. Other than La Chinoise, and maybe if I'm in the right mood Weekend, I really have no love for any of them. He's like Andy Warhol, a brilliant theoretician,, but whose own works are of little interest to me. His ideas are best executed by others. If I took my favorite 1000 movies to a desert island, I wonder if even La Chinoise would make the cut.
Belmondo.
I've shamefully never seen one Godard film (I know!) so is there a good entry to him or is that impossible to answer? I saw someone online recommend WEEKEND and of course this post makes me want to now se BREATHLESS. Would those two be a good start or are there other films I should consider?