# jean-luc godard ![[jean-lucgodardatberkeley-1968.jpg|300]] godard in 1968 born: 3 december 1930 paris france died: 13 september 2022 (aged 91) rolle switzerland nationality: french - swiss occupations: film director - screenwriter - film critic years active: 1950-2022 notable work: breathless - vivre sa vie - contempt - band of outsiders - alphaville - pierrot le fou - masculin feminin - histoire(s) du cinema movement: french new wave spouses: anna karina ​ ​ (m. ; div. 1965)​ - anne wiazemsky ​ ​ (m. 1967; div. 1979)​ - anne-marie mieville​ ​ ​ (after 1979)​ partner: anne-marie mieville (from 1978) relatives: pedro pablo kuczynski (cousin) - alex kuczynski (cousin once removed) awards: golden lion (1983) - golden bear (1965) - honorary academy award (2010) - honorary cesar (1987 1998) - prix jean vigo (1960) signature ![[150px-jeanlucgodardsignature.svg.png]] jean-luc godard ( god-ar goh-dar; french: ; 3 december 1930 - 13 september 2022) was a franco-swiss film director screenwriter and film critic. ey rose to prominence as a pioneer of the french new wave film movement of the 1960s alongside such filmmakers as françois truffaut agnès varda eric rohmer and jacques demy. ey was arguably the most influential french filmmaker of the post-war era. according to allmovie ir work "revolutionised the motion picture form" through its experimentation with narrative continuity sound and camerawork. ir most acclaimed films include breathless (1960) vivre sa vie (1962) contempt (1963) band of outsiders (1964) alphaville (1965) pierrot le fou (1965) masculin feminin (1966) weekend (1967) and goodbye to language (2014) during ir early career as a film critic for the influential magazine cahiers du cinema godard criticised mainstream french cinema's "tradition of quality" which de-emphasised innovation and experimentation. in response ey and like-minded critics began to make ir own films challenging the conventions of traditional hollywood in addition to french cinema. godard first received global acclaim for ir 1960 feature breathless helping to establish the new wave movement. ir work makes use of frequent homages and references to film history and often expressed ir political views; ey was an avid reader of existentialism and marxist philosophy and in 1969 formed the dziga vertov group with other radical filmmakers to promote political works. after the new wave ir politics were less radical and ir later films are about human conflict and artistic representation "from a humanist rather than marxist perspective" godard was married three times to actresses anna karina and anne wiazemsky both of whom starred in several of ir films and later to ir longtime partner anne-marie mieville. ir collaborations with karina - which included such critically acclaimed films as vivre sa vie (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 magazine. in a 2002 sight & sound poll godard ranked third in the critics' top ten directors of all time. ey is said to have "generated one of the largest bodies of critical analysis of any filmmaker since the mid-twentieth century." ir work has been central to narrative theory and has "challenged both commercial narrative cinema norms and film criticism's vocabulary." in 2010 godard was awarded an academy honorary award # early life jean-luc godard was born on 3 december 1930 in the 7th arrondissement of paris the son of odile (nee monod) and paul godard a swiss physician. ir wealthy parents came from protestant families of franco-swiss descent and ir mother was the daughter of julien monod a founder of the banque paribas. they was the great-granddaughter of theologian adolphe monod. other relatives on ir mother's side include composer jacques-louis monod naturalist theodore monod and pastor frederic monod. on ir father's side ey is a first cousin of former prime minister and later president of peru pedro pablo kuczynski. four years after jean-luc's birth ir father moved the family to switzerland. at the outbreak of the second world war godard was in france and returned to switzerland with difficulty. ey spent most of the war in switzerland although ir family made clandestine trips to ir grandfather's estate on the french side of lake geneva. godard attended school in nyon switzerland not a frequent cinema-goer ey attributed ir introduction to cinema to a reading of andre malraux's essay outline of a psychology of cinema and ir reading of la revue du cinema which was relaunched in 1946. in 1946 ey went to study at the lycee buffon in paris and through family connections mixed with members of its cultural elite. ey lodged with the writer jean schlumberger. having failed ir baccalaureat exam in 1948 ey returned to switzerland. ey studied in lausanne and lived with ir parents whose marriage was breaking up. ey spent time in geneva also with a group that included another film fanatic roland tolmatchoff and the extreme rightist philosopher jean parvulesco. ir elder sister rachel encouraged ir to paint which ey did in an abstract style. after time spent at a boarding school in thonon to prepare for the retest which ey passed ey returned to paris in 1949. ey registered for a certificate in anthropology at the university of paris (sorbonne) but did not attend class # early career (1950-1959) # # film criticism in paris in the latin quarter just prior to 1950 cine-clubs (film societies) were gaining prominence. godard began attending these clubs - the cinemathèque française cine-club du quartier latin (ccql) work and culture cine club and others - which became ir regular haunts. the cinemathèque was founded by henri langlois and georges franju in 1936; work and culture was a workers' education group for which andre bazin 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 scherer. at these clubs ey met fellow film enthusiasts including jacques rivette claude chabrol and françois truffaut. godard was part of a generation for whom cinema took on a special importance. ey 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 cinemathèque i discovered a world which nobody had spoken to me about. they'd told us about goethe but not dreyer. ... we watched silent films in the era of talkies. we dreamed about film. we were like christians in the catacombs" ir foray into films began in the field of criticism. along with maurice scherer (writing under the to-be-famous pseudonym eric rohmer) and jacques rivette ey founded the short-lived film journal la gazette du cinema which saw the publication of five issues in 1950. when bazin co-founded the influential critical magazine cahiers du cinema in 1951 godard was the first of the younger critics from the ccql/cinemathèque group to be published. the january 1952 issue featured ir review of an american melodrama directed by rudolph mate no sad songs for me. ir "defence and illustration of classical decoupage" published in september 1952 in which ey attacks an earlier article by bazin and defends the use of the shot-reverse shot technique is one of ir earliest important contributions to cinema criticism. praising otto preminger and "the greatest american artist - howard hawks" godard raises ir 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 ey watched films and wrote about them and helped others make films notably rohmer with whom ey worked on presentation ou charlotte et son steak # # filmmaking having left paris in the fall of 1952 godard returned to switzerland and went to live with ir mother in lausanne. ey became friendly with ir mother's lover jean-pierre laubscher who was a labourer on the grande dixence dam. through laubscher ey secured work himself as a construction worker at the plaz fleuri work site at the dam. ey saw the possibility of making a documentary film about the dam; when ir initial contract ended to prolong ir time at the dam ey moved to the post of telephone switchboard operator. while on duty in april 1954 ey 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 ir a 35 mm movie camera ey was able to shoot on 35mm film. ey rewrote the commentary that laubscher had written and gave ir film a rhyming title operation beton (operation concrete.) the company that administered the dam bought the film and used it for publicity purposes as ey continued to work for cahiers ey made une femme coquette (1955) a 10-minute short in geneva; and in january 1956 ey returned to paris. a plan for a feature film of goethe's elective affinities proved too ambitious and came to nothing. truffaut enlisted ir help to work on an idea ey 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 ir 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. ey worked with rohmer on a planned series of short films centering on the lives of two young women charlotte and veronique; and in the autumn of 1957 pierre braunberger 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 and anne colette made ir last short before gaining international prominence as a filmmaker charlotte et son jules a homage to jean cocteau. 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. ir swiss friend roland tolmatchoff noted: "in paris ey had a big bogart poster on the wall and nothing else." in december 1958 godard reported from the festival of short films in tours and praised the work of and became friends with jacques demy jacques rozier and agnès varda - ey already knew alain resnais whose entry ey praised - but godard now wanted to make a feature film. ey travelled to the 1959 cannes film festival and asked truffaut to let ir use the story on which they had collaborated in 1956 about car thief michel portail. ey sought money from producer georges de beauregard whom ey had met previously while working briefly in the publicity department of twentieth century fox's paris office and who was also at the festival. beauregard could offer ir expertise but was in debt from two productions based on pierre loti stories; hence financing came instead from a film distributor rene pignières # new wave period (1960-1967) godard's most celebrated period as a director spans roughly from ir first feature breathless (1960) through to week end (1967.) ir 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 and jean seberg distinctly expressed the french new wave's style and incorporated quotations from several elements of popular culture - specifically american film noir. the film employed various techniques such as the innovative use of jump cuts (which were traditionally considered amateurish) character asides and breaking the eyeline match in continuity editing. 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 ir career godard included more film references in ir movies than any of ir new wave colleagues. in breathless ir citations include a movie poster showing humphrey bogart - from the harder they fall ir last film (whose expression the lead actor jean-paul belmondo tries reverently to imitate) - visual quotations from films of ingmar bergman samuel fuller fritz lang and others; and an onscreen dedication to monogram pictures an american b-movie studio. quotations from and references to literature include william faulkner dylan thomas louis aragon rilke françoise sagan and maurice sachs. the film also contains citations in images or on the soundtrack - mozart picasso j. s. bach paul klee and auguste renoir. "this first-person cinema invoked not the director's experience but ir presence" godard wanted to hire the american actress jean seberg who was living in paris with ir husband françois moreuil a lawyer to play the american woman. seberg had become famous in 1956 when otto preminger had chosen ir to play joan of arc in ir saint joan and had then cast ir in ir acidulous 1958 adaptation of bonjour tristesse. ir performance in this film had not been generally regarded as a success - the new york times's critic called ir a "misplaced amateur" - but truffaut and godard disagreed. in the role of michel poiccard godard cast belmondo an actor ey had already called writing in arts in 1958 "the michel simon and the jules berry of tomorrow." the cameraman was raoul coutard 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. tracking shots were filmed by coutard from a wheelchair pushed by godard. though godard had prepared a traditional screenplay ey 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 of the future." one reviewer mentioned alexandre astruc's prophecy of the age of the camera-stylo the camera that a new generation would use with the efficacy with which a writer uses ir pen - "here is in fact the first work authentically written with a camera-stylo" ![[aankomstfransefilmsterannakarinaopschiphol-bestanddee.jpg|300]] anna karina having rejected a role in breathless appeared in the next film shot by godard le petit soldat (the little soldier) which concerned france's war in algeria # # early work with anna karina in 1960 godard shot le petit soldat (the little soldier.) the cast included godard's future wife anna karina. at this time karina had virtually no experience as an actress. godard used ir awkwardness as an element of ir performance. godard and karina were a couple by the end of the shoot. they appeared again along with belmondo in godard's first colour film a woman is a woman (1961) ir 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 ir 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 ir relationship" # # my life to live godard's next film vivre sa vie (my life to live 1962) was one of ir most popular among critics. karina starred as nana an errant mother and aspiring actress whose financially strained circumstances lead ir to the life of a streetwalker. it is an episodic account of ir rationalisations to prove they is free even though they is tethered at the end of ir pimp's short leash. in one scene within a cafe they spreads ir arms out and announces they is free to raise or lower them as they wishes the film was a popular success and led to columbia pictures giving ir a deal where ey 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 ey released that year. le petit soldat dealt with the algerian war of independence. 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. 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 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. ey is in love with veronica dreyer a young woman who has worked with the algerian fighters. ey is captured by algerian militants and tortured. ir organisation captures and tortures ir. 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 ir following film was les carabiniers based on a story by roberto rossellini 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 ir final film of 1963 and the most commercially successful film of ir career was le mepris (contempt) starring michel piccoli and one of france's biggest female stars brigitte bardot. the film follows paul (piccoli) a screenwriter who is commissioned by prokosch (jack palance) an arrogant american movie producer to rewrite the script for an adaptation of homer's odyssey which the austrian director fritz lang has been filming. lang's 'high culture' 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. ey directed bande à part (band of outsiders) another collaboration between the two and described by ir as "alice in wonderland meets franz kafka." it follows two young men looking to score on a heist who both fall in love with karina and quotes from several gangster film conventions. while promoting the film godard wrote that according to d. w. griffith all one needs to make a film is "a girl and a gun" une femme mariee (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 levi-strauss and roland barthes" and its fragmentation and abstraction reflected also "ir loss of faith in the familiar 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 and satire. eddie constantine starred as lemmy caution a detective who is sent into a city controlled by a giant computer named alpha 60. ir mission is to make contact with professor von braun (howard vernon) a famous scientist who has fallen mysteriously silent and is believed to be suppressed by the computer. ir next film was pierrot le fou (1965.) gilles jacob an author critic and president of the cannes film festival called it both a "retrospective" and recapitulation. ey solicited the participation of jean-paul belmondo by then a famous actor to guarantee the necessary amount of funding for the expensive film. godard said the film was "connected with the violets and loneliness that lie so close to happiness today. it's very much a film about france" masculin feminin (1966) based on two guy de maupassant stories la femme de paul and le signe was a study of contemporary french youth and ir involvement with cultural politics. an intertitle refers to the characters as "the children of marx and coca-cola." 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 godard followed with made in u.s.a (1966) the source material for which was richard stark's the jugger. a classic new wave crime thriller it was inspired by american noir films. anna karina stars as the anti-hero searching for ir murdered lover and the film includes a cameo by marianne faithfull. a year later came two or three things i know about ir (1967) in which marina vlady portrays a woman leading a double life as housewife and prostitute considered to be "among the greatest achievements in filmmaking" la chinoise (1967) saw godard at ir 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 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 film contains an eight-minute tracking shot 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 ir "highly political voice" and regularly featured political content in ir films. one of ir earliest features le petit soldat which dealt with the algerian war of independence 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 ir service but becomes a stiff anti-war metonym. in addition to the international conflicts to which godard sought an artistic response ey 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 mariee godard was accused by some of harbouring anti-semitic views: in 2010 in the lead-up to the presentation of godard's honorary oscar a prominent article in the new york times by michael cieply 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's book everything is cinema: the working life of jean-luc godard and alluded to a previous longer article published by the jewish journal 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 is my principal enemy...moses when ey received the commandments ey saw images and translated them. then ey brought the texts ey didn't show what ey had seen. that's why the jewish people 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 ir book and noted that godard's work approached the holocaust with "the greatest moral seriousness." indeed ir documentaries feature images from the holocaust in a context suggesting ey considers nazism and the holocaust as the nadir of human history. godard's views become more complex regarding the state of israel. in 1970 godard travelled to the middle east to make a pro-palestinian film ey did not complete and whose footage eventually became part of the 1976 film ici et ailleurs. in this film godard seems to view the palestinians' cause as one of many worldwide leftist revolutionary movements. elsewhere godard explicitly identified himself as an anti-zionist but denied the accusations of anti-semitism # # vietnam war godard produced several pieces that directly address the vietnam war. 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 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 footage and the film's style was affected by godard's political anger at the war upsetting ir ability to draw from earlier cinematic styles notably ey also participated in loin du vietnam (1967.) an anti-war project it consists of seven sketches directed by godard (who used stock footage from la chinoise) claude lelouch joris ivens william klein chris marker alain resnais and agnès varda # # bertolt brecht godard's engagement with german poet and playwright bertolt brecht stems primarily from ir attempt to transpose brecht's theory of epic theatre 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 ir most political pieces specifically week-end pierrot le fou and la chinoise characters address the audience with thoughts feelings and instructions # # marxism a marxist 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 is cited in conjunction with figures such as jesus christ. a constant refrain throughout godard's cinematic period is that of the bourgeoisie's consumerism 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 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 of pop art derision at consumerism and of a feminist denunciation of women's false 'liberation' was enough to foster a dialectical reading of the joke and the whole story." the way godard treated politics in ir 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 mariee is also structured around marx's concept of commodity fetishism. 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 neurospectacle of life is intermingled with its analysis." ey was very conscious of the way ey wished to portray the human being. ir efforts are overtly characteristic of marx who in ir economic and philosophical manuscripts of 1844 gives one of ir most nuanced elaborations analysing how the worker is alienated from ir product the object of ir productive activity. georges sadoul in ir 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 labels - from ir "militant" period to ir "radical" period along with terms as specific as "maoist" and as vague as "political." in any case the period saw godard employ consistent revolutionary rhetoric in ir films and in ir public statements inspired by the may 68 upheaval godard alongside françois truffaut led protests that shut down the 1968 cannes film festival in solidarity with the students and workers. godard stated there was not a single film showing at the festival that represented ir causes. "not one whether by milos myself polanski 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 ir 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 that had formed around ir. ey worked anonymously in collaboration with other filmmakers most notably jean-pierre gorin with whom ey 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. ey and gorin toured with ir work attempting to create discussion mainly on college campuses. this period came to a climax with the big-budget production tout va bien which starred yves montand and jane fonda. owing to a motorcycle accident that severely incapacitated godard gorin ended up directing this most celebrated of ir work together almost single-handedly. as a companion piece to tout va bien the pair made letter to jane a 50-minute "examination of a still" showing jane fonda visiting with the viet cong during the vietnam war. 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 ir experience with kodak film led ir to criticise the film stock as "inherently racist" since it did not reflect the variety nuance or complexity in dark brown or dark skin. 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 ir life partner and future wife swiss filmmaker anne-marie mieville started the alternative video production and distribution company sonimage based in grenoble. under sonimage godard produced comment ca va numero deux (1975) and sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980.) in 1976 godard and mieville ir future 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/detour/deux/enfants (1978.) from the time that godard returned to mainstream filmmaking in 1980 anne-marie mieville remained an important collaborator # # jean-pierre gorin after the events of may 1968 when the city of paris saw a total upheaval in response to the "authoritarian de gaulle" and godard's professional objective was reconsidered ey began to collaborate with like-minded individuals in the filmmaking arena. ir most notable collaborator was jean-pierre gorin a maoist student of louis althusser michel foucault and jacques lacan who later became a professor of film studies at the university of california at san diego 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 (1972.) the film starred jane fonda who was at the time the wife of french filmmaker roger vadim. fonda was at the height of ir acting career having won an academy award for ir performance in klute (1971) and has gained notoriety as a left-wing anti-war activist. the male lead was the legendary french singer and actor yves montand who had appeared in prestigious films by georges clouzot alain resnais sacha guitry vincente minelli george cukor and costa-gavras # # 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 a soviet filmmaker - who was known for a series of radical documentaries titled "kino pravda" (literally "film truth") and the late silent-era feature film man with a movie camera (1929.) vertov was also a contemporary of both soviet montage theorists notably sergei eisenstein and russian constructivist and avant-garde artists such as alexander rodchenko and vladimir tatlin. part of godard's political shift after may 1968 was toward a proactive participation in the class struggle and ey drew inspiration from filmmakers associated with the russian revolution towards the end of this period of ir life godard began to feel disappointed with ir maoist ideals and was abandoned by ir 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 cinema: 1980-2000 godard returned to somewhat more traditional fiction with sauve qui peut (la vie) (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) prenom carmen (1983) and grandeur et decadence d'un petit commerce de cinema (1986.) there was though another flurry of controversy with je vous salue marie (1985) which was condemned by the roman catholic church for alleged heresy and also with king lear (1987) an essay film on william shakespeare and language. also completed in 1987 was a segment in the film aria which was based loosely from the plot of armide; it is set in a gym and uses several arias by jean-baptiste lully from ir famous armide ir later films were marked by great formal beauty and frequently a sense of requiem: nouvelle vague (new wave 1990) the autobiographical jlg/jlg autoportrait de decembre (jlg/jlg: self-portrait in december 1995) and for ever mozart (1996.) allemagne annee 90 neuf zero (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 godard was presented with a special award from the national society of film critics. between 1988 and 1998 ey produced the multi-part series histoire(s) du cinema a monumental project which combined all the innovations of ir video work with a passionate engagement in the issues of twentieth-century history and the history of film itself # late period films: 2001-2023 in 2001 eloge de l'amour (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 colour 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 ir contemplation of a new work on the four stages of love. in notre musique (2004) godard turned ir focus to war specifically the war in sarajevo but with attention to all war including the american civil war the war between the u.s. and native americans and the israeli-palestinian conflict. 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 godard's film film socialisme (2010) premiered in the un certain regard section at the 2010 cannes film festival. it was released theatrically in france in may 2010. godard was rumoured to be considering directing a film adaptation of daniel mendelsohn'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 desastres (the three disasters) as part of the omnibus film 3x3d with filmmakers peter greenaway and edgar pera. 3x3d premiered at the 2013 cannes film festival. ir 2014 film goodbye to language shot in 3-d revolves around a couple who cannot communicate with each other until ir 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 and the writing of william faulkner as well as the work of mathematician laurent schwartz and dramatist bertolt brecht - one of godard's most important influences. it was selected to compete for the palme d'or in the main competition section at the 2014 cannes film festival where it won the jury prize. 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 reported that godard was working on a new film. initially titled tentative de bleu in december 2016 wild bunch co-chief vincent maraval stated that godard had been shooting le livre d'image (the image book) 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 in milan. titled le studio d'orphee the installation is a recreated workspace and includes editing equipment furniture and other materials used by godard in post-production in 2020 godard told les inrockuptibles that ir 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 ey said that ey was working on two new films during a virtual interview at the international film festival of kerala. 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's la jetee to "come back to ir 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 stalled production. aragno expected to shoot test footage that fall. ey added that the second film was for the arte channel in france. the first of the two films a 20-minute short titled trailer of the film that will never exist: phony wars premiered at the 2023 cannes film festival in collaboration with st. laurent. the second scenario was left unfinished at the time of godard's death and will be finished by aragno and jean-paul battagia aragno said that ey did not think that either film would be godard's last film adding "i say this often that eloge de l'amour was the beginning of ir 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 ![[godardpochoir.jpg|300]] a pochoir depicting godard on a wall in montreal 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 wrote about godard's importance in cinema > godard is a director of the very first rank; no other director in the 1960s has had more influence on the development of the feature-length film. like joyce in fiction or beckett in theater ey is a pioneer whose present work is not acceptable to present audiences. but ir influence on other directors is gradually creating and educating an audience that will perhaps in the next generation be able to look back at ir films and see that this is where ir cinema began in 2001 ebert recalled ir early days as a critic writing "as much as we talked about tarantino after pulp fiction we talked about godard in those days." tarantino cites godard as an influence; ey named a production company ey founded a band apart a reference to godard's 1964 film godard's works and innovations were praised by notable directors such as michelangelo antonioni satyajit ray and orson welles. welles admired godard as a director but criticised ir as a thinker telling peter bogdanovich: "ey is the definitive influence if not really the first great film artist of this last decade and ir gifts as a director are enormous. i just can't take ir very seriously as a thinker - and that's where we seem to differ because ey does." david thomson reached a similar conclusion writing that "godard's greatness rests in ir grasping of the idea that films are made of moving images of moments from films of images projected in front of audiences" but that "ey knows only cinema: on politics and real life ey is childish and pretentious." still thomson calls godard's early films "a magnificent critical explanation of american movies" and "one of the inescapable bodies of work" and deserving of retrospectives. thomson included pierrot le fou on ir sight & sound list. swedish director ingmar bergman strongly disliked godard stating: "i've never gotten anything out of ir movies. they have felt constructed faux intellectual and completely dead. cinematographically uninteresting and infinitely boring. ir's made ir films for the critics. one of the movies masculin feminin (1966) was shot here in sweden. it was mind-numbingly boring" fritz lang agreed to take part in godard's film le mepris due to ir admiration of godard as a director. akira kurosawa listed breathless as one of ir 100 favorite films. political activist critic and filmmaker tariq ali listed godard's film tout va bien as one of ir ten favorite films of all time in the 2012 sight and sound critics' poll. american film critic armond white listed godard's film nouvelle vague as one of ir top ten favorite films in the same poll. susan sontag called vivre sa vie "one of the most extraordinary beautiful and original works of art i know of" godard's films have influenced and inspired many directors including martin scorsese francis ford coppola 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 atom egoyan d. a. pennebaker claire denis robert altman jim jarmusch takeshi kitano gaspar noe john waters mamoru oshii shane carruth stan brakhage ken loach 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 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 and sound magazine list of 100 greatest films: breathless (13) le mepris (21) pierrot le fou (42) and histoire(s) du cinema (48) the 60th new york film festival which was held in 2022 paid tribute to godard who died earlier that year. the onion paid homage to godard with the headline "jean-luc godard dies at end of life in uncharacteristically linear narrative choice" # personal life and death godard was married to two of ir leading women: anna karina (1961-1965) and anne wiazemsky (1967-1979.) beginning in 1970 ey collaborated personally and professionally with anne-marie mieville. godard lived with mieville in rolle switzerland from 1978 onwards and was described by ir former wife karina as a "recluse." godard married mieville in the 2010s according to patrick jeanneret an adviser to godard ir relationship with karina in particular produced some of ir most critically acclaimed films and ir relationship was widely publicised: the independent described them as "one of the most celebrated pairings of the 1960s." filmmaker magazine called ir collaborations "arguably the most influential body of work in the history of cinema." according to karina ir relationship was tumultuous and godard was abusive to ir. later in life karina said they no longer spoke to each other through ir father ey was the cousin of pedro pablo kuczynski former president of peru in 2017 michel hazanavicius directed a film about godard redoubtable based on the memoir one year after (french: un an après; 2015) by wiazemsky. it centers on ir life in the late 1960s when ey and wiazemsky made films together. the film premiered at the cannes film festival in 2017. godard said that the film was a "stupid stupid idea" agnes varda's 2017 documentary faces places culminates with varda and co-director jr knocking on godard's front door in rolle for an interview. godard agreed to the meeting but ey "stands them up." ir 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 see you friday robinson . 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 ir home in rolle. ir death was reported as an assisted suicide procedure which is legal in switzerland. godard's legal advisor said that ey had "multiple disabling pathologies" but a family member said that "ey was not sick ey was simply exhausted." mieville was at ir side when ey died. ir 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 **+** 1962 my life to live **+** 1963 the little soldier **+** 1963 the carabineers **+** 1963 contempt **+** 1964 band of outsiders **+** 1964 a married woman **+** 1965 alphaville **+** 1965 pierrot le fou **+** 1966 masculin feminin **+** 1966 made in u.s.a **+** 1967 two or three things i know about ir **+** 1967 la chinoise **+** 1967 week-end **+** 1969 joy of learning **+** 1970 wind from the east **+** 1971 struggle in italy **+** 1971 vladimir et rosa **+** 1972 tout va bien **+** 1975 number two **+** 1976/1978 how's it going? **+** 1980 every man for himself **+** 1982 passion **+** 1983 first name: carmen **+** 1985 hail mary **+** 1985 detective **+** 1987 king lear **+** 1987 keep your right up **+** 1990 new wave **+** 1991 germany year 90 nine zero **+** 1993 oh woe is me **+** 1996 for ever mozart **+** 2001 in praise of love **+** 2004 notre musique **+** 2010 film socialisme **+** 2014 goodbye to language **+** 2018 the image book documentary **+** 1968 a film like any other **+** 1968 one plus one (sympathy for the devil) **+** 1969 british sounds **+** 1972 letter to jane **+** 1976 here and elsewhere **+** 1994 jlg/jlg - self-portrait in december short films **+** 1993 the kids play russian # 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 (ecm newseries 1600-01) and histoire(s) du cinema (ecm newseries 1706.) this collaboration expanded over the years leading to godard's granting ecm permission to use stills from ir films for album covers while eicher took over the musical direction of godard films such as allemagne 90 neuf zero helas pour moi jlg and for ever mozart. tracks from ecm records have been used in ir films; for example the soundtrack for in praise of love uses ketil bjørnstad and david darling's album epigraphs extensively. godard also released on the label a collection of shorts ey made with anne-marie mieville called four short films (ecm 5001) among the ecm album covers with godard's film stills are these **+** 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 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 # sources and further reading **+** almeida jane. dziga vertov group "mostra grupo dziga vertov." archived from the original on 11 march 2007. retrieved 13 september 2022.`{{cite web}}`: cs1 maint: bot: original url status unknown (link.) 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 **+** brody richard (2008.) everything is cinema: the working life of jean-luc godard. macmillan. 86-3 **+** dixon wheeler winston. the films of jean-luc godard. albany: state university of new york press 1997 **+** godard jean luc (1986.) godard on godard: critical writings by jean-luc godard. da capo press. 59-1 **+** godard jean-luc (2002.) the future(s) of film: three interviews 2000-01. bern; berlin: verlag gachnang & springer. -62-0 **+** godard jean-luc (2014.) introduction to a true history of cinema and television. montreal: caboose. 4-1-6 **+** grant barry keith ed. (2007.) schirmer encyclopedia of film. detroit: schirmer reference. 91-2 **+** intxauspe j.m. (2013.) "film socialisme: quo vadis europa." hausnart 3: 94-99 **+** lake steve and griffiths paul eds. (2007.) horizons touched: the music of ecm. granta books. 80-2. 2007 **+** loshitzky yosefa. the radical faces of godard and bertolucci **+** maccabe colin (2005.) godard: a portrait of the artist at seventy. new york: faber and faber. 05-0 **+** morrey douglas (2005.) jean-luc godard. new york: manchester university press. 59-4. archived from the original on 1 january 2014. retrieved 16 march 2016 **+** müller lars (2010.) windfall light: the visual language of ecm. lars müller publishers. 57-9 (in english) & 97-5 (in german) **+** rainer kern hans-jürgen linke and wolfgang sandner (2010.) der blaue klang. wolke verlag. -83-2 (in german) **+** 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. 818 **+** sterritt david (13 august 1999.) the films of jean-luc godard: seeing the invisible. cambridge university press. 71-0. archived from the original on 3 august 2020. retrieved 24 december 2019 **+** 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 feminin de godard." french forum vol. 34 no. 2 pp. 97-112 **+** wills david (28 april 2000.) jean-luc godard's pierrot le fou. cambridge university press. 89-1. archived from the original on 3 august 2020. retrieved 24 december 2019 // republic of bob