Jean-Luc Godard
1930 - 2022
"He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch."
1) Vivre Sa Vie 1962
2) Contempt 1963
3) Weekend 1967
4) Histoire(s) du cinema 1988
5) Breathless 1960
6) Alphaville 1965
7) Goodbye to Language 2014
8) Pierrot le Fou 1965
9) First Name: Carmen 1983
10) La Chinoise 1967
A colossus of the cinema, Godard is the most significant film figure to emerge from the aftermath of World War 2. An influential critic before directing his first feature, Godard and his cohorts in the politiques des auteurs were reacting against the French tradition of quality represented by Marcel Carne, Julien Duvivier, Rene Clement, et al. They favored the more personal visions of a Renoir, Vigo or Bresson and they succeeded as filmmakers beyond their wildest dreams.
As his title Histoire(s) du cinema implies, there is a multiplicity of layers and allusions in his work; enough to get lost in over a lifetime. His work is central to any consideration of film, semiotics, structuralism, post-modernism, auteurism, etc., during the past century. I can't abide his Dziga Vertov period, but his dotage seems to have rekindled his love of film for film's sake.
I also recommend: Le Petit Soldat, Les Carabiniers, A Woman is a Woman, Band of Outsiders, Masculin Feminin, Made in USA, Passion, Hail Mary, Nouvelle Vague, and The Image Book.
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