Final Essay MMED 3850N

Transcription

1 Jean-Luc Godard and The French New Wave Final Essay MMED 3850N Submitted to: David Clearwater Submitted by: Misha Wilkin Spring 2003

2 Table of Contents Introduction...2 The French New Wave...3 Godard and His Contribution to the New Wave...6 Godard s Style Bibliography Filmography... 16

3 Introduction The contribution Jean-Luc Godard has made to contemporary cinema is still apparent today. This is illustrated by films like Breathless still being revered and analyzed in an educational aspect as well as on a personal level for many people. The global recognition Breathless received put the new wave style on the map and has made Godard one of the most discussed directors in history. This is well deserved considering his commitment to the artistic creativity of film making and the laying of the groundwork for the independent film industry that still thrives today. Godard s contribution to the French new wave was substantial enough to the point where some feel Godard is the forefather of this movement in film. Godard is still alive today and is involved in film direction and production. Godard has always strived to identify new techniques in film that are innovative and original. This essay will outline the progression of the new wave and the factors that contributed to the development of this film movement. These factors are a combination of events in history that led to the development of the French new wave described in the first section of this essay. The next section looks at Godard s background and the circumstances that led to his career in film direction. Following the background of Godard s upbringing a filmography of Godard s work is listed chronologically outlining his contribution to the new wave. The last section discusses the elements of Godard s style as applied to the new wave and the influence his style had in the development of French new wave cinema. 2

4 The French New Wave In post-war France the affects of a country under Nazi occupation from during World War II was apparent and the evolution of the French film culture was temporarily stifled 1. The films that were being shown in the US were not available to the French people during the Nazi occupation. When the war was over an influx of American films were shown in France in the late forties and early fifties to the delight of the French population 2. A group of French film critics noticed similarities in some of these films and discovered Film-Noir as a genre of cinema 3. Post-war French film making followed the same conventions of Hollywood studios to compete with these American films. Economic issues played a roll in the eagerness for France to produce movies internally to combat the negative effects American films had on the domestic film industry in France 4. The identity of French culture was being challenged and the French government wanted to limit the number of American films that were shown in France in comparison to French films to keep the ratio favoring France. The results of these studio produced French films were stagy productions usually based on popular literature or fiction. These films would generate criticism from the young French film lovers who were becoming film critics and would eventually become film directors. These critics included Jean-Luc Goddard, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer who pointed out the flaws with current French Cinema. This group of French film critics were regular contributors to Cahiers Du Cinéma in the early 1950 s who in their reviews found some traditional American and French films to be boring and repetitive. Jean-Luc Goddard is quoted as saying Your camera movements are ugly because your subjects are bad, your casts act badly because your dialogue is worthless; in a word, you don t know how to create cinema because you no longer even know what it is 5. These critics would shape the auteur theory that acknowledges the 1 Robert Kolker. Film, Form, and Culture Second Edition. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.), Kolker. Film Form and Culture, Kolker. Film Form and Culture, Kolker. Film Form and Culture, Kolker. Film Form and Culture, 84. 3

5 director is a controlling force in the structure of a film 6. Praise was given to such directors as Alfred Hitchcock for creating films that reflected Hitchcock s personal style and techniques while still being supported by large studios. Directors were labeled auteurs because of distinctive themes that could be detected running throughout the body of their work. An example of this is Hitchcock s version of the shot reverse shot called Cross Tracking in which a character is shown approaching a threatening object and cuts between the object and character building suspense while the character draws closer to the object 7. European auteurs were noticed as well such as Jean Renoir of France and the Italian neorealist Roberto Rossellini. Neorealist film was a departure from the classical Hollywood style of film making as well as German Expressionism, Swedish Abstraction, and Hollywood s Film Noir. These films opened a new realm in which cinema could exist and these same French film critics would be the architects behind the design of The French new wave. World War Two led to the development of filming equipment manufactured by the Eclair Company for documenting the war 8. This new equipment offered lightweight inexpensive cameras, faster film stock that required less light and portable sound equipment. This film equipment was adopted by the new French filmmakers who preferred small crews and would shoot on the streets with existing lighting in realistic situations. The equipment was affordable for these French film makers and the low-budget appeal ensured the artistic integrity of a project. Being independent meant no big studio to report to that could compromise the auteur theory and the freedom to create a film that was not influenced by outside forces. Yet by adhering to small budgets and limited 6 Kolker. Film Form and Culture, Kolker. Film Form and Culture, Russ Alsobrook. Machines that Made the Movies: Part 4: Chronicling the history of the motion picture camera [ Accessed 25 March

6 production times, the new wavers created the independent film market, which still thrives today. Taking the auteur theory and putting theory into practice this group of film critics would begin making films of their own. The French new wave (La Nouvelle Vague) identifies a movement in film from that features a group of French film makers who challenged the typical mold of film making and tried new techniques to accomplish different looking productions that had a personal touch. The French new wave film movement gained recognition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959 with The 400 Blows directed by François Truffaut winning best director award and Alain Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour which received the Fipresci Award and Film Writers Award at Cannes in Also, the year 1959 is when Jean-Luc Godard would begin shooting A Bout de Souffle (Breathless) a film some would call the benchmark for French new wave cinema to come. A large influence on the French new wave is the idea of existentialism that stresses the individual, the experience of free choice, the absence of any rational understanding of the universe and a sense of the absurdity in human life. The French new wave was a revolutionary movement that represented the youth of France a t the time of a pivotal point in French history. The artists involved in the new wave saw the existing mainstream entertainment industry as a sham and believed that true realism was the way to escape from the oppression of commercial media. The studio system of Hollywood was influencing how French Films were made at this time resulting in a poor representation of French ability and culture according to the new wavers. The new wave pioneers saw much of the bad Hollywood influence on French film of the time, and seeing that poor quality art did not follow the tradition of French works, so they decided to speak out. The new wave films had a realistic look to them due to the location shooting and natural lighting situations. Divulging against Hollywood style existing lighting was preferred over studio lighting and available sound was 9 FilmsdeFrance.com. The Best of La Nouvelle Vague (Online) [ Accessed 27 March Jean Douchet. The French New Wave. (France: D.A.P./Éditions Hazan. 1999)

7 preferred to studio dubbing. This film movement explored the quoting and destroying of genre, invention of an Essay movie, rejecting traditional montage and mise-en-scene but introducing collage type, experimental use of camera and sound system together and countless other attempts to just be different than any other form of film in history. Godard and His Contribution to the New Wave Jean-Luc Godard was born on December 3, 1930 in Paris, France. Godard was the second born child of four siblings to a bourgeoisie Swiss family. His father was a doctor that owned his own clinic and his mother came from a family of affluent Swiss bankers. During World War II Godard was sent to Nyon, Switzerland to receive his primary education where he later became a naturalized Swiss citizen. After his parents divorce in 1949 Godard returned to Paris to study ethnology at Sorbonne University. This is were Godard s interest in cinema would developed with him becoming a member of the Cine-Club du Quartier Latin, where he would first meet fellow film enthusiasts Francois Truffaut and Jacques Rivette. In May 1950, these three would unite to publish La Gazette du Cinema, a monthly film journal which ran through November releasing five issues. This publication would be where Godard would write his first critical pieces, which appeared both under his own name and under the German inspired name Hans Lucas. In 1951 Godard traveled in North and South America with his father. In January 1952, Godard began writing for Cahiers du Cinema, a film review publication that was influential in the development of the French new wave. The writers for the magazine included Truffaut and Rivette as well as the edition of Eric Rohmer, and Claude Chabrol, among others. Godard s initial involvement with Cahiers du Cinema would be brief with Godard returning to Switzerland in 1954 to work as a labourer on the Grande-Dixence dam project. The year 1954 also marked the tragic death of Godard s mother in an automobile accident Jean Collet. Jean-Luc Godard, An Investigation into his Films and Philosophy. (New York: Crown Publishers Inc., 1963.)

8 With his earnings from working on the dam, Godard was able to buy his first camera and shoot a documentary on the building of the dam. The documentary named Operation Beton (Operation Concrete) was Godard s first project and the film was later sold to the company building the dam. Godard returned to France in the summer of 1955 resuming his writing for Cahiers du Cinema. While working for the magazine Godard would build a reputation as a highly acclaimed sometimes brutal critic. Also during 1955 Godard would return to Geneva to direct a short film titled Une Femme Coquette. This ten-minute short film involves a woman writing a letter to a friend explaining how she has betrayed her husband. The woman observes the actions of prostitutes to learn the art of seduction and eventually seduces a man in a public park. In 1956 Godard continues to write for Cashiers du Cinema and collaborates on films with Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette. In 1956 Godard s first articles are published in Arts magazine. In 1958 Godard would direct Tous Les Garcons (All Boys are Called Patrick). In this twenty-one minute short film a boy named Patrick meets a woman named Veronique, after talking they make a date for a later day. As Patrick leaves he meets another woman named Charlotte. Coincidently, Charlotte and Veronique know each other and begin talking about their encounters with the same man without knowing it. The film ends with the two women seeing Patrick kissing a third woman on the street. In 1958 Godard directed another short entitled Charlotte et son Jules. This film was shot in Godard s hotel room in the Rue de Rennes in Paris. The film is twentyminutes in length and involves a woman named Charlotte returning to her old boyfriends apartment in her new boyfriends sports car. The old boyfriend, played by Jean-Paul Belmondo, tries to convince Charlotte he still loves her not letting her get a word in edgewise. When he is finished talking Charlotte says I came back to get my toothbrush 12 and walks out of the room. Also in 1958 Godard finished a project originally started by Francois Truffaut titled Une Histoire D Eau. The rough footage was originally shot by Truffaut but Godard assembled the finished product. This short film lasting eighteen-minutes follows a 12 Collet. Jean-Luc Godard

9 woman who hitchhikes to Paris from her flooded suburban home. The hitchhiker and the guy who picks her up end up becoming involved. This film was shot during flash floods of 1958 in Southern France. The year 1959 would prove to be the most influential in Godard s career with work beginning on his first full-length feature A Bout de Souffle (Breathless). This film was released in 1960 roughly the same time as Truffaut's Les Quatre Cents Coups and Alain Resnais Hiroshima Mon Amour. Breathless gained popularity globally as well as locally with 250,000 people viewing Breathless in Paris alone. Breathless was regarded as the benchmark of its era and would inspire many films to be made during the new wave movement. Breathless is based on a three page synopsis developed by Francois Truffaut. The film follows Michel Poiccard on the run from police after killing a police officer while being pursed for speeding along the Paris countryside. Poiccard returns to Paris to collect money owed to him and tracks down an American Girl he knows named Patricia. The film explores their alternative relationship while Michel is being pursued by the police. The film was shot without a script on location in Marseille and Paris. Shooting of the film was accomplished in just four weeks between August 17 and September 15, This film would make Godard one of most talked about directors in history. In 1960, he returned with his second feature, a political thriller titled Le Petit Soldat (The Little Soldier). This film involves a secret agent working out of Geneva who becomes involved with a woman who is on the other side of the war working with the Algerian liberation movement (FLN). They both end up getting captured and tortured by their opposing organizations. The first of many films to star his soon to be wife Anna Karina with whom he would marry on March 3, 1961 in Switzerland. Le Petit Soldat became the subject of controversy over its characters' connection to the Algerian crisis and was banned in France for over two years finally being released in Paris January 25, Shooting for the first time in colour and in CinemaScope, Godard next filmed 1961's comic tale Une Femme Est une Femme (A Woman Is a Woman). A Woman Is a Woman revolves around a love triangle that involves a man (Emile), his best friend 8

10 (Alfred) and his wife. The wife, Angela, wants to have a baby as soon as possible but her husband Emile does not. His best friend Alfred would very much like to sleep with Angela and she uses this against Emile to make him jealous. This film stared Jean-Paul Belmondo as well as Anna Karina. The second film by Godard in 1961 was La Paresse, a sketch in Les Sept Peches Capitaux (Sloth, in Seven Capital Sins). La Paresse watches as a starlet tries to seduce a popular star but her charms go unnoticed. Vivre Se Vie was Godard first offering for 1962 along with a short film entitled Le Nouveau Monde, a sketch in Rogopag. Vivre Se Vie involves a girl who works in a record shop that is unable to pay her rent owed to the landlady and she is evicted. In desperation she resorts to prostitution meeting a pimp who takes her under his wing. The woman ends up dieing tragically in the street a common occurrence in Jean-Luc Godard s new wave period. Le Nouveau Monde, a sketch in Rogopag a twenty-minute sketch that looks at the changes in a relationship when an atomic explosion occurs above Paris. The man notices his lover has lost all human sentiment and moral sensibility. He realizes how much the world has changed and tries to document this. The year 1963 was a busy one for Godard with him filming two full length features and a short sketch. The first project Les Carabiniers (The Riflemen) tells the story of two farmers who must go fight in a war for their King. The war is successful but when they return they learn the King has signed a peace treaty with the enemy. Enraged with this the men are sent to the firing squad for their excessive zeal. This film was first of Godard to receive a thrashing from critics due to the odd nature of the film. The second feature this year was Le Mepris (Contempt) starring Brigitte Bardot who was very popular at this time. This film is set in Rome with a screen writer asked to adapt some material for a film being produced by a rich American Producer that is directed by the famous German director Fritz Lang. The screen writer s (Paul Javal) beautiful wife played by Bardot loses respect for her him because of the choices he makes concerning his career that challenge his artistic integrity. She is not in love with him anymore and is unfaithful getting together with the American movie producer. Bardot and 9

11 the producer end up running off together only to later die in a car crash. This was one of Godard s more popular films because of the commercial appeal of Brigitte Bardot. The paparazzi would hide out on the set of Contempt to try and shoot photographs of her. This film also challenged the artistic integrity of Godard because of scenes that were asked to be added of Bardot nude. The producers felt the nudity would ensure a return on investment for the project. When Godard was questioned about this he insisted that he agreed with the changes and was satisfied with the final result 13. The sketch titled Le Grand Escroc is twenty-five minutes in length and follows an American TV reporter to Morocco where she interviews a money counterfeiter. The counterfeiter ends up making the illegitimate notes for charitable purposes. The first film for 1964 was short titled Montparnasse-Levallois (Six in Paris) that is eighteen-minutes long. The main character Monica sends letters to two men. She thinks that she may have sent the letters to the wrong recipients and problems occur from there. The second feature in 1964 would be Bande a Part (Band of Outsiders) a story that involves Franz and Arthur who plan to hold up a villa where their girlfriend Odile is staying. The amount they expected to steal is less than anticipated and Arthur gets killed in the process. Franz and Odile escape to warmer climates. The third feature was Une Femme Mariee (A Married Woman). This film was originally titled The Married Woman and Godard was forced to change the title by the French censors by making the title anonymous by using A instead of the more specific The. The film involves a woman who was with her lover and husband in the same day. Later she finds out she is pregnant and is not sure who the father is. Two features came from Godard in 1965 with the first being Alphaville, Une Etrange Aventure de Lemmy Caution (Alphaville, A Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution). This film was a science fiction effort by Gordard with Lemmy Caution a secret agent that is sent to destroy Alphaville from the Exterior Countries. Lemmy destroys Alphaville and saves the girl he is smitten with by teaching her the words forbidden in Alphaville I love you. The third installment 13 Jacques Rozier. Bardot et Godard. (France, 1963.) 10

12 for 1965 was Pierrot Le Fou (Pierrot Gone Wild) that follows Ferdinand (Jean- Paul Belmondo) as he leaves his wife to elope with Marianne (Anna Karina), a babysitter with whom he had an affair five years before. Marianne has a dark past associated with a band of criminals who eventually pursue Ferdinand and Marianne. They end up living in reprieve on a deserted island on the Mediterranean seacoast. Ferdinand is happy reading and writing poetry but Marianne grows restless want to meet up with her gun running brother. Marianne betrays Ferdinand and in the end they both die in tragedy. In 1966 Godard would shoot no less then three features. The first being Masculin-Feminin where Paul is a soldier returning home during Presidential Elections. He is in love with a woman named Madeleine who has a promising singing career ahead of her. Paul is seeking tenderness but he ends up finding despair instead. The second feature is entitled Made in USA where Richard Politzer is the editor in chief of a large weekly newspaper. Richard is murdered and his death seems quite suspicious. The girl that is in love with Richard plays the detective game to uncover the story behind the murder of Richard. What she uncovers is a tangled web involving police officers and criminals alike. The third feature shot in 1967 would be Deux ou Trois Choses Que Je Sais D Elle (Two or Three Things I Know About Her). Elle or Her refers to the Paris region in August 1966 where a housewife named Juliette Jeanson turns to prostitution to provide herself with consumer products her husband cannot provide for her. The film follows twenty-four hours in the life of Juliette tracking her around the notorious Sarcelles housing estate where she lives. Godard shot a sketch during 1966 titled Le plus vieux métier du monde (Anticipation, or The Year 2000) that showcases Godard, Philippe de Broca, Claude Autant Lara, and three other directors who offer short films about the world's oldest profession, prostitution marks the year Godard s underlying political themes become more apparent and the romantic situations synonymous with his new wave films begins to erode. His first feature of 1967 was Loin Du Viet-Nam (Far From Vietnam) a Directors' collective consisting of Alain Resnais, Jean-Luc Godard, William Klein, Claude Lelouch, Agnes Varda and Joris Ivens; with the collaboration of Chris 11

13 Marker, Michel Ray, Roger Pic and Marceline Loridan. This film looks at commentary from differing perspectives on the Vietnam War and offers a statement of protest against the aggressions led by the United States. The second feature for 1967 would be La Chinoise a film that looks at five young people of different backgrounds try to live Marxism-Lennism 14. In August of 1967 Godard would marry his second wife Anne Wiazemsky. The last feature for 1967 would be Week-End (Weekend). This surreal experience follows a middleclass couple as they depart on a weekend trip only to get stuck in a horrific traffic jam. After escaping the traffic jam they are swamped by civil war revolutionists, cannibalism and killing. The hypocrisy of Bourgeoisie society through the weekend trip of this Parisian middle-class couple is apparent with Godard trying to covey the message of his discontent with Bourgeoisie society. Beginning in 1968, Godard's so-called radical period emerged and took form during an era when the political leanings below the surface of many of his earlier works began to position themselves as the director's dominant focus. Godard s Style Paris is Godard s city and the mise-en-scène of Parisian streets and coffee bars are where his characters exist. Godard s films of the French new wave deal mainly with characters that live cut-off from the world and exist on the fringe of society as a counter culture. They are gangsters, prostitutes, foreigners and students who lived outside of the bourgeois society. His characters seem to have no family and are not concerned about family issues. The main theme in his films is the impossibility of love and the impossibility of it lasting. There is always a victim because the couples are never even in strength. The weak character can not be characterized as a man or a woman because both men and women become the victim of the dominant character. Innovative use of the new hand-held cameras is evident in Godard s work of the new wave period. The camera was often portable, with a great deal of smooth panning and tracking. Often only one camera was used, in highly 14 Collet. Jean-Luc Godard

14 innovative ways; following characters down streets, into cafes and bars, or looking over their shoulders to watch life go by. In Breathless, the cinematographer Raoul Coutard, who worked on many of the French new wave films, was pushed around in a wheelchair following the characters down the street and into buildings 15. Godard strived to present an alternative to Hollywood, by consciously breaking its conventions, while at the same time paying reverence to what he regarded as skillful in Hollywood cinema. Godard's Breathless set the tone for the French new wave by telling a simple story about a relationship in a convention-challenging style with numerous references to previous cinema such as Michel s lip rubbing in Breathless, a characteristic of Bogart s persona in American films. In addition to telling a love story, the film can also be seen as an essay about film-making. Long takes were common, for example, the street scene in Breathless. The films tended to have loosely constructed scenarios, with many unpredictable elements and sudden shifts in tone, often giving the audience the impression that anything might happen next. A factor contributing to this element was Godard encouraged the actors to improvise and feed off of each other personalities to build on the chemistry developed by the players. In Breathless this leads to lengthy scenes of inconsequential dialogue, in opposition to the staged speeches of much traditional film acting. Godard s films of this period were also distinctive for having open endings, with situations being left unresolved much like the real-world. Another convention was the use of jump cuts in Breathless that would have never been allowed in a traditional continuity editing style. French new wave cinema was a personal cinema. The film -makers were writers who were skilful at examining relationships and telling humane stories that were realistic. The French new wave directors were prolific film-makers. The five Cahiers directors (Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Rivette and Rohmer) made thirty-two films between 1959 and 1966 with Godard contributing fifteen features to this total. 15 Jean Douchet. The French New Wave. (France: D.A.P./Éditions Hazan. 1999)

15 Bibliography Alsobrook, Russ. Machines that Made the Movies: Part 4: Chronicling the history of the motion picture camera [ s4.htm] Accessed 25 March Anonymous. Freedom and Power in the French New wave Jean Luc Godard's Breathless (Online) [ Accessed 25 March Collet, Jean. Jean Luc Godard, An Investigation into his Films and Philosophy. New York: Crown Publishers Inc., Douchet, Jean. The French New Wave. France: D.A.P./Éditions Hazan FilmsdeFrance.com. The Best of La Nouvelle Vague (Online) [ Accessed 27 March Kline, Jefferson. Screening the Text. Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press Ltd., Kolker, Robert. Film, form, and Culture Second Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, Landay, Lori MA101B: History & Analysis of Media Arts (Online) [ Accessed 10 March Needham, Coal. The Internet Movie Database (Online) [ Accessed 10 March

16 Nottingham, Stephen. The French New Wave (Online) [ m] Accessed 25 March Roud, Richard. Jean-Luc Gordard. London: Indiana University Press, Sanford, Matthew. Biography of Jean-Luc Godard (Online) [ Accessed 20 March Taylor, Chris. Jean- Luc Godard (Online) [ Accessed 25 March

17 Filmography Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Opération Béton. Switzerland, 1954 Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Une femme coquette. France, 1955 Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Charlotte et Véronique ou Tous les garçons s'appellent. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Charlotte et son Jules. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. co-dir.truffaut. Une histoire d'eau. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. A Bout de Souffle (Breathless). France, 1959 Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Le petit soldat. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Une femme est une femme. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Les sept péchés capitaux. France, "La Paresse" épisode. Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Vivre sa vie. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Les carabiniers. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Le mépris. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. RoGoPag. France, 1963 "Le nouveau monde" épisode Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Les plus belles escroqueries du monde. France, "Le Grand Escroc" épisode. Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Bande à part. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Une femme mariée. France,

18 Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Paris vu par. France, "Montparnasse - Levallois" épisode. Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Pierrot le fou. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Made in USA. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Masculin feminin 15 faits precis. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. La Chinoise ou plutôt à la Chinoise. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Le plus vieux métier du monde. France, "Anticipation" épisode Godard, Jean-Luc, dir. Week-end. France, Godard, Jean-Luc, Co-Director. Loin du Vietnam. France, Rozier, Jacques. Bardot et Godard. France,