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A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order Jean-Luc Godard Cover image: Le Petit Soldat
THE WORD of Godard Scheduled to give a lecture at the BFI in 1968, Jean-Luc Godard never showed up. Instead came a telegram A second telegram arrived on the morning of the planned lecture. It read: WILL NOT COME TOMORROW MOVIES HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH CIGARETTES AND REALITY WITH SMOKE YOUR UNKNOWN GODARD
Godard s Anna Karina The 19-year-old Danish model had rejected a role in À bout de souffle because she refused to appear naked, but when Godard sent a telegram with the words MADEMOISELLE, THIS TIME IT S FOR THE PRINCIPAL ROLE the two were soon inseparable, and went on to marry. Brigitte Bardot The beautiful Bardot may not so much be a muse for Godard as the embodiment of his flirtation with bigbudget, star-driven filmmaking. When he cast her in Le Mépris he had to shoot a new bedroom scene for the opening after the film s producers screamed at him for making a film starring Bardot without one nude shot! Le Mépris Au hasard balthazar Anne Wiazemsky Godard met the 18-year-old philosophy student on the set of Robert Bresson s Au hasard balthazar. When she introduced him to the radical students on her university campus at Nanterre his political outlook changed. She featured in many Godard films and married him in 1967. Anne-Marie Miéville Godard met the Swiss photographer in the early 70s. She encouraged his experimentation and nudged him towards working in video and TV. She s been his companion and collaborator ever since.
On set of À bout de souffle Godard s PARIS Raoul Coutard s restless camera prowled the streets around the Champs Elysées and St Germain (occasionally from a wheelchair or postal cart) for 1960 s À bout de souffle a film that became the epitome of Rive Gauche cool. Godard literally allows the city to seep into the story in 1962 s Vivre sa vie, with certain lines lost in the din of a café or passing truck as we follow Anna Karina into the cinemas, coffee bars and neon-lit pool halls of Paris. 2 or 3 Things I know About Her The her in the title of 1966 s 2 or 3 Things I know About Her refers to the Paris region, states Godard. It s not so much a love letter to Paris as a warning against cold consumerism as we re shown building sites, a new motorway, an unfinished bridge, a rising towerblock, a cement truck, containers on a river Secret agent Lemmy Caution travels across space (in a Ford Galaxie, no less) to the bleak futuristic city of Alphaville; a quirkily photographed 60 s Paris, where the Electricity Board building doubles as the ominous Computer Centre. Alphaville
Making (New) Jean-Luc Godard WAVES His daredevil experimentation made Godard a cinematic pioneer and leading light of the nouvelle vague. Here are some of his most iconic creations That persona Godard the auteur is rarely seen without his trademark tortoiseshellrimmed shades.
That bad boy You know Jean-Paul Belmondo (Godard s go-to-guy for gangster cool) means business when his thumb touches his lip. That face The famous scene in Vivre sa vie, where Anna Karina watches The Passion of Joan of Arc in a movie theatre. That dance Godard dubbed the music to this iconic Madison dance; the original track was John Lee Hooker s Shake it Baby. Goodbye to Language 1 2 À bout de souffle Bande à part 3 FROM THE NEW WAVE TO 3D Godard He didn t make TV episodes, he made movements He frequently narrated his work or interviewed big-thinkers and filmmaking peers His film essays or letters covered everything from childhood to Jane Fonda didn t just push the boundaries of cinema he set up camp in the hinterland! Here are five reasons we love him for it 4 5 He often layered images, sounds and text, sometimes writing on the screen with a video pen (long before VJing became a thing ) He was 83 when he shot his latest critically-acclaimed feature, in 3D (Goodbye to Language) Letter to Jane
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