Home > Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard (born December 3, 1930) was one of the most influential members of the nouvelle vague.Born in Paris to Franco-Swiss parents, he was educated in Lyon and at the Lycée Rohmer and the Sorbonne in Paris. While at the Sorbonne he became involved in a Paris film club and became attached to a group including François Truffaut, Jacques Rivette, and Eric Rohmer . When André Bazin founded his critical magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 1951, Godard with Rivette and Rohmer were among the first writers.
1 Early films
Like many writers for Cahiers du cinéma, Godard started making some brief forays into film direction. His first film was a documentary, Opération béton ( 1954). In 1958, he shot Charlotte et son Jules (released in 1960) and Une histoire d'eau (released in 1961), the first was a homage to Jean Cocteau the second to Mack SennettMichael (or Micheal) Sinnott ( January 17, 1880 November 5, 1960), better known as Mack Sennett was an innovator of slapstick comedy in film. Profile Born in Richmond, Quebec, Sennett was a son of Irish immigrants. His father was a blacksmith. Sennett was. He continued his critical writing however and became one of the key proponents of the nouvelle vague or New Wave.
His first major work was À bout de souffle ( 1960), starring Jean-Paul BelmondoJean-Paul Belmondo (born April 9, 1933) is a French actor, born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. His breakthrough role was in Jean-Luc Godard's A bout de souffle (aka Breathless ( 1960), which made him a major figure in the French New Wave. and Jean SebergJean Seberg ( November 13, 1938 September 8, 1979) was an American actress born in Marshalltown, Iowa, USA who spent an important part of her career in France. She was discovered by Otto Preminger, who directed her in her first two motion pictures. She wo. It was a success both critically and with audiences in FranceThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. and internationally, and became a key film of the New Wave styles — American cinema influences, harsh editing, and a real pleasure in film-making. His next success was Vivre sa vie ( 1962Events January January 1 Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand January 3 Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro January 4 New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board January 8 Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is e). The following year he made the marvellous failure Les Carabiniers , a homage to Vigo.
In 1964, Godard and his wife Anna Karina (married in 1961) formed a production company, Anouchka Films. In 1965, Godard directed Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution and Pierrot le Fou . At the end of that year he and Anna Karina divorced.
2 Godard and politics
Politics have never been far from the surface in Godard's films. One of his earliest features, Le Petit Soldat, dealt with the Algerian war of independence, and was notable for its attempt to present the complexity of the dispute rather than pursue any specific ideological agenda. Godard's early career is characterised by the interspersing of such films with 'lighter' romantic films such as Une Femme est une Femmme; however, as the sixties progressed he began to merge the two genres — romantic and political — to produce films like Alphaville and Pierrot le Fou, masterpieces of alienation. Towards the end of the decade he began to move ever-closer to overtly political statements in his films, shooting Masculin, féminin ( 1966) and Made in U.S.A. ( 1966), amongst others. In 1967, he directed La Chinoise , marrying its star Anne Wiazemsky during filming.
Amid the upheavals of the late 1960s Godard became interested in Maoist ideology. He formed the socialist-idealist Dziga-Vertov cinema group with Jean-Pierre Gorin and produced a number of shorts outlining his politics. In that period he travelled extensively and shot a number of films, most of which remained unfinished or were refused showings, but the dazzling anti-consumerist Week End was released in 1967. His films became intensely politicized and experimental, a phase that lasted until 1980.
