jean luc godard

[asuzano]

anyone a fan? any personal favorites? i think alphaville is my favorite, closely followed by pierrot le fou....and damn anna karina is beautiful.

[white_giraffe]

love him. my top 3 are: 1. bande a part, 2. pierrot le fou, 3. une femme est une femme.

anna karina is hot, but jean-paul belmondo is hotter

[designersheep]

Yes I'm a huge fan. Good to see a fellow fan here

My avatar is from Godard's Masculin Feminin promotion still.

I love both Alphaville and Pierrot Le Fou. What else have you seen? I really enjoyed most of his earlier works, such as Breathless and Weekend. Contempt and My Life to Live were good too.

I'll come back for detailed discussions after getting something to eat

[evisu 2000]

my personal favorite is bande a part... the dance scene is one of my favorite scenes ever (along with the billy the kid scene). love most of his films though. seriously i wonder what truffaut's films would have been like if he didn't turn conventional.

[Oldboy]

My personal favorites are À bout de souffle, Bande à part, and Masculin, féminin. À bout de souffle, in my opionion, is the most innovative and influential film of the last 50 years.

[Fuuma]

Letter to Jane is excellent is you want to watch a cinematic essay, something that Marker seems to do exceedingly well too. I'd say you can watch any Godards film and get something out of it, as he's always intellectually ambitious and challenging, even in his worst failures. If you enjoy his more experimental/essay-like films you might also like Chantal Akerman.

[denimdestroyedmylife]

fuckin love godard. where to start?!

sympathy for the devil is a high point for me as i am also a big stones fan.

i haven't yet seen a godard film i did not like.

[designersheep]

Fuuma where did you see Letter to Jane? Have you watched this DVD (+book)? Four short cinematic essays by Godard and Anne Marie Mieville. Highly recommended.

http://xploitedcinema.com/catalog/jeanluc-godard-annemarie-miÉville-four-short-films-book-p-10888.html

Also, could you recommend me a good entry point for Chantal Akerman? I haven't seen any of her work.

ddml damn I gotta watch sympathy for the devil. My local video store recently got its DVD in

[implicit]

i'm way into godard. masculin, féminin and alphaville are my favorites. he's a stylish fuck too.

[girlwonder]

Haha, I'm currently doing a module on JLG for my degree. We're studying Histoire(s) du Cinema, but I've watched A bout de souffle, Vivre sa vie, Alphaville, Passion, Sympathy for the devil, Pierrot le fou, Le Mepris.. I've lost count.

[Fuuma]

Fuuma where did you see Letter to Jane? Have you watched this DVD (+book)? Four short cinematic essays by Godard and Anne Marie Mieville. Highly recommended.

http://xploitedcinema.com/catalog/jeanluc-godard-annemarie-miÉville-four-short-films-book-p-10888.html

Also, could you recommend me a good entry point for Chantal Akerman? I haven't seen any of her work.

ddml damn I gotta watch sympathy for the devil. My local video store recently got its DVD in

I saw letter to Jane as an extra on the Tout va bien Criterion (hence R1) DVD. I don't buy into the cult of Criterion but this one was a stellar release, having an extra that is pretty much as interesting as the main feature. The interviews with Godard and Gorin are relatively enlightening too.

The film+book thing sounds pretty nice!!

Akerman: I'm definitely no expert, I haven't even seen her seminal work (Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles). I had the pleasure of being present when Chantal Akerman presented her latest opus, Là bas, as a double feature with her first short, Saute ma ville, I guess this could be a good intro to the director, even though it wasn't mine. You're probably going to have to watch crappy VHS at your local repertoire cineclub or something as most of her movies aren't available in DVD....

[sean_]

vivre sa vie is the only one of his films ive seen, but i thoroughly enjoyed it

its just tought to track this stuff down without downloading/paying a lot, so i dont know what to do

[designersheep]

Thanks for the comment Fuuma. I'll have to check out Tout va bien Crietion DVD, which I never bothered to because I am not a big fan of Tout va bien and his Dziga Vertov (sp?) political period works I've seen so far.

Btw, who are you referring to when you say cult of Criterion? because I think I could be one haha. I don't own many of their DVDs (only about 30 out of... 400?), and I only own that much because I don't necessarily like the rest of the films they released enough to buy them; but I think they are still the best (along with MK2, MoC, and SecondRun) at releasing rarely seen films with great transfers, which otherwise wouldn't have let me watch them . Also, I think they are releasing Berlin Alexanderplatz by R.W. Fassbinder in the near future... which makes me drool like a madman.

Oh, and I'll definitely check out Akerman, but it will be a challenge to find some VHS's around here

sean if you live in US go netflix and rent some of his earlier films like Breathless, Bande a part, and Pierrot Le Fou. I think all those are available.

[asuzano]

Yes I'm a huge fan. Good to see a fellow fan here

My avatar is from Godard's Masculin Feminin promotion still.

I love both Alphaville and Pierrot Le Fou. What else have you seen? I really enjoyed most of his earlier works, such as Breathless and Weekend. Contempt and My Life to Live were good too.

I'll come back for detailed discussions after getting something to eat

i've seen breathless, le petit soldat, a woman is a woman, my life to live, les carabiniers, alphaville, pierrot le fou, and weekend. while i agree that breathless is an excellent movie, the content of pierrot le fou puts it over the top for me. the overtones about vietnam/algeria and the accompanying philosophical elements make for a beautifully done, important film. i too have never seen a godard i did not like, and even something closer to mainstream film making, a woman is a woman, managed to feel entirely unconventional and meaningful.

[white_giraffe]

i've only watched part of one chantal akerman film. wasn't all that interested, but maybe i needed to watch all of it. had to watch it in a film class cuz the prof was the cinematographer, bah.

[Fuuma]

Thanks for the comment Fuuma. I'll have to check out Tout va bien Crietion DVD, which I never bothered to because I am not a big fan of Tout va bien and his Dziga Vertov (sp?) political period works I've seen so far.

Btw, who are you referring to when you say cult of Criterion? because I think I could be one haha. I don't own many of their DVDs (only about 30 out of... 400?), and I only own that much because I don't necessarily like the rest of the films they released enough to buy them; but I think they are still the best (along with MK2, MoC, and SecondRun) at releasing rarely seen films with great transfers, which otherwise wouldn't have let me watch them . Also, I think they are releasing Berlin Alexanderplatz by R.W. Fassbinder in the near future... which makes me drool like a madman.

Oh, and I'll definitely check out Akerman, but it will be a challenge to find some VHS's around here

sean if you live in US go netflix and rent some of his earlier films like Breathless, Bande a part, and Pierrot Le Fou. I think all those are available.

I think his political period films are interesting when you place them in the context in which they were made, but I do agree they don’t have the carefree spirit of his earlier work.

I call the “cult of criterion†those cinema fans for which Criterion can do no wrong (some of their transfers and re-sizing are frankly bad, although a significant portion are excellent) and who get their taste railroaded by the company and end up all watching the same movies. There’s a prodigiously rich movie world out there and, while Criterion did release some gems, it would be a shame to have your viewing habits dictated by only one source, no matter the quality of their catalogue.

BTW: I’m also quite happy about the Berlin Alexanderplatz release.

[designersheep]

^

Sorry, I've made myself sound like I've watched a lot of his films from that period, but I only saw La Chinoise and Tout va Bien from Godard's political works (and La Chinoise was made before he formed the Dziga Vertov group, I think). So I am being quick to judge, but yes from those two works I feel like he is sacrificing his art in order to get the message across. He does remain cinematically creative, but there is no subtlety (which wasn't his thing anyway) in presentation.

On Criterion:

Ah, yes I do know some people who would bother to collect the entire Criterion collection. Some of them wouldn't even open the wraps on their DVDs, which I think is kinda ridiculous; but many of them are collecting for the sake of collecting, so I wouldn't really care.

asuzano

Ah, you've seen most of the popular ones. I would also recommend bande a part, two or three things I know about her, maculine feminin, contempt, and a couple from his later works slow motion and notre musique.

[designersheep]

X5_SywarnpE

I've just found and watched this film essay by Godard on youtube. Not sure whether this is the complete version, but can anyone identify this work?

[Fuuma]

X5_SywarnpE

I've just found and watched this film essay by Godard on youtube. Not sure whether this is the complete version, but can anyone identify this work?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318742/

It's the Godard segment of this collaborative work.

[kiya]

Alphaville and Sympathy are my favorites..

I've got this really cool vintage Alphaville poster in my house.. i've gotta take a photo and post it..

[wodnerduck]

alphaville was blade runner before blade runner - man is a genius

[designersheep]

^

Yeah, but if he really was a fan, he should've experimented more

Fuuma, thanks for the info.

I've recently found this clip (+ series of clips from the same user) from YouTube. It's Godard's rare 1970 film See You at Mao.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt1ARBahJH4

[masuerte]

I love goddard as well... A bout de suffle is not on my "good movies" list, but it's super interesting to watch and there's alot going on to talk and learn about goddard there (being one of his first movies). It's weird... as a movie I recognize it sucks, but damn is it enjoyable to watch.

Here's what's displayed on myspace:

V3dIyOMysCkp

[the_state]

i've only seen bande a part and breathless, but they're both incredible. I can't really wax intellectual about flim, but godard's style and form seem legendary to me. god bless the french.