Some completely missed the mark
Despite enjoying every privilege the world had to offer, Godard was never interested in formal education. After struggling to graduate from a prestigious Parisian high school, the young film fanatic enrolled at the University of Paris, ostensibly to pursue a degree in anthropology, but ended up spending all of his days and nights watching, reading about, and writing about movies.
Jean-Luc Godard was born on December 3, 1930, to a physician and a banker in Paris's affluent seventh arrondissement. As a young boy, Godard and his family moved to Switzerland, where they ended up staying until the end of World War II.
In 1951, Godard and other figures in the growing Parisian film scene, including Rohmer and Rivette, began writing for celebrated film theorist André Bazin's film magazine, 'Cahiers du Cinéma.' Throughout his time in Paris and Switzerland in the 1950s, Godard continued to write for 'Cahiers' and only casually dabble in filmmaking, while others around him started to make the serious leap from criticism to filmmaking.
Despite being a famously obsessive movie watcher, Godard wasn't born with the itch of filmmaking. In fact, he didn't care very much for filmmaking one way or the other until he chanced upon a copy of art theorist André Malraux's (pictured) essay, 'Outline of a Psychology of Cinema.' After being introduced to film on paper, Godard quickly became engrossed in the medium.
Swiss-French film director Jean-Luc Godard, face of the French New Wave, is inarguably one of the most important filmmakers to ever live, and arguably the most important. Throughout his career, which started in the late 1950s and spanned decades, rarely faltering in significance, the auteur threw away the rulebook of classical filmmaking and gave birth to modern cinema as we know it today. Along with other members of the French New Wave, Godard taught filmmakers how to experiment, how to become revolutionaries of the artform. Before Godard, films were generally made to imitate life as closely as possible, with the goal of audiences forgetting they were watching a film. After Godard, the filmmaking itself became the attraction.
At every turn, Godard wished to remind his viewers that they were watching a film, and that the calculated distance filmmaking creates with reality was in itself the source of film's artistic value. It is hard to think of an individual as central and as respected in the history of movie-making as Godard.
Jean-Luc Godard died peacefully in his home on September 13, 2022. In honor of his contributions to the world of film, let's look back on the fascinating life and times of this brilliant auteur.
Disheartened and fully out of the world of higher education, Godard moved back to Switzerland in 1952 where he lived with his mother and worked on a dam construction site. It was here that the prospect of filmmaking first occurred to Godard, and he was sure to film his first short piece, a 20-minute documentary called 'Operation Concrete' (1955) that chronicled the construction of the dam, before he left to return to Paris.
While not as iconic as Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and his brilliant and seminal 1959 film, 'The 400 Blows,' was one of the first films to truly usher in the new era of filmmaking that Godard would later come to represent. Truffaut won that year's Palme D'or at the Cannes Film Festival.
After seeing his colleagues from 'Cahiers' succeed so brilliantly in their transition from critics to filmmakers, Godard decided it was time to throw his own hat in the ring. According to legend, Godard stole the petty cash from the 'Cahiers du Cinéma' office and set off on his first serious venture in filmmaking.
Naturally, once Godard understood that anthropology was not the degree for him, he tried to enroll in the recently established IDHEC film school in Paris, but, likely due to his poor record in education, was summarily rejected.
The year 1960 saw the release of the first of Godard's many masterpieces, 'Breathless.' 'Breathless,' more than any film before it, spat in the face of convention, and actively broke nearly every rule in the book of classical filmmaking. The narrative loosely revolved around two petty criminals running from the law.
That same year, Alain Resnais released his beautiful, politically charged romance film 'Hiroshima, mon Amour' (1959), the wandering narrative and inventive camerawork of which directly influenced Godard's first feature film.
While today Godard is widely seen as the face of the French New Wave, he was far from its progenitor, and was lucky to find himself in the company of other, usually older, film fanatics, with whom he could talk and write about the movies. There were many individuals in Godard's circle who inspired him to take the director's chair seriously.
'Breathless' changed the world's view on cinema nearly overnight. Lauded by his contemporaries and alternately adored and detested by the old masters, Godard showcased techniques that were once considered amateur and were actively avoided; he filled the scenes, dialogue, and score with allusions to other pieces of art of all mediums; and he used an improvised, on-the-spot style of camerawork that was in fierce opposition to the still and calculated cinematography of the 1950s.
All of these characteristics and more would become synonymous with the Nouvelle Vague, or French New Wave. Godard and all those around him would turn cinema on its head, do away with convention, and create an on-screen community where everyone in the movement referenced each other, learned from each other, and would go down in history as one of the brightest moments in the history of film.
Since he was first drawn to movies, Godard's instinct was mainly to write about them, not make them. In 1950, alongside fellow cinephiles Éric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette, Godard produced five issues of their own criticism magazine, 'La Gazette du Cinéma.'
Godard, along with other legends like Rohmer, Truffaut, and Agnes Varda (pictured), introduced a new and liberating style of filmmaking into the world that defied the convention of making films feel like real life, and instead celebrated the art of filmmaking. French New Wave films strove to make sure the audience never forgot they were watching a film, through stylish and unconventional camera work, inconsistent continuity, and other techniques that were once seen as amateurish but quickly became revolutionary.
Godard's first love and muse was French actress Anna Karina. Karina's first acting job was in Godard's 'Le Petit Soldat' (1963). During the filming process in 1960, the two developed a relationship, and married in 1961. Karina appeared in eight of Godard's greatest films, and the two worked very closely together until their divorce in 1964. The eight films that the couple made together have been called "arguably the most influential body of work in the history of cinema," by Filmmaker Magazine.
Godard was also set apart by his aversion to controlled, calculated filmmaking. Very little details in Godard's scenes were ever decided until the day of filming. Cinematography was rarely pre-choreographed, with Godard leading the camera wherever felt right in the moment.
Like many artists throughout history, Jean-Luc Godard had his muses. The auteur's two most significant romantic relationships were inseparably intertwined with his creative visions.
Three years after Godard and Karina split, Godard married actress Anne Wiazemsky. Wiazemsky had first appeared in the old French master Robert Bresson's classic 'Au Hasard Balthazar' (1966), which Godard wrote an enthusiastically positive review for in 'Cahiers.' The two married in 1967 and worked collaboratively on films like 'La Chinoise' (1967) until Wiazemsky left Godard in 1979.
Many films of the French New Wave dealt with the filmmakers' distaste for modern European life, on the social, political, and artistic levels. While Godard's films of the early 1960s touched on issues of class and consumerism in a general sense, as time went on Godard's politics expressed themselves in much more ideologically focused ways.
The influence of Godard and the Nouvelle Vague is so great that some of their revolutionary techniques have become so commonplace, we don't even notice them anymore in modern film. One such technique is the jump cut. In a jump cut, the middle section of a long continuous shot is cut out, invoking a feeling of jumping forward in time. Before 'Breathless,' this was seen as nothing more than a rookie editing mistake, but Godard made it a powerful tool in storytelling.
Godard and other members of the French film community felt a renewed call to action following the general strikes and widespread protests of May 1968. Disappointed with society and themselves for not focusing on the social issues at hand, Godard and a group consisting of Truffaut, Louis Malle, and others, successfully shut down the 1968 Cannes Film Festival, claiming none of the films in competition adequately addressed the issues of the moment. "There are none," said Godard at a press conference. "We're behind the times."
Godard's scripts were no exception to his improvisational philosophy. For many of his films made throughout the 1960s, much to the dismay of his actors, Godard would write dialogue the same day of shooting, sometimes even during shooting, shouting out new lines to actors while the camera was rolling. This technique, which gave the actors very little time to settle into their roles, produced a unique and almost documentary atmosphere in Godard's early films.
A staunch member of the political left, Godard was an ardent anti-capitalist and has been labeled by some as a Marxist. Many of his anti-war, anti-colonialism, and anti-capitalist sentiments are expressed in his films, sometimes symbolically and sometimes directly, as was the case with 1967's 'La Chinoise,' a dialogue-heavy film that focuses on five French students belonging to a group of Maoist-Marxists.
The conversation about the literal, physical representation of non-white people on film, i.e. the capability of film to properly capture darker complexions, has ebbed and flowed over the years, but it can be said the conversation got started with the help of Godard. While filming a short film for the government of Mozambique, Godard became increasingly frustrated with Kodak film's inability to sufficiently capture the detail and complexity of darker-skinned individuals, calling the film "inherently racist." Godard was right; Kodak's "Shirley cards," color referencing cards used by both film users and developers to balance color contrast, only used light, "Caucasian" complexions all the way up until 1995.
While he continued to make films well into the 21st century, Godard slowly receded from the public spotlight, choosing instead to spend most of his time in his Rolle, Switzerland apartment.
Although he has left the world of the living, Jean-Luc Godard's influence on cinema is everlasting. The indelible mark that this French master has left on the medium has become so ingrained, his techniques so essential, that even if his name is forgotten, his style and ideas will be found in the films of today and tomorrow, and for innumerable years to come.
Sources: (Discover Walks) (Evening Standard) (Roger Ebert)
See also: Fantastic films made in France
Godard's late masterpiece, the sprawling, 266-minute-long non-fiction epic 'Histoire(s) du cinéma,' is one of the greatest pieces of art theory in history. In the project, Godard discusses the history of cinema as a concept, the story of filmmaking throughout the 20th century, and the future importance of filmmaking.
The only film that didn't feature Karina during their marriage was 1963's 'Contempt,' which instead featured French superstar Brigitte Bardot. While 'Contempt' is loosely based on an Italian novel, it was widely believed that the crumbling marriage of the protagonist was an expression of Godard's marital problems with Karina.
Fantastic facts about the father of modern cinema, Jean Luc-Godard
Jean-Luc Godard passed away on September 13, 2022
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Swiss-French film director Jean-Luc Godard, face of the French New Wave, is inarguably one of the most important filmmakers to ever live, and arguably the most important. Throughout his career, which started in the late 1950s and spanned decades, rarely faltering in significance, the auteur threw away the rulebook of classical filmmaking and gave birth to modern cinema as we know it today. Along with other members of the French New Wave, Godard taught filmmakers how to experiment, how to become revolutionaries of the artform. Before Godard, films were generally made to imitate life as closely as possible, with the goal of audiences forgetting they were watching a film. After Godard, the filmmaking itself became the attraction.
At every turn, Godard wished to remind his viewers that they were watching a film, and that the calculated distance filmmaking creates with reality was in itself the source of film's artistic value. It is hard to think of an individual as central and as respected in the history of movie-making as Godard.
Jean-Luc Godard died peacefully in his home on September 13, 2022. In honor of his contributions to the world of film, let's look back on the fascinating life and times of this brilliant auteur.