We arrived quite late to the well-deserved What to see of Jean-Luc Godard (mea culpa), who passed away a couple of weeks ago at the age of 91. But it had to be done, even though summing up the prolific, complex and multifaceted career of the essential French filmmaker in three films is practically a kamikaze task. Just from his beginnings in criticism with Cahiers Du Cinema there is more artistic history than there is in the lives of most. Godard was not just a thing.
There are transgressive films, defining for the history of cinema. There are also films that have earned (deservedly) parody ratings for auteur cinema. All of these were Godard, who if he had to be defined in only one thing would be as the eternal youth referred to by Richard Brody in his (essential) obituary. His work was “an eternal youth’s struggle for a place in the world and the chance to make it a little better than he found it.” These three films, without a doubt, succeeded.
‘Band apart’ (‘Bande à part’, 1964)
Address: Jean-Luc Godard. Distribution: Anna Karina, Claude Brasseur, Sami Frey, Louisa Colpeyn, Chantal Darget.
Reviled and even ridiculed by himself as more people began to appreciate it, including a Quentin Tarantino who used his name for his production company. That I speak here of his worst film shows two things: 1) That Gordard was fascinating when talking about cinema, but sometimes they wanted to smack him clean. and 2) what sometimes the authors themselves do not have the slightest perspective on their own work.
The fact is that this gem cannot be anyone’s worst movie. A perfect blend of comedy, crime thriller and the avant-garde ambitions of the Nouvelle vague, which perfectly captures a youthful radiance that Godard understood quite well. Cool, expressive and very reflective about the influence of cinema and culture, with dance scenes capable of condensing all that and having a beauty worthy of being exhibited in a museum.
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‘Lemmy contra Alphaville’ (‘Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution’, 1965)
Address: Jean-Luc Godard. Distribution: Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim Tamiroff, Valérie Boisgel, Jean-Louis Comolli.
Anticipating the influential dystopian science fiction of ‘Blade Runner’, Godard offered an incredible combination of futuristic cinema with a neo-noir thriller, which achieved a perfect setting despite not having a large budget thanks to its rebellious and imaginative use of images. . His analytical eye saw perfectly how to use industrial machinery to shape a bleak, mechanical future.
We can establish it as the essential bridge between the work of Ridley Scott and the genre cinema of the German expressionists or silent cinema. His amalgamation of tones is masterful, and it manages to have you completely trapped even with an enigmatic voice that seems to speak in a burp. If that isn’t having movie magic constantly twinkling at your fingertips, I don’t know what is.
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‘Pierrot the madman’ (‘Pierrot le fou’, 1965)
Address: Jean-Luc Godard. Distribution: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Dirk Sanders, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Raymond Devos.
Not content with deconstructing the future and cinematic science fiction, he still had time that same year to turn ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ on its head before it was brought to life on screen by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Romantic drama and escapaderoad trip cinema, dangerous gangsters, explosive action, and the thoughtful irreverence of the nouvelle vague.
But it also transcends for the two of them. Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina do one of those couples ideal for a screenMaybe not so much in real life. Both offer their most captivating and extraordinary works to provide the necessary anchor so that Godard does not get lost in the clouds of so much free flight. A seductive and dangerous game that is difficult to resist.
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