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February 26, 2019 (XXXVIII:5) Jean-Luc Godard: BREATHLESS/À BOUT DE SOUFFLE (1960, 90 Min.)

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February 26, 2019 (XXXVIII:5) Jean-Luc Godard: BREATHLESS/À BOUT DE SOUFFLE (1960, 90 Min.) February 26, 2019 (XXXVIII:5) Jean-Luc Godard: BREATHLESS/À BOUT DE SOUFFLE (1960, 90 min.) DIRECTED BY Jean-Luc Godard WRITING François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol (original scenario), Jean-Luc Godard (screenplay) PRODUCER Georges de Beauregard MUSIC Martial Solal CINEMATOGRAPHY Raoul Coutard FILM EDITING Cécile Decugis CAST Jean Seberg...Patricia Franchini Jean-Paul Belmondo...Michel Poiccard / Laszlo Kovacs Daniel Boulanger...Police Inspector Vital Henri-Jacques Huet...Antonio Berrutti Roger Hanin...Carl Zubart Van Doude...Himself Claude Mansard...Claudius Mansard play of shot-reverse shot' used in many Hollywood productions” Liliane Dreyfus...Liliane / Minouche (as Liliane David) (NewWaveFilm.com). In the article, Godard “praised the use of Michel Fabre...Police Inspector #2 shot-reverse shot as crucial to conveying a character’s mental Jean-Pierre Melville...Parvulesco the Writer point of view and their inner life.” In 1956, after returning to Jean-Luc Godard...The Snitch Paris from Switzerland and making his first two films, Godard Richard Balducci...Tolmatchoff returned to find that Cahiers du cinema, led by Francois Truffaut, André S. Labarthe...Journalist at Orly had become the leading film publication in France. Godard François Moreuil...Journalist at Orly would once again join the fray of French film enthusiasts championing the techniques of Hollywood auteurs like JEAN-LUC GODARD (b. December 3, 1930 in Paris, France) Hitchcock and Hawks, contributing articles “on some of his once said “All great fiction films tend toward documentary, just favorite auteurs such as Otto Preminger and Nicholas Ray” and as all great documentaries tend toward fiction.” Godard began his continuing “his theoretical debate with André Bazin” who film career with a short, which he directed, wrote, edited, acted “continued to commend the long take for its approximation to in, and did cinematography for. The 1955 film was entitled A physical reality.” Contra Bazin, “Godard praised editing for Flirtatious Woman‡‡, an adaptation of the Guy de Maupassant rendering the subjective essence of reality,” maintaining that a story "Le Signe" (“The Signal”), was shot on 16mm in Geneva, “well-edited film. .was more truthful to life than the using money Godard earned from selling the documentary uninterrupted scene – rather than portraying a close Operation Concrete (1958) that he had directed, written, and representation of reality, it seemed to provide the experience of edited on the job as a construction worker in Switzerland. In reality itself” (NewWaveFilm.com). Throughout his career, he these early film efforts, we see Godard’s lived philosophy, has been invested in every multiple facets of film production, integrating art and labor, understanding how the two intermingle frequently occupying the role of writer and editor to many of the and are inseparable, much in the same way as his expressed sense films he has directed, also, at times, acting, producing, and, even of the interrelations of fiction films and documentary. Before he occasionally, doing his own cinematography. Godard’s primary began making films, he devoted energy to studying and writing mode of film production is a combination of writing and film for Andre Bazin’s journal Cahiers du cinema. In 1952, directing. In, perhaps his most iconic period of filmmaking, Godard published an article that “amounted to a kind of personal starting with Breathless*** in 1960 and ending with 1967’s theoretical manifesto, as well as a counter argument to an earlier Weekend,* Godard directed and wrote, and often acted in his article written by Bazin in which the critic attacked the 'obsolete films. During this period, Godard made such French New Wave Godard: BREATHLESS—2 classics as A Woman Is a Woman* (1961), Contempt*** (1963), has 95 writing credits, 45 acting credits, and 22 producing Band of Outsiders*** (1964), Alphaville* (1965), Masculin credits. These are some of the other films he directed: Charlotte Féminin* (1966), and 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her*** and Her Boyfriend† (1960 Short), Vivre Sa Vie** (1962), Le (1967). In a line perhaps pointing to the paradox of the rising Petit Soldat*** (1963), Les Carabiniers* (1963), Une Femme New Left in the late 1960s, Masculin Féminin famously suggests Mariée*** (1964), Pierrot le Fou* (1965), Made in U.S.A*** it "could [also] be called The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola.” (1966), A Film Like Any Other§§ (1968), Love and Anger* It is arguable that it is with 1967’s “exhilarating and provocative” (1969), Le Gai Savoir*** (1969), Le Vent d'Est (1970)†, La Chinoise,* a film that floods the viewer with images of “Marx Struggle in Italy** (1971), Vladimir et Rosa‡‡ (1971), Numéro and Mao, modernist paintings, political slogans and an engraving deux* (1975), Here and Elsewhere‡‡‡ (1976), Every Man for from Alice in Wonderland,” in a loose narrative about “five Himself‡ (1980), First Name: Carmen†††† (1983), Hail university students. .who spend their summer vacation in Paris. Mary*(1985), King Lear§§§ (1987), Puissance de la parole* . .studying political texts [and] delivering lectures to each other, (1988 Short), Germany Year 90 Nine Zero* (1991), JLG/JLG: Godard begins a shift to the overtly political. Weekend had Self-Portrait in December‡ (1994 Documentary), 2 x 50 Years of provocatively and cryptically “concluded with the statements French Cinema†† (1995 TV Movie documentary), Histoire(s) du 'end of story' and 'end of cinema.'” Godard “had come to the cinéma†† (1989-1999 TV Mini-Series documentary), The Old conclusion that the world as it was had to change and as the Place** (2000 Documentary), In Praise of Love* (2001), commercial film industry was part of that world” he saw needing Moments choisis des histoire(s) du cinéma**** (2004 change (NewWaveFilm.com). This might have suggested Documentary), and Ecce Homo**** (2006 Short). Godard’s withdrawal from cinema; however, at this point, he *Writer increased his output. This conviction likely played a role in the **Writer, editor hardline stance he helped lead in protest of the 1968 Cannes Film ***Writer, actor Festival. After “most of the filmmakers in competition withdrew ****Writer, editor, producer their films and Louis Malle, Roman Polanski, Monica Vitti, and †Writer, editor, actor Terence Young resigned from the jury,” Godard argued that ††Editor “instead of showing festival films, the forum should be used to †††Writer, editor, cinematographer, producer screen militant films and documentary footage of the [protests] ††††Actor taking place.” Further, “When the festival administration decided ‡Editor, producer that a screening of Carlos Saura’s Peppermint Frappé would go ‡‡Writer, editor, cinematographer, actor ahead as planned, Godard, Truffaut and Saura himself jumped up ‡‡‡Writer, producer on the stage and held onto the curtain to prevent it from opening” ‡‡‡‡Writer, actor, cinematographer, producer (NewWaveFilm.com). This period saw Godard increasingly §Editor, actor turning to the documentary in films such as Far from Vietnam* §§Writer, editor, cinematographer (1967), Sympathy for the Devil* (1968), Cinétracts (1968), See §§§Writer, editor, actor, producer You at Mao* (1970), Pravda** (1970), and 1 P.M.§§§§§ (1971). §§§§Editor, cinematographer Throughout his career, he has often directed promotional shorts §§§§§Writer, cinematographer for some of his feature films, and, on one occasion, he stepped outside of his own work to direct a promotion for Robert Bresson’s heartbreaking Mouchette (1967). In Ro.Go.Pa.G. (1963), Godard collaborated on a film also showcasing several Italian auteurs: Ugo Gregoretti, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Roberto Rossellini. 18 of his films incorporated both his writing and editing skills. His most recent output has seen a return to the roles that shaped his iconic 1960s work, primarily writing and directing with occasional acting and editing in films such as Film socialisme* (2010), Goodbye to Language*** (2014), and The Image Book† (2018). Barring the fallout from 1968’s controversial Cannes, Godard’s films have been consistently recognized at the festival since the early 1980s when was first nominated for the distinguished Palm d’Or for Sauve la vie (qui peut)* (1981 Documentary). Throughout the decade he was nominated for the Palm d’Or for Passion** (1982), Détective (1985), and Aria (1987). He was again nominated for the Palm d’Or for Nouvelle vague (1990), Éloge de l'amour (2001), Adieu FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT (b. February 6, 1932 in Paris, au langage (2014), and Le livre d'image (2018). Also, at Cannes, France—d. October 21, 1984 (age 52) in Neuilly-sur-Seine, he was nominated for the Un Certain Regard Award for Film Hauts-de-Seine, France) was a French film director, screenwriter, socialisme (2010), and he won the Jury Prize for Adieu au producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of langage (2014) and the Special Award and Palme d'Or Spéciale the founders of the French New Wave. He was nominated for for Le livre d'image (2018). At the 2011 Academy Awards, he Oscars for Best Writing for Les quatre cents coups* (1959, The won an Honorary Award “For passion. For confrontation. For a 400 Blows) and for Best Writing and Best Director for La nuit new kind of cinema.” He was not present for the ceremony. He américaine (1973). He won the OCIC Award and Best Director Godard: BREATHLESS—3 awards and was nominated for the Palm d’Or for Les quatre Honorary Golden Palm at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. He has cents coups (1959) and was nominated, again, for the Palm d’Or acted in 91 films, and he has also produced 23 films. These are for La peau douce* (1964). He directed 28 films, acted in 16 some of the films he has acted in: À pied, à cheval et en voiture films, wrote for 36 films, and he produced 17 films. These are (1957), Youthful Sinners (1958), Un drôle de dimanche (1958), some of the other films he directed: Une visite (1955 Short), An Angel on Wheels (1959), Breathless* (1960), Classe Tous Shoot the Piano Player (1960), Jules and Jim (1962), Fahrenheit Risques (1960), Seven Days..
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