NOTE TO USERS This reproduction is the best copy available. UMf THE ROLE(S) OF THE INTELLECTUAL IN THE FILMS OF GODARD TYSON STEWART A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN CINEMA AND MEDIA STUDIES YORK UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ONTARIO JUNE 2010 Library and Archives Bibliothèque et ¦*¦ Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-68309-5 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-68309-5 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada THE ROLE(S) OF THE INTELLECTUAL IN THE FILMS OF GODARD by Tyson Stewart a thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of York University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS ©2010 Permission has been granted to: a) YORK UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES to lend or sell copies of this thesis in paper, microform or electronic formats, and b) LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA to reproduce, lend, distribute, or sell copies of this thesis anywhere in the world in microform, paper or electronic formats and to authorize or procure the reproduction, loan, distribution or sale of copies of this thesis anywhere in the world in microform, paper or electronic formats. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's written permission. (iv) ABSTRACT Through a reflexive depiction of the social type of the intellectual, several key films of Godard examine forms of stardom and representative politics in order to express concerns about political engagement in contemporary society. Godard does this by featuring real-life intellectuals in cameo and special appearances in the films Vivre sa vie, Une femme mariée, and La chinoise; critiquing the star image and its encroachment on intellectualism in the case of Jane Fonda (Tout va bien and Letter to Jane); and staging the numerous declines of the intellectual from a belief in 'big' projects and political engagement to private self-knowledge in his late period {Hail Mary and For Ever Mozart). Through reflexive storytelling strategies, such as cameos, the participation of real-life French and American intellectuals and celebrities, the creation of alter egos, and re-enactments of significant historical events involving intellectuals, Godard tries to define this social type who must use modern means to represent his or her vocation. (?) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For their invaluable support and guidance, I would very much like to thank Temenuga Trifonova, Tess Takahashi, and Michael Zryd. Thanks to Damien Van Vroenhoven and Jenna Stidwill for reading drafts of this project and giving me a lot to think about. To Seth Feldman and Ian Balfour for their enthusiasm and generosity. Talks by Dudley Andrew and Jean-Pierre Gorin at York University in 2009 helped me better frame this project and gave me the extra push to follow-through on some of these issues. I owe my deepest gratitude to my mom and grandparents. This project was funded in part by a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). (vi) TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ? INTRODUCTION 1 Intellectuals (In Theory) CHAPTERONE: Godard in the 1960s: Intellectual Cameos! 20 Le gai savoir - Godard's new games - The cameo - Roger Leenhardt in Une femme mariée - Brice Parain in Vivre sa vie - Francis Jeanson in La chinoise CHAPTER TWO: The Star as Intellectual: The Fonda Films 61 "What is the role ofthe intellectual today? ": 1972 - Tout va assez bien pour les intellectuals - Ironie utopianism - Letter to Jane CHAPTER THREE: The Mourning Stage: New Intellectual Itineraries 87 Butfirst a short detour through America to France - Death ofthe intellectual? CONCLUSION 102 WORKS CITED 107 1 Introduction In the 1960s, when Jean-Luc Godard was making some of Europe's most trailblazing and lasting films, none other than Louis Althusser, France's Gramsci, was pronouncing the value of intellectuals. He elaborated theories and philosophy that challenged ideology and the myths of language. But the intellectual as a vital social type was constantly being argued as well: Without the efforts of intellectual workers there could be no theoretical tradition (in history or philosophy) in the workers' movement of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The founders of historical and dialectical materialism were intellectuals (Marx and Engels), their theory was developed by intellectuals (Kautsky, Plekhanov, Labriola, Rosa Luxemburg, Lenin, Gramsci). Neither at the beginning, nor long afterwards, could it have been otherwise - it cannot be otherwise, neither now nor in the future: what can change and will change is the class origin of intellectual workers, but not their characterization as intellectuals. (Althusser 24) France has valued intellectuals for centuries. During the French revolution of 1 848, militant yet bourgeois intellectuals made the most headway against a feudal class. Since then, France has had a unique relationship toward its (often bourgeois) intellectuals. The allure or romance of the intellectual in France has allowed this social type to gain traction within every square inch of social life. In the 20th century, the title 'intellectual' has been pretty much synonymous with the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and so on. 2 Their existential philosophy and participation in mid 20th century resistances have guaranteed their influence—at least at a popular level. Through the medium of film, Godard readily presents the intellectual as a political force, a person who grapples with the world's problems as she or he relates the priorities back to his or her own specific public. I argue that looking at several intellectual characters in Godard' s work allows us to better understand his attitudes toward public and private forms of political engagement and that incorporating real-life intellectuals into his art form, cinema, allows him to experiment with notions of representation and influence as they relate to his own intellectual commitments to art and politics. To complete my task of unpacking the sites within the films that address the shifting roles of the intellectual in the modern world, I will look at criticism, interviews with Godard, Godard' s own writing, and history. My aim is to draw a line through the work that deals squarely with the intellectual as a social type. The films will also serve as my main springboard to put ideas of intellectualism into a chronology that starts with the modernism of his early films, and then leads to the revolutionary politics of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and ends with globalization and postmodernity of his late period. Furthermore, my interest in Godard resides in the fact that no other filmmaker has brought similar ideas forth through form and content. Here I am attempting to chart only one aspect of his oeuvre. The romance of the intellectual gets hardly any play in studies on Godard. I argue that it is possible and desirable to speak of the films in terms of content and in terms of how this approach elucidates conceptions of the intellectual life, one of Godard' s key themes. This provides 3 shifting, historically relevant ways to interpret the artist-intellectual. Even when dealing straightforwardly with an intellectual character, the character takes on different roles every time. Aesthetics and politics in Godard' s films with intellectual characters are the main subjects of analysis and theoretical exploration. But the stakes go far beyond that; by charting Godard' s views of the intellectual, this project hopes to elucidate the relationship between film and society, cinema's social function. The study of intellectuals in culture is a particularly delicate thing because of the nature of defining a social type. The limits and boundaries in undertaking such a task are not at all evident. In short, it may appear initially that there is no object of study. Writers from Fanon to Foucault have studied the intellectual in vastly differing ways. What I am interested in is what the representation of the intellectual achieves in terms of new ideas and paradigms within the parameters of social critique, star studies, and history in film studies.