Masterpieces of the 60s: Part III
This past Christmas Eve, I left off with Truffaut's Jules et Jim and promised to cover Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre Sa Vie. It's a bit overdue but now that I've temporarily forfeited some of my plans (goodbye Cannes 2019), I have a lot of time on my hands.
As a sidenote, I was so despondent during the month of January that I was crying a river during sleep every night. It wouldn't have been a problem but I have electrically heated pillows. So every night, I was constantly electrocuting myself.
Getting back on topic...
Jean-Luc Godard is perhaps my favorite director of all time and definitely my favorite French director above Truffaut and Bresson. In fact so much so that I was tempted to fill out all of the five recommendations from Godard's filmography. But that would have been a bit boring.
As I mentioned in Part I, Godard, like Antonioni, paints with the camera. His most recent work -- Goodbye to Language -- shows that even in his eighties, he can still paint. What do I mean by "painting?" I'm too lazy to repeat myself, so please refer to Part I if you're curious. But I will elaborate by presenting a contrary method to filmmaking: sculpting. Prime examples of auteurs who sculpt or sculpted include Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and David Fincher. It must be noted, however, that Kubrick also painted with the camera; Kubrick's scope of genius truly is an enigma.
Vivre Sa Vie is not my favorite Godard picture. I haven't seen it as many times as I have seen Contempt, A Woman is a Woman, Pierrot le Fou, or Breathless. And it probably isn't Godard's most influential work either. But nonetheless, Vivre Sa Vie is an invaluable gem from the sixties.
With Raoul Coutard as his cinematographer, Jean-Luc Godard soaks the audience each frame with the scene's atmosphere. If Antonioni quietly and sternly stirred the audience's soul from within, then Godard washes over the audience from the screen and drenches the audience in emotions.
Godard's emotive talent, at least in my opinion, is untouchable. It is no coincidence that Godard once observed that photography is truth 24 times a second.
Here is a simple shot from the movie that will illustrate my point. If the still doesn't move you, please visit the nearest ophthalmologist in your area.
The actress in the shot is none other than Anna Karina. She was Godard's muse for a majority of his most magical pictures. They also dated although the relationship did come to an end. You can think of them as the French Woody Allen and Diane Keaton. That said, if I'm being fair, I'd have to say Godard's craftsmanship and legacy easily surpass and eclipse Allen's.
I bring up Godard and Karina's history because when an auteur works with their muse, the most memorable characters are born. It happened with Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina, with Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann, and with Michelangelo Antonioni and Monica Vitti. The magic happens because the auteur knows how to play on their muse's strengths and style while the muse is able to melt into the vision.
Anna Karina's strengths were agility and precision, not atypical of French actresses. And Godard's ever fluid filmmaking blended perfectly with Karina's performances. Together they created characters that were delicate, sharp, and most memorably, semi-guileless.
If you like Terrence Malick (Song to Song, To the Wonder, The Tree of Life), there's a great chance you'll like Godard. If you don't like Terrence Malick but still want to give Godard a try, I recommend skipping Vivre Sa Vie and watching Contempt instead.
I leave you with a few pictures of Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina together. This will be my last entry for some time. I'm uncertain on whether I'll ever be able make a film and I don't like to go anywhere near dreams that can't come true. But if you have 35 million dollars to spare, please do reach out! I can't promise profits but I can promise it will be selected to compete at Cannes and get at least one Academy Award nomination.
As a sidenote, I was so despondent during the month of January that I was crying a river during sleep every night. It wouldn't have been a problem but I have electrically heated pillows. So every night, I was constantly electrocuting myself.
Getting back on topic...
Jean-Luc Godard is perhaps my favorite director of all time and definitely my favorite French director above Truffaut and Bresson. In fact so much so that I was tempted to fill out all of the five recommendations from Godard's filmography. But that would have been a bit boring.
As I mentioned in Part I, Godard, like Antonioni, paints with the camera. His most recent work -- Goodbye to Language -- shows that even in his eighties, he can still paint. What do I mean by "painting?" I'm too lazy to repeat myself, so please refer to Part I if you're curious. But I will elaborate by presenting a contrary method to filmmaking: sculpting. Prime examples of auteurs who sculpt or sculpted include Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and David Fincher. It must be noted, however, that Kubrick also painted with the camera; Kubrick's scope of genius truly is an enigma.
Vivre Sa Vie is not my favorite Godard picture. I haven't seen it as many times as I have seen Contempt, A Woman is a Woman, Pierrot le Fou, or Breathless. And it probably isn't Godard's most influential work either. But nonetheless, Vivre Sa Vie is an invaluable gem from the sixties.
With Raoul Coutard as his cinematographer, Jean-Luc Godard soaks the audience each frame with the scene's atmosphere. If Antonioni quietly and sternly stirred the audience's soul from within, then Godard washes over the audience from the screen and drenches the audience in emotions.
Godard's emotive talent, at least in my opinion, is untouchable. It is no coincidence that Godard once observed that photography is truth 24 times a second.
Here is a simple shot from the movie that will illustrate my point. If the still doesn't move you, please visit the nearest ophthalmologist in your area.
The actress in the shot is none other than Anna Karina. She was Godard's muse for a majority of his most magical pictures. They also dated although the relationship did come to an end. You can think of them as the French Woody Allen and Diane Keaton. That said, if I'm being fair, I'd have to say Godard's craftsmanship and legacy easily surpass and eclipse Allen's.
I bring up Godard and Karina's history because when an auteur works with their muse, the most memorable characters are born. It happened with Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina, with Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann, and with Michelangelo Antonioni and Monica Vitti. The magic happens because the auteur knows how to play on their muse's strengths and style while the muse is able to melt into the vision.
Anna Karina's strengths were agility and precision, not atypical of French actresses. And Godard's ever fluid filmmaking blended perfectly with Karina's performances. Together they created characters that were delicate, sharp, and most memorably, semi-guileless.
If you like Terrence Malick (Song to Song, To the Wonder, The Tree of Life), there's a great chance you'll like Godard. If you don't like Terrence Malick but still want to give Godard a try, I recommend skipping Vivre Sa Vie and watching Contempt instead.
I leave you with a few pictures of Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina together. This will be my last entry for some time. I'm uncertain on whether I'll ever be able make a film and I don't like to go anywhere near dreams that can't come true. But if you have 35 million dollars to spare, please do reach out! I can't promise profits but I can promise it will be selected to compete at Cannes and get at least one Academy Award nomination.
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