r/godard

hello, i have watched a bunch of Nouvelle Vague movies and read about the start of this movement which originated from these young people who were film critics for Cahiers Du Cinéma magazine. they were big fans of Hitchcock, Rossellini and others and with their analysis and reviews helped those directors get the recognition they deserved.

what amazes me is that they were all very young (early to mid 20s) and already had such deep knowledge about the art of cinema.

i'm curious to read those early analysis before they started making movies on their own, and it would be great if you have recommendations for specific articles that are particularly revealing of how their ideas developed. thank you!

Currently watching through all of Godard's features, but this is the one movie im having an issue with tracking down. Could anyone give me some direction as to where I can find this film?

I've been going through Godard's filmography in random order and I'm pretty much blown away by how much range he has and how consistently he breaks apart and reinvents his style.

I have to say that I first watched Week-End, at a time when I hadn't really watched any films, including even big blockbuster films like Alien, and I didn't hate it, but I did find it quite strange and difficult to watch.

500 or so films later, feeling somewhat more prepared, I decided to watch Alphaville and kind of simultaneously admired (convincing futuristic sci-fi film shot on location in the 60s without any elaborate set design) and hated it. I almost decided at that point that Godard just wasn't for me.

What kept me hovering around the idea of watching more of his work though was the short film Dans le noir des temps which I'd watched on Youtube and found both profoundly moving and also aesthetically stimulating. The form seemed hyper-modern and extremely relevant for the shapes perception and cognition are taking on in the 21stC, and the intertitles and music were beautifully woven into the collage of tragic and horrific and occasionally gorgeous images.

I then decided on the merit of that short film to try another of Godard's features, Le Mepris, and was absolutely blown away. I struggled with the psychological rationale of Camille's character, though I realise now that Godard is trying to resist the conventions of psychological realism, but I found the score, the cutting, the play with time, the colours, the acting, the ideas, Fritz Lang (!) all stunning. I think about it once a week still lol.

I then tried Histoire(s) du Cinema and would on a first watch put it in my top 10 of all time (obvs it's a first watch so things can change). It does everything I want art to do, and also accords with the video-remix culture emerging online, but combines it with extraordinary lyricism and a blending of high and low culture references, abolishing the distinction in the most convincing and enigmatic way. Beautiful. Godard's also astonishingly well-read (I'm a bigger reader than I am a film-watcher so I'm delighted/jealous at how effortless some of his lyricism seems).

Just watched Une Femme Est Une Femme last night and again found it hyper-modern, hyper-relevant in its formal language, super joyful and spontaneous, genuinely funny, beautiful to look at, etc. Immediately a favourite, one to watch repeatedly, a brilliant and engaging 'comfort' film that nevertheless remains dynamic and challenging in the best way.

Not really sure of the point of my post, but it's basically the biggest U-turn I've experienced with a director lol, I'm sort of astonished.

Planning to watch as many of his films as I can tbh.