Happy birthday, JLG: Godard turns 77

Funhouse deity Uncle Jean has a birthday today, so I thought the best way I could celebrate him would be to do another “survey” post, giving you the best of the JLG clips posted on YouTube. All I have to say is that he is one of the greatest cineastes the world has ever seen, and fascinated by the fact that all of the members of the French New Wave (except Truffaut, who died in his 50s of cancer) have had long, healthy lives and are still making kick-ass cinema in their 70s and 80s. Whatever was in the water in France in the 1920s and ’30s bred some pretty durable geniuses….

Uncle Jean was honored this past weekend in Berlin with by the European Film Academy. True to form, he didn’t show up (we fans remain content that he is as cranky and publicity-shy in his 70s as he was when he was in 30s and 40s).
Here’s a partial translation of a German interview with him (with links to a French TV talk): http://daily.greencine.com/archives/004991.html

And now the links:
The trailer for one of the premier achievements of his “golden” period, Pierrot Le Fou:


The unforgettable “music video” trailer for Masculin-Feminin:


The trailer for my favorite of his “comeback” period, Prenom Carmen:


His Marxist film British Sounds, put up by Funhouse friend and vid-liberator Paul Gallagher


An interview with Godard during his heavy Marxist period, with hair and the growth of a beard (!). Even at his most “wild-eyed radical,” he was still a mellow, thoughtful soul:


Soft and Hard, his exploration of the “battle of the sexes,” starring he and his partner Annie-Marie Mieville:


Godard the ad-man, selling cigs:


Selling jeans:


A bit of cinema poetry, from the anthology film Ten Minutes Older.


A slice of his brilliant major work Le Histoire(s) du Cinema:


Something I’d never seen at all, unsubbed bit from Cinema Cinemas:


Rare American TV interview:


And, as a finale, his bit from the very hard-to-find (in the U.S., at least) Room 666, by Wim Wenders:

Deceased Artiste: Fred Chichin of Les Rita Mitsouko

I’m pretty sure the American music press is gonna fuck up and completely ignore the passing of the wonderfully talented Fred Chichin, half of the great French pop-rock duo Les Rita Mitsouko (the other half being the lovely and talented Catherine Ringer). Fred died at 53 of cancer, a sad death, since his duo was a kick-ass musical act whose first few albums were golden, and who continued to create memorable, hook-laden tunes until earlier this year.

As is always the case with musical acts, most of their best work is available on YouTube, but I’ll just note that they hit it big with the super-memorable and goddamn bouncy song “Marcia Baila” in 1985, and went on to become major French music stars, she for her great vocals and sexy style, he for his musicianship… and sleazy moustache. They attempted crossover performances, but wisely never did a complete sell-out LP: two albums were produced by “Main Man” Tony Visconti, they performed songs with Sparks on their third album, their newest album has Catherine dueting with the lead singer of System of a Down, and the pair continued to perform tunes sung in English as well as Français. I thought it interesting that they received the same treatment in Godard’s Soigne Ta Droite (Keep up your right) that the Stones had gotten in One Plus One/Sympathy for the Devil. They certainly deserved the dissection, as their music was wonderfully crafted by Fred and the albums are imminently relistenable.

Get hooked into “Marcia Baila”:

Pure pop for now people from Les Rita:

I get addicted with a few notes:

Dance music with a brain:

And I would be remarkably remiss if I didn’t close out with the best last line Les Rita ever came up with
“Les histoires d’amour finissent mal… en general”
(Love stories end badly… in general)