Godard has done some gorgeous work with music over the years, and while his taste seems to run more to classical than pop, he has crafted some unforgettable sequences using rock. The ye-ye moments in Masculin-Feminin immediately spring to mind, as does the “Mao-Mao” bit in La Chinoise, the Madison in Band A Part, some terrific bits in Grandeur et Décadence d’un petit commerce de cinéma. Perhaps the most interesting fusion of his seminal ’60s cinema and seminal ’60s music was his documenting of the recording of “Sympathy for the Devil” by the Rolling Stones in One Plus One. Almost two decades later, in his light (and very strange) comedy Soigne Ta Droite (Keep Your Right Up, 1987), he did the same for Les Rita Mitsouko, chronicling the creation of a few songs from their second album The No Comprendo. In honor of the recent death of Fred Chichin, I thought I would upload some scenes from Godard’s film that feature he and Catherine Ringer in the middle of the “process.” And those who know anything about Godard can guess that no completed songs by Les Rita appear in the film, as he is all about process….
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Friday, December 7, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
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:
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:
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