Jean-Luc Godard and Bertolt Brecht:
Godard's Criticism, Breathless & Vivre sa Vie

Godard's Film Criticism

10 Best Films of 1957

  1. Bitter Victory (Nicholas Ray)
  2. The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock)
    The Wrong Man frame grab.
  3. Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Frank Tashlin)
  4. Hollywood Or Bust (Frank Tashlin)
  5. Les Trois Font la Paire (Sacha Guitry)
  6. A King in New York (Charlie Chaplin)
  7. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (Fritz Lang)
    Beyond a Reasonable Doubt poster
  8. The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Luis Buñuel)
  9. Sawdust and Tinsel (Ingmar Bergman)
  10. Saint Joan (Otto Preminger)

Breathless (1960)

Breathless
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A jump cut -- Patricia in a car with Michel driving.

Shot OneShot Two

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Epic Theatre

Cahiers du cinéma, no. 114 (December 1960) Cahiers du cinéma, no. 114 (December 1960), table of contents. Cahiers du cinéma, no. 114 (December 1960), table of contents.

Bertolt Brecht issue: Cahiers du cinéma, no. 114 (December 1960). Essays include:

DRAMATIC THEATRE EPIC THEATRE
plot narrative
implicates the spectator in a stage situation turns the spectator into an observer, but
wears down his capacity for action arouses his capacity for action
provides him with sensations forces him to take decisions
experience picture of the world
the spectator is involved in something he is made to face something
suggestion argument
instinctive feelings are preserved brought to the point of recognition
the spectator is in the thick of it, shares the experience the spectator stands outside, studies
the human being is taken for granted the human being is the object of the inquiry
he is unalterable he is alterable and able to alter
eyes on the finish eyes on the course
one scene makes another each scene for itself
growth montage
linear development in curves
evolutionary determinism jumps
man as fixed point man as a process
thought determines being social being determines thought
feeling reason

Source: Bertolt Brecht, "The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre," in Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic, ed. and trans. John Willett (New York: Hill and Wang, 1964), 37.

Counter Cinema

"DEADLY SINS" OF THE CLASSICAL CINEMA "CARDINAL VIRTUES" OF COUNTER CINEMA
Narrative transitivity Narrative intransitivity
Identification Estrangement
Transparency Foregrounding
Single diegesis Multiple diegesis
Closure Aperture
Pleasure Un-pleasure
Fiction Reality

Source: Wollen, Peter. "Godard and Counter Cinema: VENT D'EST." In Readings and Writings: Semiotic Counter-Strategies. London: Verso, 1982.

Vivre sa Vie (1962)


Source: Photobucket

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Nana looks down. Nana (Anna Karina) looks directly at the camera.
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Godard's Continuing Influence

New York Film Festival Retrospective: "The Spirit of the Forms" (2013)

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New York Film Festival

First 3D feature film: Goodbye to Language 3D (Adieu au langage, 2013)

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Original material copyright © 1994-2024 Jeremy G. Butler.
Last revised: 17 October 2019 01:44:08