Tonight on TV: A Western masterpiece by Jean-Luc Godard

In 1958, Anthony Mann adapted the novel Border jumpers by Clarence Scott Boyles Jr., published three years earlier. The Man of the West is then his ninth western. For this film, the director parted with his beloved actor James Stewart, whom he had directed eight times, and offered the lead role to Gary Cooper.

So the latter lends its features to Lynn Jones, a former outlaw who wants to refrain from any form of violence. Until the day he is taken hostage by a group of robbers who force him to take part in an attack on the shores of a ghost town.

At 57, weary from cancer, Gary Cooper is upping his stoic image. It presents a performance with excellent precision and alertness. The expression on his face in the image, which never cracked a smile, leaves little room for illusion: the world is violent, cruel, often ugly.

in fact man of the west Genre synthesis is in effect. With a great freedom of tone (especially in its darkness and constant ambiguity), but also extremely sophisticated staging, the film heralds the end of a certain romantic lyricism and reflects the Spaghetti Western.

This character was stripped bare, disillusioned, not unanimous when it came out. Widely ignored by American critics, man of the west However, considered Jean-Luc Godard’s best film of 1958, he reserves his praise. Cinema notebooks.

man of the west By Anthony Mann with Gary Cooper, Julie London, Lee J. With Kobe…

Tonight on Arte at 20:50.