The Death of Jean-Luc Godard: 7 Must-See Movies

Out of breath, create a new one

Michel Poicard (Jean-Paul Belmondo) steals a car in Marseille and kills a policeman on the way. Arriving in Paris, he meets an American student named Patricia (Jean Seberg), with whom he plans to run away to Rome. But when his photo is published in the newspapers and he is hunted, his fate changes.

It’s a good entry point, as it’s the director’s first feature film, written on an idea from François Truffaut. Bout de souffle offers a route for a young criminal who is tracked by the police after stealing a car and killing a policeman. What Godard does in his first feature film is to show that we can start from an over-exploited genre in cinema (here, the detective film) and suggest new ways to convey it.

This is what he does by shooting with a moving camera, multiplying the camera’s gaze, adding an improvisation of reality to the narrative. In other words, it’s about letting the real life that unfolds around the film (in the background, next to the actors) breathe life into the fictional film.

with this, Jean-Luc Godard Contributes to the construction of cinematic movement New wave. And if at the end Breath remains in the memories of cinephiles because it carries the seeds of a successful filmmaker who hits hard on his first attempt.

Live your life, modernity first

In order to make ends meet and fight boredom, Nana, a saleswoman in a record store, decides to live her life as she likes. This film is Jean-Luc Godard’s declaration of love for his companion and muse at the time: actress Anna Karina.

She is in every frame of Vivre sa vie, a film in twelve scenes (see subtitle) about the wanderings of a young free woman. Free from choice, from the body, free to express oneself. Godard also shows Nana’s shackles and, without being pessimistic, how society revolves around men and how they can prove destructive.

If from a formal point of view, Live your life Less accessible than, say, Pierrot le fou (black and white, stylistic boldness, literary dialogues), the themes it touches on are more relevant than ever to audiences in 2022.

Alphaville, the poetry of anticipation

In the post-1960s era, the “Outer Lands” authorities send renowned secret agent Lemmy Cautin (Eddie Constantine) on a mission to Alphaville, a disembodied city several light years away from Earth. Caution is responsible for neutralizing Professor Von Braun, the despot of Alphaville, who has abolished human sentience there.

More feelings, more communication… Godard, in his own way, rebels against what is most important to him. How to love without language? What can we talk about but love? An experimental film from a period when the filmmaker did not reject the idea of ​​a structured narrative and which, if it has lost some innovative aspect in form, remains a feature film for its director.

Detective, always avant-garde

During a boxing match, the murder of the prince leads to a strange ballet between the mafia and the police. At a grand hotel in Paris near the Saint-Lazare train station, two police officers investigate the untimely death of a prince. In the corridors, in the labyrinth, the characters are looking for a way. And their stories intersect. With Jonny Halliday, Natalie Bay, Claude Brasseur and Jean-Pierre Leo.

Even given a certain budget and star cast, Godard isn’t where you’d expect it to be. A detective film in fact, it brings the film to the edge of the experimental, consisting of dialogue-quotes, unusual and incoherent plot on the verge of understanding in a perfect exercise style that breaks the codes of the thriller. will be reserved for fans of the director.

Disgust, finished love

Paul, a French screenwriter (Michel Piccol) and his wife Camille (Bridgette Bardot) visit the set of a new film by Fritz Lang, who is filming the story of Ulysses for an American producer (Jack Palance). Very quickly, Paul is offered to work on the script of the film, and Camille often finds herself alone with the producer, who intimidates her. Since then, their couple starts to go wrong…

Perhaps the “coldest” film of Godard’s early career. Contempt tells the story of a couple in the process of destruction, a sad love story that accompanies the birth of a movie. Sometimes lost love can lead to creativity. Images by Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccol Camilla’s theme Designed by Georges Delerui justifies the vision.

Pierrot le fou, exploded codes

Ferdinand (John Paul Belmondo) just lost his job. One evening, having just had a disastrous evening, he resumes contact with Marian (Anna Karina), a friend who is now his children’s nanny. With him, he leaves his family behind to embark on an impromptu journey of ups and downs.

Godard is freer than ever and leaves a film that is an ode to the love he then felt for Anna Karina, a film that makes you fly through structured stories in the scent of anarchy. both in form and substance.

It is also a reflection of the filmmaker in search of the absolute, the purity that can only be found in death. Piero Le Fo It’s not an accessible film, but it deserves, also for the freedom it has, that we give it a chance.

Weekend, Rebellion

Roland and Corinne leave the big city for a weekend in the countryside. But from unexpected encounters to hideous traffic jams, their escape turns into a nightmare. A year before the events of May 68, Jean-Luc Godard confronts the Gaullist bourgeoisie (represented by Roland/Jean Yan and Corinne/Mireille d’Arc) with the rest of the modern world.

These two characters will go through the traps with total indifference and some brutality. The weekend is divided into chapters with no real red thread, except for these two users who show a complete hermeticity of imagination (a passage with Lewis Carroll), a penchant for violence and voyeurism, bordering on depravity.

Therefore, Godard does not make a good point, but shows more delicacy in staging, choosing a perfect tracking shot (jam) or sequential shots that are often too “rough”. A curiosity that shows all the awkwardness of the director.