Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard (born December 3, 1930) is a French filmmaker and one of the most influential members of the Nouvelle Vague, or "French New Wave".

Cahiers and early films

After attending school in Lyon, Godard returned to Paris in 1948 and began to attend the Lycée Rohmer, a year before enrolling at the Sorbonne to study anthropology. It was there, in the Latin Quarter of Paris just prior to 1950, that Paris ciné-clubs were gaining prominence. Godard began attending, where he soon met the man who was perhaps most responsible for the birth of the New Wave, André Bazin, as well as those who would become his contemporaries, including Jacques Rivette, Claude Chabrol, François Truffaut, Jacques Rozier, and Jacques Demy.

Related Topics:
Lyon - 1948 - Sorbonne - Anthropology - Latin Quarter - 1950 - Ciné-club - André Bazin - Jacques Rivette - Claude Chabrol - François Truffaut - Jacques Rozier - Jacques Demy

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His approach to film began in the field of criticism. Along with Eric Rohmer and Rivette, he founded the film journal, Gazette du cinéma, which saw publication of five issues in 1950. When André Bazin founded his critical magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 1951, Godard, with Rivette and Rohmer, were among the first writers. Most of the writers for Cahiers du cinéma started making some brief forays into film direction in the years before 1960.

Related Topics:
Criticism - Eric Rohmer - 1950 - André Bazin - Cahiers du cinéma - 1951 - 1960

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Godard, while taking a job as a construction worker on a dam in 1953, shot a documerntary about the building called, Opération béton (1955). As he continued to work for Cahiers, he made Une femme coquette (1956), a ten-minute black and white picture, Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick (1957), another short fiction piece, and Une histoire d'eau (1958), which was created largely out of footage shot by Truffaut that had gone unused. In 1958 Godard, with a cast that included Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anne Colette, made his last short before gaining notoriety as a filmmaker, Charlotte et son Jules, an homage to Jean Cocteau.

Related Topics:
1953 - Opération béton - 1955 - Une femme coquette - 1956 - Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick - 1957 - Une histoire d'eau - 1958 - Jean-Paul Belmondo - Anne Colette - Charlotte et son Jules - Jean Cocteau

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