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".

Revolutionary period

The period that spans from May 1968 indistinctly into the 1970s has been subject to an even larger volume of inaccurate labeling. They include everything from his militant period, to his radical period, along with terms as precise as Maoist and vague as political. The term revolutionary, however, gives a more accurate impression than any other. The period saw Godard align himself with a specific revolution and employ a consistent revolutionary rhetoric.

Related Topics:
May 1968 - 1970 - Maoist

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Films

Amid the upheavals of the late 1960s Godard became interested in Maoist ideology. He formed the socialist-idealist Dziga-Vertov cinema group with Jean-Pierre Gorin and produced a number of shorts outlining his politics. In that period he travelled extensively and shot a number of films, most of which remained unfinished or were refused showings, but the dazzling anti-consumerist Week End was released in 1967. His films became intensely politicized and experimental, a phase that lasted until 1980.

Related Topics:
1960s - Maoist - Jean-Pierre Gorin - Consumerist - Week End - 1967 - 1980

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Jean-Pierre Gorin

After the events of May 1968, when the city of Paris saw total upheaval in response to the "authoritarian de Gaulle republic", and Godard's professional objective was reconsidered, he began to collaborate with like minded individuals in the filmmaking arena. The most notable of these collaborations was with a young Maoist student, Jean-Pierre Gorin, who displayed a passion for cinema that grabbed Godard?s attention. Between 1968 and 1973, Godard and Gorin collaborated to make a total of five films with strong Maoist messages. The most prominent film from the collaboration was Tout va bien, which starred Jane Fonda and Yves Montand against their respective wills.

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The Dziga Vertov group

The small group of Maoists that Godard had brought together, which included Gorin, adopted the name "The Dziga Vertov Group". Godard had a specific interest in Vertov, a filmmaker and contemporary of both the great Soviet montage theorists, as well as the Russian constructivist and avant-garde artists such as Alexander Rodchenko and Vladimir Tatlin. Part of Godard?s evidently political shift after May 1968 was from toward a proactive participation in the class struggle. Vertov?s films, particularly his most famous work, Man with the Movie Camera, were very much class-struggle center.

Related Topics:
Vertov - Montage - Constructivist - Avant-garde - Alexander Rodchenko - Vladimir Tatlin

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