Godard speaks

Happy Monday to each and every one of you beautiful internet people.

Today's blog is going to be short and sweet because the video we've added is not. So, a quick intro on the subject, one of our favorite reclusive filmmakers of all time, Jean-Luc Godard.

If perhaps you're not familiar with his work, he was part of the French New Wave of film making, an auteur really, and debuted with his now classic film Breathless (1959). It was also "produced" by other auters Jean Pierre Melville (Bob Le Flambeur, L'Samurai) and Francois Truffaut (400 Blows, The Last Metro). A short list of some of the must sees from Godard include Band of Outsiders, Femme est une Femme, Pierrot Le Fou and Tout Va Bien (to name a few).

The film Breathless, like many others, explores wholly new territory for film making, utilizing mismatched shots, jumps cuts, on the spot dialogue, breaking down the 4th wall (which was basically unheard of in it's time), random dance sequences, quirky characters as well as finding a place within all the cool, bohemian/beatnik kids of the late 50's and early 60's.

As a filmmaker, you need to know his name and more importantly his work, having influenced just about every major filmmaker you know and love, from Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson to Jim Jarmusch and the Coen Brothers, as well as a direct link to his French predecessors the likes of Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie). In truth, every successful and current filmmaker has, if not borrowed, blatantly stolen from Godard, but then again, that's homage isn't it? :)

So, without further a adieu, here's part one of his 1980 interview with Dick Cavett. Cheers!