Brother From Another Planet

February 28, 2015 3:36 PM

“I’m always surprised to see what I do,” Jean-Luc Godard admits at the beginning of a talk delivered, nearly four decades ago, at Concordia University in Montreal. Could the single most influential filmmaker of his generation, who is still a provocateur at age 84, possibly be as baffled as we?

"Surprised or not, Godard has never been unwilling to explain his ideas, which are, after all, the subject of his deeply idiosyncratic films. In April 1978, the filmmaker took a pedagogical turn, embarking on a series of screenings in which his own work would be projected in the context of various classic movies and historical events, such as the Algerian War or May ‘68. These screenings were followed by improvised, at times wildly free-associational, talks with the audience that Godard would refer to as “public self-psychoanalysis.”"

posted by standardasparagus (7 comments total)

Sure. Honestly, I don't believe half the things that I've written. Where the hell did this come from? I've thought, looking down at the page. I sometimes think a muse moves through me to type the keys, because I certainly don't know what I'm doing.
posted by SPrintF at 5:11 PM on February 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Nice post. The kind of thing that may not get a lot of comments but was super interesting to read and think about.
posted by Miko at 8:27 PM on February 28, 2015

Thanks for this--some fond memories here but mostly incentives to watch things I haven't yet. The pretty harsh dig at John Wayne was amusing too.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 11:06 PM on February 28, 2015

Good article, but I was disappointed that for an article that is partly about Godard being at the edge of cinema there's only a nod to his latest movie. I suppose it's still unclear how influential Goodbye to Language will be, but the consensus is that it broke new ground in editing, in what's been called the first legitimate use of 3D.
posted by maskd at 6:02 AM on March 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thanks very much for this; Jim Hoberman has always been one of my favorite critics, and to see him write at such length on Godard is a real treat. Now I want even more than before to see Histoire(s) du cinéma and read Brody’s biography. (Totally unrelated to JLG, but if you haven't seen The Brother From Another Planet, go see it -- it's sheer delight!)

> I was disappointed that for an article that is partly about Godard being at the edge of cinema there's only a nod to his latest movie.

It's not a review of his latest movie; you can get those all over the place. It's a career overview focusing on the lecture series now available in English as Introduction to a True History of Cinema and Television. (Which I now also want to read!)
posted by languagehat at 6:39 AM on March 1, 2015

Yeah I'll have to read both of those now, but $50 is steeeep...
posted by brainimplant at 8:49 AM on March 1, 2015

If you wait long enough, Godard will say something you agree with.
posted by acrasis at 8:53 AM on March 1, 2015