How to decipher the cinematic aesthetic of Jean Luc Godard? Why is Godard dubbed 'revolutionary'?
JEAN LUC GODARD: BIOGRAPHY OF A REVOLUTIONARY GENIUS He passed away on 13th September 2022. How do we decode his complex aesthetic, the way he changed world cinema for all times to come? What was the historic backdrop of Godard's work? What were his films about? What was his politics? Why is he dubbed a revolutionary? Divided into several parts, this nearly 1 hour long, video tribute to the great Godard is made deliberately, in the Godardian way: with jerks, insertions, placards, intentional bad TV sounds, etc. The video goes deep into all the major films made by Godard, from Breathless to Alphaville to Contempt to Weekend to Letter to Jane to Carmen to Notre Musique to Socialism--placing these works in the context of the history of world cinema. It begins with the impact of the 1917 Russian, Bolshevik Revolution: how radical, Russian filmmakers translated Marxist dialectics--the unity and struggle of opposites--directly into cinema. In the 1920s and 30s, the German Marxist playwright Bertolt Brecht did similar experiments in theatre. Brecht brought crude thinking and doubt into art. Till then, the dominant Aristotelian aesthetics, based on emotional catharsis, pity, and fear, was in vogue. Godard inhabited the post-second World War phase of the 1950s and 60s, with capitalism, consumerism, technology, and prosperity reaching a zenith. In this atmosphere, the working class aesthetics of Eisenstein and Brecht, of social praxis and change, had faded. Bourgeois-liberal, Italian neo-realism was the new credo. In this, the filming of 'natural' and real-life characters, inhabiting a 'natural world' dominated; the artist was supposed to film 'true' appearances. The other trend, symbolized by Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, brought back the Aristotelian, tragic hero. Godard criticized both these trends. For Godard, truth and reality were not out there waiting to be filmed. The truth lay in complex, hidden meanings. And the job of art was to unravel these meanings in a radical, dialectical-materialist form. The form here meant the re-invention of Eisenstein's montage and the reformulation of Brechtian poetics. Godard also revived the style of Dziga Vertov, a radical, Russian filmmaker of the 1920s/30s, and resolved the contradiction between the mise-en-scene and montage, stripping the former of lyricism and applying the latter in movement (the jump cut) and leaps as well. The revolutionary politics of the 1960s, the impact of Marxism-Leninism Mao Tse Tung thought, the Algerian War of Independence, the Vietnam War, and the French student uprising of 1968, deeply impacted Godard. He broke the confines of old 1920s modernity, to include style, attitude, fragmentation, and alienation generated by advances in science and technology. Godard laid new ground rules for film and art--he modernized genres like science fiction, gangster flicks, the road movie, even romantic comedy, and the western. He urged the evolution of political film. He mixed genres and paved the way for the cinema of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s--the films of Arthur Penn, Bertolucci, Fassbinder, Martin Scorcese, Coppola, Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, and Costa Gavras. Godard made films based on the essay structure, the movements of classical music, and even the irregular rhythm of everyday life. In 1978, the Mozambique Government commissioned Godard to make a film. Godard made his famous statement that the Kodak film stock was inherently racist, designed for the white skin, unequipped to catch the nuances of the black or the brown skin! In 1995, Kodak had to admit what Godard had discovered--and changed its pixels! Godard also was the first to realize the potential of independent video. Today's YouTube video revolution, which has empowered millions, owes a lot to Godard. In the 1980s, 90s, and 2000s, Godard evolved a style bordering on elegy. Godard recognized how it was difficult to make films regarding the US War on Terror or the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Godard understood early on, the power of China. Watch the video for a rare insight into the most vital modernist of our age! @frenchcinematvx4292 @newfrenchwavefilms @KodakBlack1K YouTube Movies @pocketfilms @iffklive @therencontres548 @weirdlingwolf7837 @ManufacturingIntellect @rtsarchives @Lungomolto @laurinpage @bubulolo3766 @robertluxemburg7334 @lachambreverte @seydidemirtas @chiriperu @rive5gauche @DemocracyNow @NoSleep2fun @TheNarrativeArt @TheDickCavettShow @atlculture @PAULAUGUSTIN76 @Maymyam @FilipOnell @TrevorJuenger @rtsarchives @britishfilminstitute @janusfilmsnyc @criterioncollection @Inaculture @OrokossacoII @Samuel Bréan @foreignfilmsessays @styleissubstance @melainemeunier3900 @inravioli1999 @CanonEurope @OdeToAsia @ObbenNeimm @ABCDJLG @nwatts88 @AustinFilmSociety @TheHansky @jaroslavkejzlar1103 @vladislawpavlov @DavidS11 @ShineThePath
