Jean-Luc Godard  

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Jean-Luc Godard (born 3 December, 1930 in Paris) is a French filmmaker and one of the most influential members of the Nouvelle Vague, or "French New Wave". Guy Debord dismissed him as an "offspring of Mao and Coca Cola".

Born to Franco-Swiss parents in Paris, he was educated in Nyon, Switzerland, later studying at the Lycée Rohmer, and the Sorbonne back to Paris. During his time at the Sorbonne, he became involved with the young group of filmmakers and film theorists that gave birth to the New Wave.

Known for stylistic implementations that challenged, at their focus, the conventions of Hollywood cinema, he became universally recognized as the most audacious and radical of the New Wave filmmakers. He adopted a position in filmmaking that was unambiguously political. His work reflected a fervent knowledge of film history, a comprehensive understanding of existential and Marxist philosophy, and a scholarly disposition that placed him as the lone filmmaker among the public intellectuals of the Rive Gauche.

Directing Filmography

Early Works

• 1954 Opération béton (Operation Concrete)
• 1955 Une femme coquette (A Coquettish Woman)
• 1957 "Charlotte et Véronique," ou "Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick" ("Charlotte and Véronique," or: "All Boys Are Called Patrick")
• 1958 Une histoire d'eau (A History of Water)
• 1958 Charlotte et son Jules (Charlotte and Her Boyfriend)

French New Wave (1959 – 1967)

Feature Films

• 1959 À bout de souffle (Breathless)
• 1960 Le Petit soldat (The Little Soldier)
• 1961 Une femme est une femme (A Woman Is a Woman)
• 1962 Vivre sa vie (To Live One's Life) — a.k.a. My Life to Live
• 1963 Les Carabiniers (The Riflemen)
• 1963 Le Mépris (Contempt)
• 1964 Bande à part (Band of Outsiders)
• 1964 Une femme mariée, fragments d'un film tourné en 1964 en noir et blanc (A Married Woman: Fragments of a Film Shot in 1964 in Black and White)
• 1965 Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (Alphaville: One of Lemmy Caution's Strange Cases)
• 1965 Pierrot le fou (Pierrot the Mad)
• 1966 Masculin Féminin, 15 faits précis (Masculine Feminine: 15 Precise Facts)
• 1966 Made in U.S.A.
• 1966 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (2 or 3 Things I Know About Her)
• 1967 La Chinoise (The Chinese)
• 1967 Weekend

Short Films

• 1961 "La Paresse" (Sloth)

from Les Sept péchés capitaux (The Seven Deadly Sins)

• 1962 "Il Nuovo mondo" (The New World)

from RoGoPaG

• 1963 "Le Grand escroc" (The Big Swindler)

from Les plus belles escroqueries du monde (The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers)

• 1964 "Reportage sur Orly" (Reporting on Orly)
• 1965 "Montparnasse-Levallois"

from Paris vu par... (Paris as Seen by...) — a.k.a. Six in Paris

• 1967 "Anticipation, ou: l'amour en l'an 2000" (Anticipation: or Love in the Year 2000)

from Le Plus vieux métier du monde (The World's Oldest Profession)

• 1967 "Caméra-oeil" (Camera-Eye)

from Loin du Vietnam (Far from Vietnam)

• 1967 "L'amore (Andate e ritorno dei figli prodighi)" (Love: Departure and Return of the Prodigal Children)

from Amore e rabbia (Love and Anger)

Dziga Vertov Group/Political Films (1968 – 1972)

• 1968 Le Gai savoir (Happy Knowledge)
• 1968 Ciné-tracts
• 1968 Un Film comme les autres (A Film Like the Others)
• 1968 One Plus One — a.k.a. (in a version in which the ending was re-cut by the producer) Sympathy for the Devil
• 1968 One A.M. (One American Movie) unfinished

incorporated into One P.M. (One Parallel Movie/One Pennebaker Movie) by D. A. Pennebaker in 1971

• 1969 Communications unfinished
• 1969 British Sounds a.k.a. See You at Mao
• 1969 Pravda
• 1969 Le Vent d'est (Wind from the East)
• 1969 Luttes en Italie (Struggles in Italy)
• 1970 Jusqu'à la victoire (Until Victory) unfinished

incorporated into Ici et ailleurs (Here and Elsewhere) by Godard & Anne-Marie Miéville in 1974

• 1971 Vladimir et Rosa (Vladimir and Rosa)
• 1972 Tout va bien (Everything's Going Fine)
• 1972 Letter to Jane

Transitional Period (SonImage) (1974-1978)

• 1974 Ici et ailleurs (Here and Elsewhere)
• 1975 Numéro deux (Number Two)
• 1976 Comment ça va? (How's It Going?)
• 1976 Six fois deux, sur et sous la communication (Six Times Two: On and Beneath Communication)
• 1978 France/tour/détour/deux/enfants (France/Tour/Detour/Two/Children)

Second Wave (1979-1988)

Feature Films

• 1979 Sauve qui peut (la vie) (Save (Your Life) Who's Able / Run for (Your Life) If You Can) — a.k.a. Every Man for Himself (in North America) and Slow Motion (in the UK)
• 1982 Passion
• 1983 Prénom Carmen (First Name: Carmen)
• 1985 Je vous salue, Marie (I Salute Thee, Marie / Hail Mary)
• 1985 Détective (Detective)
• 1987 King Lear
• 1987 Soigne ta droite, une place sur la terre (Keep Your Right Up: A Place on the Earth)

Short Films/Videos

• 1979 Quelques remarques sur la réalisation et la production du film 'Sauve qui peut (la vie)' (A Few Remarks on the Direction and Production of the Film Sauve qui peut (la vie))
• 1982 Lettre à Freddy Buache à propos d'un court-métrage sur la ville de Lausanne (Letter to Freddy Buache Regarding a Short Work About the Town of Lausanne)
• 1982 Changer d'image (To Alter the Image)

from Le Changement a plus d'un titre (Change Has More Than One Title)

• 1982 Scénario du film Passion
• 1983 Petites notes à propos du film Je vous salue, Marie (Small Notes Regarding the Film Je vous salue, Marie)
• 1986 Grandeur et décadence d'un petit commerce de cinéma (Grandeur and Decadence of a Small Movie Concern)
• 1986 Soft and Hard
• 1986 Meetin' WA
• 1987 "Armide"

from Aria

• 1988 Closed Jeans: Marithé François Girbaud, série 1, 1-10 (Closed Jeans: Marithé François Girbaud: Series 1: 1-10)
• 1988 Closed: Marithé et François Girbaud, série 2, 1-7 (Closed: Marithé and François Girbaud: Series 2: 1-7)
• 1988 On s'est tous défilé (We All Filed Past / We All Stole Away / We All Took Cover / We've All Undone Ourselves)
• 1988 La Puissance de la parole (The Power of Speech)
• 1988 "Le Dernier mot/Les Français entendus par..." (The Last Word/The French as Understood by...)

from Les Français vus par... (The French as Seen by...)

1989 – Present: All Works

• 1989 Le Rapport Darty (The Darty Report / The Darty Connection)
• 1990 Marithé François Girbaud: Métamorphojean
• 1990 Nouvelle Vague (film) (New Wave)
• 1991 Allemagne année 90 neuf zéro (Germany Year 90 Nine Zero)
• 1993 Les Enfants jouent à la Russie (The Kids Play Russian)
• 1993 Hélas pour moi (Alas for Me / Oh Woe Is Me)
• 1993 Je vous salue Sarajevo (I Salute Thee Sarajevo / Hail Sarajevo)
• 1994 JLG/JLG, autoportrait de décembre (JLG/JLG: Self-Portrait in December)
• 1995 2 x 50 ans de cinéma français (2 x 50 French Cinema Years)
• 1996 For Ever Mozart
• 1998 Histoire(s) du cinéma (History(s) of the Cinema) — 1988-1998
• 1999 Small Notes Regarding the Arts at Fall of 20th Century: The Old Place (with Anne-Marie Miéville)
• 2000 De l'origine du XXIe siècle pour moi (Of the Origin of the XXIst Century for Me)
• 2001 Eloge de l'amour (Elegy for Love / Ode to Love) — a.k.a. In Praise of Love
• 2002 Liberté et patrie (Freedom and Fatherland) (with Anne-Marie Miéville)
• 2004 Notre musique (Our Music)
• 2006 Vrai faux passeport (True False Passport)
• 2006 Prières pour refuzniks: 1 (Prayers for Refuseniks: 1)
• 2006 Prières pour refuzniks: 2 (Prayers for Refuseniks: 2)
• 2006 L'eau de Vie, un film de Jean-Luc Godard (Water of Life, a film by Jean-Luc Godard)<ref>La Jornada de Morelos, January 12, 2008</ref>

Film Segments