Looking for Jean-Luc Godard - Atelier 1

Three ateliers exploring the work of the last of the famous Nouvelle Vague French directors… Jean Luc Godard! An opportunity for you to learn and exchange with fellow cinéphiles while watching a few unforgettable movie clips. With Matthew Jackson, host of our pandemic ciné-club and live from San Francisco on Zoom!

Atelier 1 - November 21: Godard the Innovator

What made Jean-Luc Godard the momentous figure that came to exemplify French culture in the 60s? What did French films look like just before the Nouvelle Vague? Why was Godard’s rule-breaking so powerful, and what rules did he break?

This atelier covers Godard’s artistic style in the years leading up to 1968, when he was at his most formally experimental, but least politically engaged. We’ll talk about how he came out of the Cahiers du Cinema and represented a new group of young people who, for the first time, grew up with movies.

Atelier 2 - November 28: Godard the Activist

Where the first atelier offers an opportunity to use Godard as a way to look at the culture of the Nouvelle Vague as a whole, this atelier will give us the opportunity to look at Mai 68, its fallout and the role of Godard as a filmmaker and an activist in the turmoil of the late 60s.

Atelier 3 - December 5: Godard the Godfather

This last atelier explores Godard’s work from the 80s into the 2010s and how he gained in stature, almost becoming a cinematic saint in the cultural imagination. (Michel Hazanavicius’ Godard mon amour in 2017 basically canonizes him).

Godard is still making films with his signature preoccupations on language and an emphasis on endless experimentation with modern innovations (Goodbye to Language is Godard’s take on 3D!), but his later oeuvre finds him attracted to arguably more sentimental topics dealing with his legacy. With an aperçu of Godard’s personal life, his loves and friendships that lasted well into old age.