A fuller view of Jean-Luc Godard
A SECOND LOOK
More of his films from the 1960s are being released on DVD, but even more essential is a new set with four of his underappreciated films from the 1980s and 1990s.
JEAN-LUC GODARD was not just a central figure of the French New Wave, he was arguably the definitive filmmaker of the 1960s. The remarkably fertile first chapter of his career -- from his euphoric debut, "Breathless" (1960), to the apocalyptic "Week End" (1967), which concluded with the title "End of Cinema, End of World" -- amounts to a generational document. The films are filled with contemporary references to pop culture and politics, but more than that, they effortlessly distilled the intellectual energy and youthful anarchy of the period as well as the looming doubts and disillusionments.
The towering reputation of '60s Godard eclipses the work this filmmaker has produced in the four decades since, much of it written off as arcane or indulgent. Radicalized by the near-revolution of May '68, he devoted himself the following decade to Marxist polemics and then to a series of video experiments. In the '80s, he made a tentative move back toward narrative features but with his signature pop-art brashness replaced by a more poetic, allusive method.
It's easy to understand the enduring appeal of Godard's early films: bold primary colors, glamorous actors, aphoristic wit, reliable spasms of sex and violence. The period is increasingly well represented on DVD, thanks to the Criterion Collection, which this week releases 1965's "Pierrot le fou" ($39.95) to go along with its excellent editions of "Breathless," "Contempt" (1963), "Band of Outsiders" (1964) and "Masculin féminin" (1966).
"Pierrot le fou" -- a dazzling, convulsive, richly hued road movie that Godard termed the story of "the last romantic couple" -- pairs Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina and unfolds as if in a trance. (Godard called it "a completely unconscious film.") The Criterion set is packed with extras, including an interview with Karina and audio commentary by Godard collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin. Even more essential, though, is Lionsgate's new Godard box ($34.98), which assembles four of his underappreciated films from the '80s and '90s.
"Passion" (1982), a playful meditation on the artistic process, is not the first or last Godard film about the making of a film. Jerzy Radziwilowicz stars as a Polish director amid an increasingly beleaguered shoot. The production climbs over budget, and the frustrated filmmaker balances love affairs with two very different women. One is a factory worker (Isabelle Huppert), who muses on the connections between labor and pleasure; the other, a hotel owner (Hanna Schygulla), is the wife of the factory boss (Michel Piccoli). As the hero searches for a story -- the film-within-the-film seems to mainly involve the restaging of famous tableaux by Rembrandt and Goya -- so does the film, with fascinating results.
