Godard

The life and career of the innovative French film director Jean Luc Godard is explored in British film writer Colin McCabe`s intriguing critique, GODARD: A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AT SEVENTY. Fascinated with the possibilities of filmmaking from an early age, Godard defied the wishes of his family to pursue a career in cinema. Financially destitute, he supported himself through petty theft until the international success of his first film, A BOUT DE SOUFFLE, paved the way for later groundbreaking movies like BANDE A PART and ALPHAVILLE. McCabe intriguingly deconstructs interviews with the director for clues to his relationships with his family, with his contemporaries like Francois Truffaut, and with actors like Anna Karina, whom he discovered and to whom he was briefly married. He also analyzes Godard`s revolutionary approach to filmmaking, the effect on his work of seminal political events like the Paris student uprising of 1968, and his long-standing anti-Americanism. Including a comprehensive filmography and a useful selected bibliography for further research, GODARD is a thought-provoking study of the oeuvre of this significant New Wave auteur. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.