Jean-Luc Godard

Godard movies -- less known, but great.

This box set was worth the money and space on your shelf. The movies are some of Godard's less known, but also very creative, with great actors. March 29, 2008

4 movies and a mini doc

Give me a cinematic film over a naturalistic one any day. I'm an unapologetic fan of pretty pictures, and auteur Jean-Luc Godard made some of the most beautiful, ever.

If you're like me, you will want to see Lionsgate's new collection, entitled simply: The Jean-Luc Godard Boxed Set. While these later films in the famous French New Wave director's oeuvre are not his most popular, they are certainly right up there with the rest of his work as far as good looks go.

Passion
First Name: Carmen
Détective
Oh Woe is Me

I watched Détective (1985) for the first time, mainly because it seems to be singled out as one of his "worst" and "most commercial" movies, done "just for the money." It is supposed to be a film noir farce, but it's hardly a send up of a genre ala the films of Edgar Wright. In this one, you have to look pretty hard for the satire. But that's OK - it's gorgeous, and the characters are quirky.

More about mis-en-scene than the mystery at hand, Détective ostensibly follows the intersecting - but not necessarily connected - stories of a collected group of people ensconced in the Hotel Concorde St. Lazare in Paris. Watching them all is the titled detective, Isidore (Jean-Pierre Léaud), his uncle (Laurent Terzieff) and their luscious young love interest, Arielle (Aurelle Doazan).

As the detective himself says, "To sum up: Lots of stories here, ours and other people's. Something is bound to happen." A lot does happen, but in a very languid, roundabout manner - this is definitely the kind of movie you watch for love of art, not for mindless popcorn-munching.

The DVD is fairly skimpy on the extras, nevertheless there is an excellent, short-but-sweet documentary which serves to introduce the viewer to the filmmaker's singular sensibility and his personal philosophies. There are some great quotes from Godard himself, and refreshing observations from a handful of film historians focusing on these movies in particular. It's very well-done. Recommended. [Buzzine] February 1, 2008

Finally, some harder to locate Godard titles...

Thanks to the reviewer who gave us the titles in the box set--a strange bit of information for Amazon to leave out. Of the three listed Godard films I've only seen "First Name Carmen." A quick synopsis: Two Parallel Stories (1)a quartet rehearsing Beethoven; (2)a group of film makers robbing a bank to produce their film.

Godard utilizes Bizet's "Carmen" as a palet to weave the art of cinema with various other fields of art (music, painting, sculpture--notice the way Godard films the human body, take a look at some of Rodin's sculptures and you'll see what I mean--sorry I can't explain it better). Godard's emmulates the mechanics of the string quartet and it's various parts coming together to make one whole body, in this case Godard's film. There's Godard using Cinema as Art, of course, the common mantra that drives his ouevre, but what sets this film apart from many others is, as stated earlier, he bounces Cinema off of Art, rather than as Art, resulting in the provacation of how Cinema relates with Art.

I've not seen the other two films, so my apologies for not writing two more pretentious reviews. Even though I have not seen the other two films, I give the set five stars simply because it's Godard. January 24, 2008

Disc information

Being that the titles do not seem to be provided as of 1/11/2008, this DVD has the following movies on three discs:

Passion
First Name: Carmen
The Detective
Oh Woe is Me

These movies were made in the 1980s and 1990s. Although lesser known, they are supposedly interesting, if not spectacular, films for Godard fans.
January 10, 2008

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