Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard (129 page)

1
. At such liberal publications as
Les Lettres françaises
and
La Cinématographie française
.

2
.
France-Soir
, April 2, 1966.

3
. Cited in
Le Monde
, April 13, 1966.

4
. The sites of particularly brutal sieges by the French army in Algeria.

5
.
Le Monde
, April 3–4, 1966.

6
.
Mémoires intérieures
is the title of a 1959 book of memoirs (followed by the
Nouvelles mémoires intérieures
in 1965) by the novelist François Mauriac, also a supporter of de Gaulle.

7
.
Le Nouvel Observateur
, April 6, 1966. Godard’s signature was followed by a postscript: “Read and approved by François Truffaut, obliged to shoot in London, far from Paris,
Fahrenheit 451
, the temperature at which books burn.”

8
.
Le Monde
, April 24, 1966; (the other being Claude Lelouch’s
A Man and a Woman
). The Council did, however, reject Alain Resnais’s
La Guerre est finie
because the film, concerning a Spanish opponent of Franco in exile in France, was feared to give offense to the Spanish government, and Malraux accepted this decision too. Resnais’s film was nonetheless shown at the festival, but unofficially.

9
.
L’Express
, April 11–17, 1966.

10
. Specifically, he accepted the commission’s original decision to allow its release.

11
. Vlady,
24 Images/Seconde
, pp. 162–63.

12
. Ibid., p. 159.

13
. “The Handstand and the Fox: Ten Days with Godard,”
Eiga Geijutsu
, July 1966.

14
. Ibid.

15
.
Eiga ni Me ga Kurande
(Mesmerized by Movies) by Shigehiko Hasumi (Tokyo: Chuo-Koron-Sha, 1995).

16
. Junji Hori, e-mail to author, August 6, 2002.

17
. “The Ten Days in Japan of the Director Godard,”
Kinema Junpo
, June 1966 (no. 416).

18
. Ibid.

19
.
Le Nouvel Observateur
, March 23, 1966.

20
.
Le Nouvel Observateur
, May 4, 1966.

21
. Called in French the
grands ensembles
or
HLM, habitations à loyer modéré
(moderate-rent dwellings).

22
.
G par G
, vol. 1, p. 17: “I was in Nice, I was vaguely in love, at that time, with Marina Vlady, with whom I was going to shoot
Two or Three Things
and I had gone to see her in Saint-Paul-de-Vence without much success.”

23
.
Le Nouvel Observateur
, October 12, 1966.

24
. Vianey,
En attendant Godard
, pp. 210–11.

25
. Cofounder of the Cinémathèque and director of
La Tête contre le mur
and
Eyes Without a Face
.

26
. Bernard Violet,
L’Affaire Ben Barka
(Paris: Editions Fayard, 1991), p. 197.

27
.
France-Soir
, January 20, 1966.

28
. Violet,
L’Affaire Ben Barka
, p. 197.

29
.
Le Monde
, November 7–8, 1965.

30
. Jacques Derogy and Frédéric Ploquin,
Its ont tué Ben Barka
(Paris: Fayard, 1999), p. 150.

31
. It would not be his only version; however, much of his account is consistent with the later findings of investigative journalists and historians.

32
. Despite suspicions that he was killed by the French government.

33
.
France-Soir
, January 29, 1966.

34
.
Le Nouvel Observateur
, October 12, 1966.

35
. In the novel, his name is Tiftus.

36
. Lászlo Szabó, interview by author, January 31, 2002.

37
.
Le Figaro littéraire
, February 2, 1967;
L’Avant-Scène
70, p. 48.

38
.
Les Lettres françaises
, December 22, 1966.

39
. Ibid., February 2, 1967.

40
.
G par G
, vol. 2, p. 25.

41
. Georges Sadoul,
Ecrits 1
(Paris: October 18, 1979), pp. 367–74;
Les Lettres françaises
, December 29, 1966.

42
.
Cahiers du cinéma
, January 1967.

43
.
Le Monde
, January 27, 1967.

44
.
Cet été-là
, p. 185.

45
.
2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle
(Paris: Seuil/Avant-Scène, 1971), pp. 15–16.

46
. Vlady,
24 Images/Seconde
, p. 163.

47
.
L’Express
, August 8, 1966.

48
. Vlady,
24 Images/Seconde
, p. 164.

49
. Interview with Marina Vlady,
Film
(Velber bei Hannover, Germany), March 1969.

50
. Jansen and Schütte,
Jean-Luc Godard
, p.78.

51
.
Cahiers du cinéma
, October 1967;
G par G
, vol. 1, pp. 325–26.

52
. Bitsch, interview by author, September 19, 2001.

53
. Jansen and Schütte,
Jean-Luc Godard
, p. 78.

54
. Ibid., p. 78. The best days of her career were behind her. She soon married Russian poet, singer, and hero Vladimir Vysotsky. Although she continued to act, she neither achieved her former level of stardom nor took on any roles of enduring interest.

55
. Ibid., p. 81.

56
.
Le Nouvel Observateur
, October 12, 1966.

57
. Bercholz had produced the 1961 compilation film
The Seven Deadly Sins
, which included Godard’s sketch, “Sloth.”

58
. The other directors and their themes: Claude Autant-Lara (the modern day), Mauro Bolognini (Rome), Philippe de Broca (French Revolution), Franco Indovina (the prehistoric age), Michael Pfleghar (“La belle époque”).

59
.
Le Nouvel Observateur
, October 12, 1966.

60
.
Télérama
, April 2, 1967; in
Deux ou trois choses
, Seuil / Avant-Scène, p. 116.

61
. CS [
Télérama
], December 27, 1966.

62
.
Cahiers du cinéma
, February 1967.

Chapter Fifteen:
La Chinoise, Weekend

1
. Marie-Pierre Ulloa,
Francis Jeanson, un intellectuel en dissidence de la Résistance à la guerre d’Algérie
(Paris: Berg, 2001), p. 231.

2
. Richard Gombin,
Les Origines du gauchisme
(Paris: Seuil, 1971).

3
.
G par G
, vol. 1, p. 293;
Cahiers du cinéma
, November 1966.

4
. Bourseiller,
Les Maoïstes
(Paris: Plon, 1996), p. 33.

5
. Jean-Pierre Gorin, interview by author, March 18, 2005.

6
. Lévy, interview by author, May 24, 2004.

7
. Gorin, interview by author, March 18, 2005.

8
. Press conference at Venice,
Jeune Cinéma
, October 1967 (MOMA collection).

9
. Ibid.

10
. The manager refused to project the film unless a second person showed up; Gorin called his friend Rafael Sorin, who hastened to the movie theater.

11
.
Jump Cut
, no. 3, 1974, pp. 17–19. In particular, Gorin took the new film
Not Reconciled
, by Jean-Marie Straub, an adaptation of Heinrich Böll’s
Billiards at Half-Past Nine
, to be a crucial example of new possibilities in political cinema. Godard had given Straub some financial help to make the film and then, when Böll and his publisher contested the distribution of the film—Straub made it without securing rights to the novel—Godard defended the film in the German press and helped to bring about its release. Godard then helped to finance Straub’s
The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach
.

12
.
Combat
, August 17, 1967.

13
.
El-Moudjahid
, February 7, 1967.

14
. Truffaut Archives, BiFi, file Jean-Luc Godard 551 B 313, folder 8 of 12: press clippings (interviews):
Cinéma International
no. 16, Château d’Echandens (Vaud, Switzerland).

15
. Wiazemsky, interview by author, February 20, 2003.

16
. Godard had met Semeniako at Grenoble while presenting
Masculine Feminine
at the student ciné-club there. Semeniako recalled: “When he returned to Paris, he had someone call to see whether I had a month free to work with him. I didn’t at all know what I was going to do, whether I was being hired as an extra or as a camera assistant, but I accepted immediately.” Michel Semeniako, “Tourner avec Godard,” interview with François Albéra (BiFi, Truffaut archives).

17
.
Cahiers du cinéma
, October 1967;
G par G
, vol. 1, p. 326.

18
. Sholokhov, who won the Nobel Prize in 1965 for novels that included
And Quiet Flows the Don
, was a leading figure of socialist realism.

19
.
Cahiers du cinéma
, October 1967;
G par G
, vol. 1, p. 310.

20
. Michel Semeniako, “Tourner avec Godard,” interview with François Albéra (BiFi, Truffaut archives).

21
.
G par G
, vol. 1, p. 311;
Cahiers du cinéma
, October 1967.

22
. Alain Jouffroy,
Le Roman vécu
(Paris: Robert Laffont, 1978), p. 349.

23
. This poster is in the collection of Antoine Bourseiller.

24
. Wiazemsky, interview by author, February 20, 2003.

25
. Sterritt,
Jean-Luc Godard: Interviews
, p. 48 (
Los Angeles Free Press
, March 29, 1968).

26
. Godard, interview by author, June 9, 2000: “Yes, but that’s typical of the unconscious, because I was naively on Anne Wiazemsky’s side and I made her say my own ideas in regard to Jeanson, but today, what remains is that Jeanson is rather correct. So my unconscious was correct, but it’s the cinema that got things right, more or less right, what is said isn’t necessarily right, often what the author says is even less right, because the author is present in what he does, not in what he says.”

27
.
Le Nouvel Observateur
, August 7, 1967.

28
. Bourseiller, interview by author, November 16, 2001.

29
.
Le Monde
, August 8, 1967.

30
. Wiazemsky, interview by author, February 20, 2003.

31
.
Les Letters françaises
, September 1, 1967.

32
.
Le Nouvel Observateur
, September 20, 1967.

33
. Ibid.

34
. Ibid.;
Paris-Presse
, September 10, 1967.

35
.
Le Figaro littéraire
, September 10, 1967; in
Avant-scène cinéma
, May 1971.

36
.
Le Monde
, September 6, 1967.

37
. William Klein, interview with author, May 26, 2000.

38
.
France Catholique
, August 25, 1967.

39
.
France-Soir
, September 10, 1967.

40
.
Combat
, September 5, 1967.

41
.
France-Soir
, September 10, 1967.

42
.
G par G
, vol. 1, p. 312;
Cahiers du cinéma
, October 1967.

43
.
Cahiers du cinéma
, October 1967.

44
. Ibid.

45
.
France-Soir
, September 10, 1967; radio interview, Europe 1.

46
. Bitsch, interview by author, September 19, 2001.

47
. Bitsch was not among them, he was directing his first feature,
The Last Man
, produced by Godard.

48
.
Cahiers du cinéma
, October 1967;
G par G
, vol. 1, p. 327.

49
. Wiazemsky, interview by author, February 20, 2003.

Chapter Sixteen:
Revolution (1968–1972)

1
. Alain Bergala,
Godard au travail
(Paris: Cahiers du cinéma, 2006), p. 372.

2
. Wiazemsky, interview by author, February 20, 2003.

3
.
Les Inrockuptibles
, May 13, 1998.
Cahiers du cinéma
, March 1968, contains an important, detailed chronology of the controversy’s first days, as well as a transcript of the press conference.

4
.
Le Monde
, February 11–12, 1968.

5
. Ibid., February 14, 1968.

6
. Ibid., February 16, 1968.

7
.
Cahiers du cinéma
, March 1968.

8
. Roud,
A Passion for Films
, pp. 157–59; Langlois and Myrent,
Henri Langlois
, p. 337.

9
.
The Globe and Mail
(Toronto), March 2, 1968.

10
. Cine Cubano 48.

11
. Godard, interview by author, June 9, 2000.

12
. Cine Cubano 48.