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Courts-métrages, Godard

Courts-métrages, Godard (VOF)
Location
Main screening room
Date
December 8th, 2022
Duration
60 min
Cycle
Jean-Luc Godard, premières manières

In 1960, Jean-Luc Godard directed his first feature film and joined the nascent French New Wave, of which he would become the emblematic figure. In the following years, he shot nearly two films a year, drawing on his rich cinephilia to revolutionize cinema in his own way. Even the works that would later become his most famous and acclaimed were then received as a small earthquake, disconcerting more than one critic. From 1960 to 1965, from Breathless to Pierrot le fou, this first period will be called "the Karina years" but it is not a homogeneous whole; in fact, it already shows what will always characterize Godard: constantly reinventing himself, with as much playfullness as intelligence, refusing to freeze the cinema in any way whatsoever.

Présentation ou Charlotte et son steak
Directed by
Eric Rohmer
Language
French with English subtitles
Actors
Jean-Luc Godard, Andrée Bertrand, Anna Karina, Anne Coudret, Stéphane Audran
Origins
France
Year
1951
Duration
12 min
Genre
Short film
Format
Digital
Synopsis

Walter is walking with Charlotte when they meet Clara. Walter hopes Charlotte will be jealous of Clara's good looks and become more interested in him. When Clara parts from them, Charlotte goes into her house and Walter follows her, though she does not want him to. Offering him food, which he refuses, she fries herself a steak and gives him a piece. He asks for a kiss and she refuses. She starts talking about Clara, who Walter says is more beautiful yet it is Charlotte he prefers. She does not believe him but notices that he is shivering, on which she hugs and kisses him. Then he walks her to her train.

Présentation ou Charlotte et son steak
Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick
Directed by
Jean-Luc Godard
Language
French
Actors
Nicole Berger, Jean-Claude Brialy, Anne Collette
Origins
France
Year
1957
Duration
20 min
Genre
Drama, Comedy
Format
35 mm
Synopsis

A seducer has a date with two young girls on the same day, without realizing at first that they are friends. A script by Éric Rohmer.

Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick
Une histoire d'eau
Directed by
François Truffaut et Jean-Luc Godard
Language
French
Actors
Jean-Claude Brialy, Caroline Dim
Origins
France
Year
1958
Duration
12 min
Genre
Short
Format
35 mm
Synopsis

In February 1958, the newspapers were full of stories about the floods in the Paris region. On leaving a screening, Truffaut remarked to Pierre Braunberger that the cinema never used such events. Godard overbid him and the next day Truffaut shot some 600 meters of film. Godard asked to see the images and offered to write a commentary and edit them. A master in the art of digression, he evokes in turn : Franju, Baudelaire, Homer, Éluard...

Une histoire d'eau
Charlotte et son Jules
Directed by
Jean-Luc Godard
Language
French
Actors
Jean-Paul Belmondo, Gérard Blain, Anne Collette
Origins
France
Year
1959
Duration
13 min
Genre
Short
Format
35 mm
Synopsis

A young girl listens to an old friend deliver a long monologue.

Charlotte et son Jules

Jean-Luc Godard

Born in Paris in 1930, Jean-Luc Godard grew up on the shores of Lake Geneva, and his first passion was painting. After the Second World War, which he spent in Switzerland, his family sent him to study in Paris, but Godard mainly attended film clubs and the Cinémathèque française. At the beginning of the 1950s, he attended the Ciné-club du Quartier Latin (Cinema club of the Latin Quarter) where he met Maurice Schérer (soon to be Eric Rohmer), François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol and Jacques Rivette, among others, with whom he took his first steps as a critic and embarked on the adventure of the Cahiers du cinéma. After directing a few short films, he moved on to feature films in the wake of François Truffaut by directing A bout de souffle in 1960, which contributed to the launch of the French New Wave. He will not stop shooting until the 2010s, constituting over the decades an exploratory work that has always pushed the boundaries of cinema.

Photo: ©Bertrand Carrière | Collections de la Cinémathèque québécoise

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