Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard (131 page)

154
.
Vladimir and Rosa
came out in New York in April 1971; though criticized by Vincent Canby of the
New York Times
, it was cited by Stuart Byron in the
Village Voice
(April 29, 1971) as “the best thing Godard has done since
Le Gai savoir
,” which he meant equivocally. It was praised unequivocally by Michael Goodwin in
Rolling Stone;
Goodwin was involved in a book-length interview of Godard,
Double Feature
, that was made during the 1970 tour.

155
.
Le Nouvel Observateur
, February 16, 1970.

156
. Ibid., June 15, 1970.

157
. Claude Mauriac,
Le Figaro Littéraire
, July 20–26, 1970.

158
.
Village Voice
, April 9, 1970;
The New Yorker
, May 30, 1970;
Village Voice
, June 4, 1970;
New York
Times
, September 12, 1970.

159
.
Village Voice
, April 30, 1970. In 1973, Sarris explained his position even more bluntly: “I got off the Godard bandwagon with
Weekend
, and I have not been on since… It is as if Godard had indeed died and been reborn in a new form. Certainly, his cinema is now completely dead.”
Village Voice
, February 22, 1973.

160
.
J’Accuse
, no. 00, November 1, 1970.

161
. Wiazemsky, interview by author, February 20, 2003.

162
. Gorin, interview by author, March 15, 2005.

163
. Buache, interview by author, March 18, 2002.

164
. Pierre Jeanneret,
Popistes
(Lausanne: Editions D’en Bas, 2002); at www.republique.ch/archives/2002–04/gauchistes/rupture.

165
. MacCabe,
Portrait of the Artist at Seventy
, p. 240.

166
. Pons, interview by author, March 9, 2002.

167
.
New York Times
, April 16, 1971.

168
. Godard returned to Paris instead of going on to Turin to introduce a screening of
Le Gai Savoir
.
Variety
, March 31, 1971.

169
. MacCabe,
Portrait of the Artist at Seventy
, p. 232.

170
. Gorin, interview by author, March 18, 2005; Tolmatchoff, interview by author, March 20, 2002.

171
. Gorin, interview by author, March 18, 2005.

172
. Wiazemsky, interview by author, February 20, 2003.

173
. Marco, interview by author, September 17, 2001.

174
. Vianey, interview by author, June 7, 2000.

175
. Wiazemsky, interview by author, February 20, 2003.

176
. Martin Even, interview by author, January 10, 2003.

177
.
New York Times
, December 24, 1972.

178
. “Producteurs, sauvez-vous vous-meme.”

179
. Montreal, Concordia University, March 11, 1977.

180
.
Filmkritik
, September 1979.

181
.
Christian Science Monitor
, December 12, 1972.

182
. Erik Ulman, “Die Froehliche Wissenschaft,” in
The Hidden and the Plain
, Viennale, Vienna International Film Festival, 2004.

183
. Gorin, interview with author, March 18, 2005.

184
.
G par G
, vol. 1, p. 22.

185
. Ibid.

Chapter Seventeen: Restoration (1973–1977)

1
. Document in Truffaut archives, la BiFi, Paris.

2
. Published in 1969.

3
.
L’Express
, December 23, 1959.

4
. Truffaut claimed in June that Godard had received it; but Godard’s name does not appear on published lists of advances on receipts awarded in the first seven months of 1973.

5
. The successor to
Le Cinéma chez soi
(Home Movies), a copy of which was featured in
A Woman Is a Woman
.

6
. The French reads: 20 million, 10 million, and 5 million francs, respectively. Godard, like many of his generation, and indeed many publications, including, for instance,
Cinématographe
, was still in the habit of referring to old francs, 1/100 the value of the new ones. Truffaut, writing back, also calculated in old francs.

7
. Truffaut,
Correspondence, 1945–1984
, pp. 385–91.

8
. Collection of Madeleine Morgenstern.

9
. Specifically, he made films from 1937 to 1954.

10
. Antoine de Baecque and Serge Toubiana,
François Truffaut
(Paris: Gallimard, 2001), p. 713.

11
. The company name came from Aton, the primal Egyptian god cited in Freud’s
Moses and Monotheism
, but it was spelled with two
A
s so it would come first in the professional telephone listings.

12
. Freddy Buache,
Le Cinéma français des années 70
(Remens: Five Continents), p. 6.

13
. Ibid.

14
. Ibid., p. 7.

15
. Ibid.

16
. Jean-Pierre Beauviala, interview by author, March 21, 2002.

17
. The seed money for Sonimage had come from the producer Jean-Pierre Rassam, from money that had been put into
Tout va bien
by Gaumont, and from Godard’s and Miéville’s own funds (which Richard Roud reported as “inheritances”). (Richard Roud,
Guardian
, August 16, 1975.)

18
. Montreal conference, March 11, 1977.

19
.
Le Monde
, September 17 and October 14, 1976.

20
.
Le Monde
, September 18, 1976;
Libération
, October 22, 1976;
Le Quotidien de Paris
, September 20, 1976.

21
.
Le Film français
, March 14, 1975.

22
.
Politique hebdo
, September 24, 1975.

23
. Ibid.

24
. The French nickname Beauregard used was “Jeannot.”

25
.
Le Monde
, May 8, 1975.

26
. Ibid.

27
. CS, May 1975.

28
.
Libération
, May 24, 1975.

29
.
Le Nouvel Observateur
, October 6, 1975.
Newsweek
’s Edward Behr reported from Paris on Godard’s “truly revolutionary development in technique” by which, “once more, Godard has called into question the very nature of the art.”
Newsweek
, October 20, 1975.

30
.
Le Film français
, March 14, 1975.

31
.
Libération
, September 15, 1975.

32
. Portugal’s army had staged a coup in 1974 to put an end to rightist dictatorship and establish a socialist state; elections a year later brought to power a democratic socialist with no intention of installing an orthodox Communist government. The protesting soldiers were joined by twenty thousand “Marxist-Leninist” revolutionaries, to whom
Libération
was sympathetic.

33
.
Libération
, September 17, 1975.

34
. This is the diminutive of Odile, Godard’s mother’s name.

35
. As one editor said, “There’s Godard and there are all the others.”

36
.
Le Monde
, May 11, 1976.

37
. Alain Bergala,
Nul mieux que Godard
(Paris: Cahiers du cinéma, 1999), pp. 27–31;
Cahiers du cinéma
, July–August, 1978.

38
.
Variety
, March 17, 1976.

39
. In fact, exactly ten hours.

40
.
Le Monde
, July 18–19, 1976.

41
. Manette Bertin, interview by author, February 18, 2003.

42
.
Le Monde
, July 18–19, 1976. The contract specified that the company would deliver a series of programs “on communication.” Godard quipped that he thought of it rather as “on, under, beside, across” communication, and indeed the ten hours of programming are alternately called
Sur et Sous la Communication
(On and Under Communication).

43
.
Libération
, July 23, 1976.

44
. Godard,
Introduction à une véritable histoire du cinéma
, p. 100.

45
. William Lubtchansky, interview by author, September 12, 2001.

46
. Ibid.

47
. Bertin, interview by author, February 18, 2003.

48
.
Le Nouvel Observateur
, August 2, 1976.

49
.
Le Monde
, August 9, 1976.

50
. Jonathan Kandell, “The Talk of Paris; ‘Morose’ Describes It All: Weather, Politics, Crime,”
New York Times
, August 1, 1978.

51
.
Filmkritik
, September 1975.

52
. Ibid., February 1977.

53
.
Le Devoir
(Montreal), July 19, 1968.

54
. Ibid., March 10, 1977.

55
. Tape summary by March 9, 1977.

56
. March 12, 1977.

57
.
Le Devoir
, August 25, 1977.

Chapter Eighteen:
France Tour Détour Deux Enfants

1
. Bertin, interview by author, February 18, 2003.

2
.
Politique hebdo
, September 24, 1975.

3
.
Télérama
, September 27–October 3, 1975.

4
. He was also leaving behind unfulfilled business obligations; with Godard leaving and Gérard Martin, a co-signatory for Sonimage, remaining, Martin, aware of Gorin’s tribulations after Godard’s departure from Paris, refused to stay on the hook: he sued Godard successfully for 400,000 francs relating to the company’s outstanding debts. (Jean-Pierre Gorin, interview by author, March 18, 2005.)

5
.
Machin
means both “thingamajig” and “whatsisname.”

6
.
Le Cinéma français
, no. 15, 1977.

7
. Bertin, interview by author, February 18, 2003.

8
. He had told Philippe Rony the same thing. Rony, interview by author, February 17, 2003.

9
. All quotations by Camille Virolleaud are from my interviews with her on April 16, 2001, April 22, 2001, November 22, 2001, and March 28, 2002.

10
. Martine Virolleaud, interview by author, April 22, 2001.

11
. François Virolleaud, interview by author, April 22, 2001.

12
. Manette Bertin papers.

13
. Cohn-Bendit,
Le Grand Bazar
.

14
.
L’Express
, February 22, 2001.

15
.
Libération
, February 23, 2001.

16
.
L’Express
, February 22, 2001.

17
.
L’Express
, March 1, 2001.

18
. Ibid.

19
.
Libération
, February 23, 2001.

20
. Ferré is the songwriter whom Godard had asked in 1970 to write a song about the ban on
La Cause du peuple
.

21
. Bertin, interview by author, February 18, 2003.

22
. http://www.fluctuat.net/cinema/interview/bergala.htm; February 22, 2002.

23
.
Le Monde
, May 3, 1979.

24
. Bertin, interview by author, February 18, 2003.

25
. Ibid.

26
. Serge Losique, interview by author, January 22, 2003. However, one student who was present, Kent Jones, recalls that the sessions were sparsely attended.

27
. Godard,
Introduction à une véritable histoire du cinéma
, p. 59.

28
. Ibid., p. 81.

29
. Ibid., p. 82.

30
. Ibid., p. 201.

31
.
Le Cinéma francais
, no. 22, 1978.

32
. And later for such films as
The Tin Drum, The Return of Martin Guerre
, and
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
.

33
. Jean-Claude Carrière, interview by author, November 22, 2001.

34
.
Le Cinéma français
, no. 24, 1978.

35
.
Women’s Wear Daily
, October 8, 1980.

36
. Ibid.

37
. Catherine Verret, interview by author, June 29, 2000.

38
. Tom Luddy, interview by author, February 1, 2001.

39
. As proven by its eventual publication,
G par G
, vol. 1.

40
.
Ça cinéma
, no. 19, 1980.

41
.
Le Matin de Paris
, May 20, 1980.

42
.
Nouvelles litteraires
, August 1978.

43
.
Kuxa Kanema
, a documentary film (2003, Morgarida Cardoso).

44
. RAI broadcast [unidentified].

45
.
Kuxa Kanema
.

46
. Ibid.

47
. Letter to Carole Roussopoulos,
Cahiers du cinéma
, no. 300.

48
. Jean-Claude Carrière, http://www.revolver-film.de/Inhalte/Rev3/html/Carriere.htm; Carrière interview, by Jens Börner and Benjamin Heisenberg, December 17, 1998 in Munich, edited by Börner and translated into German by Eva Pampuch.

Chapter Nineteen:
Sauve qui peut (la vie)