Read Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard Online

Authors: Richard Brody

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Entertainment & Performing Arts, #Performing Arts, #Individual Director

Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard (135 page)

14
. Godard, interview by author, June 9, 2000.

15
. Jean-Louis Martinelli, interview by author, March 29, 2002.

16
. Gill Holland, interview by author, June 6, 2002.

17
. On the ostensible grounds of Godard’s insistence that the festival director, Richard Peña, view the film at a screening in Paris, and his refusal to send a video for the entire selection committee to review
(Rob Tregenza, e-mail to author, May 30, 2002). When Gill Holland called Peña to complain of this rejection on formalities, the festival director responded, “He never comes, he says he’ll come, then he doesn’t come” (Gill Holland, interview by author, June 6, 2002).

18
. Holland, interview by author, June 6, 2002.

19
. Ibid.

20
. Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens, interview by author, June 13, 2000.

21
.
Nulle part ailleurs
, February 25, 1998, 2nd part, Marie Darrieussecq; www.cyberpresse.ca/reseau/arts/xp/art_p1056130.html, May 15, 2001, Boudé en salle, Jean-Luc Godard fêté sur la Croisette, par Didier Saltron, Agence France-Presse, Cannes.

22
.
Nulle part ailleurs
, February 25, 1998, 2nd part, Marie Darrieussecq.

23
. Ibid.

24
. Otchakovsky-Laurens, interview by author, June 13, 2000.

25
.
Journal de Genève
/
Gazette de Lausanne
, November 30 / December 1, 1996.

26
. At the same time, Otchakovsky-Laurens also released Godard’s similar “versification” of the text of
JLG/JLG
.

27
. Though
Inside/Out
was accepted to the “Un Certain regard” section of the 1997 Cannes Film Festival and received favorable reviews, it was not picked up for distribution in the United States. Tregenza has not made another feature film since then. Meanwhile, Tregenza, as per his agreement with Godard, had resold American distribution rights in
For Ever Mozart
to New Yorker Films. (The film was not released commercially and had only a brief run at the Walter Reade Theater of Lincoln Center.)

From April 1997 on, Tregenza heard nothing more from Godard—until July 2001, when Godard left a message on Tregenza’s answering machine, a message that Tregenza calls “polite and friendly,” regarding a “collaboration.” Tregenza was out of town at the time and did not get the message until ten days later. When he called Godard back, Godard said that he had changed his mind.

28
. Allaux, interview by author, September 16, 2001.

29
.
Libération
, December 3, 1996.

30
. Delphine Chuillot, interview by author, March 29, 2002.

31
. Martinelli, interview by author, March 29, 2002.

32
. Allaux, interview by author, September 16, 2001.

33
. Bonnaffé, interview by author, June 12, 2000.

34
. Allaux, interview by author, September 16, 2001.

35
.
G par G
, vol. 2, p. 399.

36
. Bergala, interview by author, May 20, 2001. Godard did, however, allow Bergala to publish the text in the second volume of the book
Jean-Luc Godard par Jean-Luc Godard
.

37
. Buache, interview by author, March 18, 2002.

38
.
L’Express
, May 3, 2001.

39
. Maillot, interview by author, April 23, 2001.

40
. Bergala, interview by author, November 27, 2001.

41
. Ibid.

42
.
Télérama
, October 4, 2000.

43
.
Epok
, May 2001.

Chapter Twenty-nine:
Eloge de l’amour

1
.
Les Inrockuptibles
, October 21, 1998.

2
. “Seminar with Claude Lanzmann, 11 April, 1990,”
Yale French Studies
, no. 79 (1991).

3
.
Les Inrockuptibles
, October 21, 1998.

4
.
Le Monde
, December 3, 1998.

5
. Bergala, interview by author, November 27, 2001.

6
. Bernard-Henri Lévy,
Comédie
(Paris: Grasset, 1997), p. 55.

7
. Lévy, interview by author, May 24, 2004.

8
. Claude Lanzmann, interview by author, February 26, 2003.

9
.
Le Monde
, June 27, 1999.

10
. Lévy, interview by author, May 24, 2004.

11
. Lévy, interview by author, May 23, 2004.

12
.
Le Monde
, June 27, 1999.

13
. Lévy, interview by author, May 23, 2004.

14
. Ibid.

15
. Lanzmann, interview by author, February 26, 2003.

16
.
Libération
, December 3, 1996.

17
. The four versions described here are published in
G par G
, vol. 2, pp. 447–69.

18
. Godard, interview by author, June 9, 2000.

19
.
Le Télégramme
(Bretagne), December 1, 1999.

20
. Ibid., November 30, 1999.

21
. Isabelle C., discussions and correspondence with author, 1995–2002.

22
. Marie Desgranges, interview by author, June 27, 2001.

23
. Ibid.

24
. Philippe Loyrette, interview by author, March 30, 2002.

25
. Loyrette, interview by author, June 27, 2001.

26
. For the film
Petits disorders amoureux
, directed by Olivier Péray.

27
. Bruno Putzulu, interview by author, March 30, 2002.

28
. Cécile Camp, interview by author, May 18, 2001.

29
. http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/news/interview.asp?Index=5664 (Jean-Luc Godard, interview by Michèle Halberstadt).

30
. Jean Lacouture, interview by author, June 15, 2000.

31
. Ibid.

32
. Godard had wanted the painter Pierre Soulages to play the role as himself, but the artist refused.

33
. Marcelline Loridan-Ivens, interview by author, April 23, 2001.

34
. Loridan-Ivens talked about this experience in 1960 in the film by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin,
Chronicle of a Summer
.

35
. Roger, interview by author, June 14, 2001.

36
. Putzulu, interview by author, March 25, 2002.

37
. Putzulu, interview by author, June 18, 2001.

38
. Putzulu, interview by author, March 25, 2002.

39
. Camp, interview by author, May 18, 2001.

40
. Fleur Albert, interview by author, May 19, 2001; Putzulu, interview by author, June 18, 2001.

41
. Putzulu, interview by author, March 25, 2002.

42
. Roger, interview by author, June 14, 2001.

43
. Her grandfather tells Jean Lacouture, “Berthe is inside looking at the contract” before we actually know who is looking at the contract, and he tells Edgar, “Berthe was a superb swimmer” when she is not seen on-screen. Also, Edgar refers to her obliquely as “no Berthe Morisot,” Manet’s model.

44
.
Le Film Français
, May 15, 2001.

45
. Ibid.

46
. Godard, interview by author, June 9, 2000.

47
. Albert, interview by author, May 19, 2001.

48
.
Les Inrockuptibles
, May 15–21, 2001.

49
. As I can attest, having been present at each of them for shows at different times of the day and evening in the first two weeks of its run.

50
. Jean-Marie Straub, interview by author, September 23, 2001.

51
. I was one of ten people in the audience for an evening show of
Two or Three Things I Know About Her
, one of five for a screening of
First Name: Carmen
.

52
.
Le Figaro Magazine
, June 9, 2001.

53
.
Télérama
, May 12, 2004.

Chapter Thirty:
Notre Musique

1
.
Libération
, December 27, 2000.

2
. Godard, interview by author, June 9, 2000.

3
. Faux, interview by author, November 28, 2001.

4
.
Epok
, May 2001.

5
. Along with his own relations with his grandparents, and particularly with his maternal grandfather.
Studio
, May 2001.

6
. MacCabe, interview by author, January 31, 2001.

7
. Godard, interview by author, June 9, 2000.

8
.
Libération
, April 7, 2002.

9
. None of whom actually had a film in the series when it was completed in 2007.

10
. This was likely the project for which Godard called Rob Tregenza to do camera work, given Tregenza’s repudiation of shot-countershot.

11
. “Vercors” was a pseudonym for Jean Bruller.

12
.
Le Monde
, supplement “Aden,” May 19–25, 2004; and
L’Humanité
, May 20, 2004. Tregenza, e-mail to author, May 30, 2002.

13
.
Le Monde
, May 12, 2004.

14
. Ibid., September 29, 2004.

15
. Bergala, interview by author, June 21, 2002.

16
.
Le Monde
, May 13, 2004.

17
. Sanbar recalled that meeting in a 1991 article in the first issue of
Trafic
(to which Godard contributed a brief poetic text) and again in his book
Le Bien des absents
(The Absentees’ Goods), published in 2001.

18
. Elias Sanbar,
Le Bien des absents
(Arles: Actes Sud, 2001), p. 95.

19
. http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/loisirs/cinema, Propos recueillis par Gi.D., June 2004 (http://www.geocities.com/glen_norton/interviews.html).

20
.
Cahiers du cinéma
, May 2004.

21
.
Les Inrockuptibles
, May 5–11, 2004.

22
.
New York Times
, October 2, 2004.

23
.
New York Observer
, December 2, 2004.

24
. Frodon, interview by author, September 14, 2001.

Epilogue

1
. Ghislaine Moutote, interview by author, June 11, 2000.

2
. Godard, interview by author, June 9, 2000.

INDEX

JLG = Jean-Luc Godard

Aäton cameras,
373
,
375
,
449
,
452–53

Abstract Expressionism,
7
,
61

Action
(newspaper),
344

Actors Studio,
497
,
501

Adieu Philippine
(Rozier),
129

Adjani, Isabelle,
443
,
445–46
,
448–50
,
452

Adler, Sarah,
618
,
622–23

Adorable Menteuse
(Deville),
192

Adorno, Theodor,
564
,
585

Aesthetics
(Hegel),
43

Afonso, Yves,
279
,
283
,
333

Agabra, Edmond,
122

Agatha et les lectures illimitées
(Duras),
433

Age d’or, L’
(Dali and Buñuel),
4
,
16
,
219

Agee, James,
576

Agel, Henri,
7
,
25

Age of Nylon

The Soul
(Triolet),
194

Ailleurs immédiat, L’
(Gorin),
363

Aimé Pache, peintre vaudois
(Ramuz),
617

Akerman, Chantal,
139
,
251
,
420

Akika, Ali,
378

Albert, Fleur,
593
,
601
,
605

Aldiss, Brian,
223

Aldrich, Robert,
215
,
527

Alekan, Henri,
439

Algerian War,
37
,
44
,
81–86
,
94–96
,
98–105
,
158
,
246
,
263
,
280
,
297
,
298
,
308
,
311
,
562
,
564
,
572
,
615

Allaux, Bérangère,
565
,
568
,
571–79
,
581
,
589
,
592

Alleg, Henri,
84

Allen, Woody,
139
,
493
,
495
,
498
,
504
,
615

Altan, Christiana Tullio,
350

Althusser, Louis,
200
,
299–300
,
306
,
350

Altman, Robert,
394
,
527

American Beauty
(Mendes),
605

American cinema (Hollywood),
4
,
8
,
11–13
,
15
,
21
,
28–30
,
36
,
47–48
,
70
,
72
,
139
,
157
,
160
,
170–71
,
179–80
,
191
,
204–6
,
209
,
211–22
,
244
,
266
,
290–91
,
301–2
,
322
,
392
,
410–11
,
502
,
512–14
,
525
,
543
,
558–62
,
580–81
,
622
,
628
.
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