R
Screening

Jean-Luc Godard: The Early Years

  • Sat, Oct 4–Sat, Nov 22, 1980
    (This event has already happened.)

    All films will be shown at 7:00 and 9:00 pm in Cobb Hall, Room 425, adjacent to the Bergman Gallery.

    October 4 Breathless, 1959 This most important film of the New Wave is as much a documentary of Paris as the story of a gangster, Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) with an unflappable crush on Patricia (Jean Seberg), a fledgling American journalist.

    October 11 A Woman is a Woman, 1961 Angela (Anna Karina), a stripper who wants to be in musical comedy, also wants to have a child immediately. When her lover refuses, she turns to their mutual friend (Belmondo) to father the child.

    October 18 Vivre Sa Vie, 1962 Perhaps Godard’s most beautiful film, it concerns the relations of words and feelings, and the connections of images to reality. A series of 12 tableaux show Nana (Karina) trying to gain control of her life, a struggle destined for tragedy.

    October 25 Contempt, 1963 In this film-within-a-film, an American producer(Jack Palance) hires writer Paul Jarval (Michel Piccoli) to commercialize the Odyssey for director Fritz Lang. Jarval’s belief that his wife (Brigitte Bardot) has contempt for him destroys their relationship.

    November 1 Band of Outsiders, 1964 A study of alienated Parisian suburbanites who try to escape the boredom and ugliness of their daily lives by acting out B-movie gangster fantasies.

    November 8 Alphaville, 1965 Alienation in technological society is the theme of Godard’s most tightly structured narrative. Special agent Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) destroys the demonic computer-ruler and revitalizes inhabitant Anna Karina through passion.

    November 15 Pierrot le Fou, 1965 Escaping society, outcasts Belmondo and Karina trek gangster-style to an isolated Mediterranean island. But there is no romantic escape.

    November 22 Masculine-Feminine, 1966 Paul (Jean-Paul Leaud) polls the attitudes of Parisian youth on social conditions. Seeking tenderness,he falls in love with Madelaine (Chantal Goya), an aspiring singer.

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