MoMa on Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless

Retrospective on the landmark title of French New Wave cinema

Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in Godard's A bout de soufflé (1960)

From MoMa:

To give Jean-Luc Godard’s A bout de soufflé (Breathless) its proper place in film history would require a great deal more space than is available here and, indeed, volumes have already been written on the subject. Roy Armes put it succinctly: “All the rules of conventional film-making are scorned.” Over the past half-century, Godard (now 82) has become, if not our greatest living director, then certainly our most written about. Richard Roud, a Godard admirer, wrote ”For many, he is the most important film-maker of his generation; for others, he is, if not the worst, then the most unbearable…he is admired and detested for the very same reasons.” [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• New Wave Cinematographer: Raoul Coutard
• Waiting for Godard
• Godard, Coffee and the Universe

Susan Sontag, On Photography

Darran Anderson gathers together some of the photographs

Walt Whitman

Darran Anderson on Susan Sontag's On Photography (link via 3:AM Magazine):

In the battered Penguin paperback edition that I’ve been reading there were no examples of the many photographs which Sontag referred to in the text, photographs that are freely available, though scattered, around the internet. So for my own benefit and hopefully that of others, I’ve put together links to as many of the images (and photographers) as I could find online with the corresponding page references and quotes from her work (copyright restrictions prevent me from posting them directly here). I hope you find it useful and if you haven’t read the book I strongly recommend it as one of those texts that changes the way you see things and not just in terms of photography. [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• William Burroughs and Susan Sontag on meeting Beckett
• Edmund White on Susan Sontag
• Susan Sontag on Simone Weil

The Architecture of Chris Marker's La Jetée

Lebbeus Woods on Marker's 1962 sci-fi film

A still from Chris Marker's La Jetée

Lebbeus Woods on Chris Marker's La Jetée (link via Ballardian): 'Speaking of masterpieces, the 1962 science fiction film, La Jetée, by Chris Marker, ranks very near the top in films, inviting comparison with early classics such as Nosferatu and Faust, as well later tours de force like Beauty and the Beast and Alphaville, even though it is only twenty-eight minutes long. Without question, it puts to shame contemporary films of its genre snd most especially its re-make, Twelve Monkeys, which had an all-star cast, a vastly bigger budget and the slickest special effects money can buy. How could this be, given La Jetée’s black and white format and the fact that it is made entirely (almost) from still photographs? Its actors are little known and anyway we never hear them speak, instead hearing only music and a narrator’s voice superimposed on the still images. The story is rather conventional, a tale from a post-World War Three world, in which the hero must travel into the past and the future in search of energy sources and food for a ruined, radioactive city. And yes, there is a man-woman love interest that, in Romeo and Juliet style, is in the end tragically thwarted by fate. How did Marker turn such mundane ingredients into a masterpiece, a work of art of the highest order? The answer, I believe, is of value to artists in every medium, including the stubbornly resistant-to-art field of architecture.' [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• Chris Marker 1921-2012
• Chris Marker Documentary
• Stills from Chris Marker's La jetée
• Echo Chamber: Listening to La Jetée

Chris Marker 1921-2012

Richard Brody on the distinctive French writer, artist and filmmaker

Chris Marker

From The New Yorker (link via 3 Quarks Daily): 'The very subject of Chris Marker’s work is memory; his death today, at the age of ninety-one (indeed, the day after his ninety-first birthday), elicits a simulacrum of memory, in tributes such as this one, where the contrast between the immediate significance (to the protagonist in the drama and to those who know and love him) and its public reflection is stretched to absurdity. For Marker, memory isn’t passive; it’s an act of resistance—the edge that cuts a path into the future—and the effective work of memory is the very definition of art. Marker was a master of film editing—the part of the filmmaking process that Jean-Luc Godard, another master editor and memory-artist, defined as holding past, present, and future in one’s own hands—and the very possibility of remembering Marker demands a little editing, a splicing-in of excerpts from a surprising and crucial document.' [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• Chris Marker Documentary
• Stills from Chris Marker's La jetée
• Echo Chamber: Listening to La Jetée

New Wave Cinematographer: Raoul Coutard

'Perhaps the most famous cinematographer of the nouvelle vague'

Cinematographer Raoul Coutard shooting Breathless from a Paris rooftop.

From Criterion Collection: 'Perhaps the most famous cinematographer of the nouvelle vague, Raoul Coutard shot more than seventy-five films during his forty-three-year career. A war photographer (in Indochina) turned freelance photojournalist (his images appeared in Paris Match and Look), Coutard turned to film, hesitantly, only in the late fifties. After fumbling his way through a few film assignments (he was inexperienced with a movie camera), he was hired by producer Georges de Beauregard to shoot the debut film of a young critic named Jean-Luc Godard. His ragged, incisive shooting style on Breathless became iconic in modern cinema, and Godard kept him on board for the rest of the sixties and beyond, while other directors, like François Truffaut, Jacques Demy, Jean Rouch, and Costa-Gavras, also called upon his skills. His exacting images, which vary from rich and luxurious to gritty and documentary-like, can be seen in countless indelible films, including Shoot the Piano Player, Jules and Jim, Contempt, Alphaville, Pierrot le fou, and Z.' [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• Waiting for Godard
• Godard, Coffee and the Universe

René Magritte: The Pleasure Principle Exhibition

24 June – 16 October 2011

René Magritte, Golconde (1953)

René Magritte: The Pleasure Principle
Tate Liverpool
24 June – 16 October 2011

About the exhibition

René Magritte (1898–1967) is one of the most revered and popular artists of the 20th century. This summer, Tate Liverpool presents René Magritte: The Pleasure Principle, the biggest exhibition of the Belgian surrealist’s work in England for twenty years.

Renowned for witty images depicting everyday objects such as apples, bowler hats and pipes in unusual settings, Magritte’s art plays with the idea of reality and illusion.

Magritte’s work has had an enduring effect on the art world, inspiring artists ranging from John Baldessari and Ed Ruscha to Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol. Magritte’s impact has also been felt throughout popular culture. Musicians such as Paul Simon, directors Jean-Luc Goddard and Terry Gilliam, and many writers and advertisers have all been influenced by Magritte’s famous images.

Tate Liverpool’s exhibition will reveal the inspiration behind the artist’s celebrated style, focusing on the less explored aspects of Magritte’s life and artistic practice.

Paintings will feature alongside drawings, collages, examples of Magritte’s early commercial work and rarely seen photographs and films. The exhibition will include iconic pieces by the artist as well as some more surprising works, offering visitors a fresh insight into the intriguing world of Magritte. Not to be missed. [Read More]

Group Pricing

Groups of ten or more receive discounted entry to Rene Magritte: The Pleasure Principle when booking at least two weeks in advance of their visit. Adult tickets £9, concessions £7.

Talks

Special introductory talks to this exhibition are available at an additional cost of £5 per person. Discounts are available Monday to Friday only.

Family tickets are available from £22 (Gift Aid family ticket includes donation)

Contact

For more information and to book please call 0151 702 7400.

Website

• Tate Liverpool

Disjecta: This week's links

Your guide to this week's best cultural links

Don DeLillo, The Names

Literature:

Franz Kafka: Times Flow Stemmed re-reads Kafka's The Castle
Will Self: Caricature by Nicola Jennings
Will Self: Excellent 25min documentary, Obsessed with Walking, follows Self's trip to Los Angeles while researching Walking to Hollywood
William S. Burroughs: Interviewed by David Bowie in 1974
A Literary Map of Manhattan
Gabriel Josipovici: The Independent newspaper reviews What Ever Happened to Modernism?
The UBUWEB Anthology of Conceptual Writing
Don DeLillo: Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction
Don DeLillo: On researching Libra
James Joyce: Saul Bellow on Ulysses
Literary Sisters: Cathy Cassidy's Top 10 stories about sisters
Philip Roth: 'Don't judge it. Just write it.'
Dorothy Parker and the Marriott Circle
The Paris Review: Interviews with authors now freely available online
J. G. Ballard: 1984 interview by The Paris Review
Barney Rosset: The Paris Review's 1997 interview with Grove publisher on Samuel Beckett, William Burroughs and the Beat Generation
Zadie Smith takes over book column for Harpers
John Milton: Paradise Lost to be adapted as an action film
Lydia Davis: On what makes a good literary translation

Philosophy & Critical Theory:

Verso Books: A new website from the political and philosophical publishers

Film & Television:

Werner Herzog and Errol Morris on reading
BBC Plans 2011 Shakespeare Season
Jean-Luc Godard: French film director stands out in support of convicted video pirate
Woody Allen: The New York Times interviews Allen on life, death and Dostoyevsky

Theatre:

Thomas Bernhard: Director Adam Seelig discusses his New York production of Ritter, Dene, Voss

Thank you to all link contributors, who can be found on the A Piece of Monologue Twitter page.

Disjecta: This week's links

I've been incredibly busy this last week, so Disjecta is a little quieter than usual. But that's not to say there isn't anything to see. New Yorker magazine has announced its young writers worth watching, The Guardian reviews Godard's Breathless on its fiftieth anniversary, and online magazine, The Daily Dose reviews David Lynch's The Interview Project. A Piece of Monologue is also sad to mark the passing of Louise Bourgeois and Peter Orlovsky.

Literature:

Bloomsday 2010: The James Joyce Centre in Dublin hosts a series of events
Peter Orlovsky 1933-2010
Young Writers Worth Watching
The Voice of Oscar Wilde?
Faber & Faber:  Sign up for free email newsletters
W. G. Sebald: J. M. Coetzee explores the role of the uncanny in Sebald's writing

Theatre:

Samuel Beckett: Breath and Other Shorts, Dublin

Film & Television:

David Lynch: The Daily Dose reviews The Interview Project
Jean-Luc Godard: Breathless at 50

Art:

Samuel Beckett: Atelier 25 designs new French editions of Beckett's work
Louise Bourgeois 1911-2010


Thank you to all link contributors, who can be found on the
A Piece of Monologue Twitter page.

Waiting for Godard

Film critic Jason Solomons on the return of Jean-Luc Godard

Jason Solomons returns from this year's Cannes Film Festival with high hopes for Jean-Luc Godard's new work, Film Socialisme, which features references to Jacques Derrida, Walter Benjamin, Samuel Beckett and William Shakespeare:

The real gem wasn't in competition but in the more experimental (and this year, dull) Un Certain Regard selection and it came from the grand master of the filmic game, Jean-Luc Godard, or JLG as he's now known, like some kind of perfume (a whiff of bitterness, with top notes of genius).

Helped with production by fashionista Agnes B and using words ("textos") credited to J Derrida, W Benjamin, S Beckett and W Shakespeare, among others, 79-year-old JLG's avowed final work Film Socialisme was the freshest, coolest thing I saw, bursting with a new wave of anger and vitality, retooling once again the visual language of cinema.

Shot in astounding, crisp HD, it's a fragmented collage of ideas and thoughts, beautifully pure graphics, scratched Dolby sounds and twisted images. He even plays with the convention of subtitles, merely placing English words along the bottom of the frame: "smile dismiss universe" or "destructive constructive". At one point, a girl at a petrol station refuses "to talk to anyone who uses the verb to be". Then a llama appears behind her. You want story? Forget it, but there's plenty of meaning here as Godard swipes at European history, Palestine, Jews, bankers and the futility of language and the strictures of time. As the final credits simply say: NO COMMENT – and the old man didn't show up for his Cannes press conference. [Read the article]

Jason Solomons, 'Waiting for Godard'

The Observer, 23 May 2010

Godard, Coffee and the Universe

A scene from Godard's 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle

2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (directed by Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)

A scene from 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle, famously referenced in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. With its heady blend of urban alienation and coffee fetishism, existential ennui never felt so hip!