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Loading... Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godardby Richard Brody
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. One of the best movie books I've read. Yes, Brody is perhaps overly sensitive to, or at least loquacious about, Godard's antisemitism, but that's a minor irritant -- his discussions of the movies are invariably illuminating and well-informed, and even when you disagree with his judgments he gives you a lot to think about. Anybody interested in Godard should immerse themselves in this book. ( ) Godard still had sixteen rows of American films in his library; he had been deceived, but the illusions were beautiful ones, beautiful to believe in, even after their fraud was revealed. This was a sublime albeit painful experience. Joel bought this for me upon its release nine years ago but I never pursued such as I didn't wish to encounter spoilers per the films depicted within. I'm rather sure Godard would find my explanation bullshit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz0ZdVZrw9Y This is a biography of an ultimately nebulous presence, hidden behind those dark glasses and the swirl of cigar smoke. The whirr of the projector blends with his raspy voice. This is a warts and all endeavor: misogyny and anti-Semitism percolate. Both were difficult for me to absorb. What wasn't a challenge was viewing a half dozen of his film per week recently and I'm sure Amazon approves of my obsession. Godard is quoted repeatedly, "At the cinema, we do not think, we are thought. I find the Slavic soul at the core of that. Maybe that is why Solzhenitsyn figures so prominently in Goodbye To Language - but then why all the scenes of people defecating? There is considerably gravity in making Godard an institution. Much like his counterpart Bob Dylan, he doesn't easily conform to such expectations. Whether it was his Maoist phase or when Jack Lang as Minister of Culture assured JLG of funding -- the results were astonishingly singular. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx37fO25k-4 This is a really well-done book, I quite enjoyed it. My only qualms are that the author continuously refers to Godard as having anti-Semitic tendencies and also that almost all of his films were made to solve some problem Godard was having with Anna Karina at the time (to save the marriage). This kind of repetitive reasoning points toward simplistic thinking, and causes me to doubt the validity of whatever the author is saying. Not saying he is wrong, of course...I obviously do not know as much as Brody does about Godard. no reviews | add a review
From New Yorker film critic Richard Brody, Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard presents a "serious-minded and meticulously detailed . . . account of the lifelong artistic journey" of one of the most influential filmmakers of our age (The New York Times).When Jean-Luc Godard wed the ideals of filmmaking to the realities of autobiography and current events, he changed the nature of cinema. Unlike any earlier films, Godard's work shifts fluidly from fiction to documentary, from criticism to art. The man himself also projects shifting images--cultural hero, fierce loner, shrewd businessman. Hailed by filmmakers as a--if not the--key influence on cinema, Godard has entered the modern canon, a figure as mysterious as he is indispensable.In Everything Is Cinema, critic Richard Brody has amassed hundreds of interviews to demystify the elusive director and his work. Paying as much attention to Godard's technical inventions as to the political forces of the postwar world, Brody traces an arc from the director's early critical writing, through his popular success with Breathless, to the grand vision of his later years. He vividly depicts Godard's wealthy conservative family, his fluid politics, and his tumultuous dealings with women and fellow New Wave filmmakers.Everything Is Cinema confirms Godard's greatness and shows decisively that his films have left their mark on screens everywhere. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)791.430233092The arts Recreational and performing arts Public performances Film, Radio, and Television Film Techniques, procedures, apparatus... Supervision Film direction History, geographic treatment, biography DirectorsLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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