‘Writing for Godard’
Writing about all six of the Godard films I’ve watched in the last seven days. I’ve written my individual thoughts already on each of the films and now I’m attempting to draw all those thoughts together to get a perspective on Godard from A Bout de Souffle onwards for about seven years. The most recent film I have access to is 2 or 3 Things I know About Her (1967). I’m spewing out my guts about this Godard experience and attempting to interweave the literal sources of knowledge I already had about Godard before I saw these films of his. Unlike other directors I had already spoiled my arms-length approach with too much information cradled in my neural filing cabinet.
Uh oh! Time to go out for a family celebration of my wife’s birthday. Better shut down and arise and get dressed for dinner.
La petit soldat 1966
A Godard Film
A very strange thing happened tonight. I was searching for another Bunuel film I could watch, following on the heels of last night’s Diary of a Chambermaid (1964). I came across two films, L’age d’or (1930), which I thought would be a perfect follow-up and a Godard film I didn’t know I had, The Little Soldier. Thomas yarya2010
I thought I had called it quits with Godard and that I had started my week living in the land of Luis Bunuel only to find the next important Bunuel film following Le chien andalou (1929); but also another Godard film made between Breathless and the end of the 1960s. So I decided to watch them back to back, La petit soldat first. After all, I am finally, for the last time, ending Godard week. josephdnne1948atg.
What a crazy film, full of handheld camera, not much location dialogue from the actors and a lot of overdubbed narration. The date on this film, is 1966 but it’s like he travelled back in time and got the gritty feel of Breathless and reduced the quotes from other sources and included a lot more scripted narration. It’s a wonderful film. I love it.S Ray
It’s got a make-it-up-as-you-go plot that is half-baked, like Breathless, and yet it is far more developed stylistically with the interjection of the main characters inner-thoughts whilst he is even engaging in conversation with various characters. The narration of his thoughts is superb. This is everything that Breathless tried to be. Unfortunately with Breathless Godard couldn’t pull all of resources together to make it work in the best possible way, leaving it still a landmark film, just not one of his best. I wonder how this film in 1966 has so much in common with Breathless and the man-on-the-run story with the politics and the emphasis more than ever before on externalising the characters thoughts. Amazing.
