Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo

Seberg and Belmondo in Godard's BREATHLESS (1960).

GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH (2010)

So... I've been so busy lately, I haven't been able to post as much as I'd like. We've been working on a short film on which production has wrapped, so now hopefully I'll have some more time to write about some movies! Until then, here is a short trailer for what looks like a great little indie film called GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH. Looks pretty neat! Anytime you get some black and white film stock, add some jazzy sensations, mix in some Godard, you've got my attention. Hope this film isn't as superficial as my initial interest is! Ha. But seriously, it looks quite New Wave-y, just look at that tap number which is right out of Godard's A WOMAN IS A WOMAN, or like the dance scene from Truffaut's JULES ET JIM. And that quick shot from a rooftop of someone running down the sidewalk, very French New Wave. So it's got the look of the late 50s/early 60s, does it have the feeling or innovation? I guess we shall have to see!



Directed by: Damien Chazelle

Ascenseur pour l'echafaud (1958)

There is something sacred and magical about a director's first feature film. They're usually rife with exuberant creativity, innovative narrative structures, and imaginative characters. They're often full of a sort of beautiful naivety, a kind of idealistic optimism coupled with a frantic desperation to prove one's self at the prospect of the beginning of a hopefully long and fruitful career. The films that come to mind are ones like Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi, Scorsese's Mean Streets, Godard's Breathless, Truffaut's The 400 Blows, Welles' Citizen Kane, and countless others. But also deserving of inclusion in this list is Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'echafaud (Elevator to the Gallows).

Louis Malle, 1932-1995.

Malle began his career as a cameraman and co-director of Jacques Cousteau's films, and later as an assistant to French legend Robert Bresson. Malle made L'Ascenseur pour l'echafaud when he was only 24 years old, and it began a long and varied career spanning continents and genres.

Trapped.

Ascenseur pour l'echafaud tells, in essence, three stories related to one main character, a young man, Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet). Julien plots to murder his boss and then run off with his wife. The murder goes smoothly, but as he is about to make his getaway, he realizes he left a damning piece of evidence back up in the office. He returns to gather it, but as he descends in the elevator for the second time, the watchman shuts the power off for the weekend, stranding Julien in the elevator, leaving him in the ripe position to be caught red-handed for his crime.

This can't bode well.

The second narrative follows two naive teenage lovers who steal Julien's car and take it for a joy-ride, a quickly get well in over their own heads with their own set of crimes. The third story we follow is that of Julien's lover, the wife of the man he has just killed, played by the gorgeous Jeanne Moreau, who sees Julien's car speed off with another woman in the passenger seat, not understanding that it was the teenagers. Distraught and confused, she wanders the night streets of Paris, looking for both him and a reason why he may have run off with someone else.

The beautiful and one-of-a-kind Jean Moreau.

Malle's direction is crisp, and the cinematography is beautiful, creating an interesting and vibrant narrative. The film is so full of life, no doubt partially due to Miles Davis' energetic and largely improvised soundtrack. At times jazzy and upbeat, while other times contemplative and melancholic, it ties the three narratives together nicely. The acting is fun, though can be a little one-dimensional at times. Both the beginning and ending scenes are also classic french new wave noir. Watch out for appearances from some great French faces, including the stellar Lino Ventura (I will write extensively about him in the coming days for his great performances in several Jean-Pierre Melville films), Jean-Claude Brialy (from my favorite Godard: Une Femme est une femme), Jeanne Moreau herself, who became cinema royalty, and one German star: the legendary Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing.

The Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing: One of the finest looking cars ever. It really embodies an era of design. Stunning!

Breathless re-release

Theatrical trailer for the 50th anniversary remastered release of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless.

Nadja in Paris (1964)

Short cinema vérité film by French master filmmaker Eric Rohmer. It is a love letter to wandering, exploring, youth, and of course, Paris. In two parts, total of about 12 minutes.

Une Femme Est Une Femme (1961)

I kind of sit on the fence with Jean-Luc Godard. Part of me loves the avant-guard director for his creativity, and part of me hates him for the resulting pretentions. Despite my aversion to some of his works, many of which are considered masterpieces, I appreciate what he is trying to do. I like the messages, just often not the messenger. Godard is someone who tirelessly continues to flaunt convention and try something new. He is the ultimate cinematic innovator. Many of his films will leave you scratching your head at the end, not entirely sure what to make of the previous 90 minutes, but some will tickle you pink with zest and inspiration. Obviously, Breathless is a good place to start. Maybe you've seen that, and then watched some others (Pierrot le fou, Le Mepris) that you aren't really sure about.  Now you should watch Une Femme Est Une Femme.

This is my absolute favorite Godard Film! It's his first time using colour widescreen film, and of course, he goes to town with it. The colours are beautiful, and the compositions are pleasureable, and the accompanying story is surprisingly easy to follow. Angela (Anna Karina) wants to have a baby, but her husband Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy) doesn't. So she goes to Emile's best friend, Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo). This is Godard's homage to American musicals from the studio era. Though in typical Godardian fashion, he eliminates a lot of the actual music! Instead of doing huge musical numbers, Godard has his actors actually singing on screen, as opposed to lip-synching a playback of some pre-recorded track. It's kind of unsettling, but it works. And the movie is so playful! And funny! It's not as dry as some of his other stuff, and it's all there on the screen, so it's very easy to digest. It's arguably his most accessible film.

Here now, is a trailer for the film. It's less interesting as a trailer for the film, but is an brief description (by Godard himself) of the filmmaker's method.



If you want a taste of the movie, watch this! It's probably my favorite part, and actually one of the first scenes I think of when I think of this film. I'm so glad I was able to find it so easily on YouTube! (Update: Since finding this, I've probably watched this YouTube clip twenty times! So good!)



And just for fun, here's another. This is another great scene that shows the playfulness of the whole thing. If you enjoy this then definitely see the whole film. And I love how they carry their one huge lamp around the apartment.

I'm sorry, but I love Anna Karina

I came across this photo, and it sent me into an Anna Karina whirlwind.
I think maybe I'm just a sucker for a good photo, and this is a great one, it looks like it was taken yesterday! So crisp and beautiful, and looks like Paris, and if there is one thing I most definitely am a sucker for is a gorgeous, hip, nouvelle vague actress... just like Anna Karina!

Karina and Godard

Anna Karina is a Danish born actress who hitchhiked to Paris with neither a cent to her name nor a word of French in her vocabulary. She is most commonly associated with the French New Wave movement, a movement in which she was an integral actress. She was also as director Jean-Luc Godard's muse. In a way, they were the king and queen of French cinema in the late 50s and early 60s. She starred in a number of Godard's films; Une Femme est Une Femme (1961), and Vivre Sa Vie (1962), and Le Petit Soldat (1963), Band a Part (1964), Alphaville (1965), and Pierrot le Fou (1965), and the two were married from 1961 to 1967. (She and Godard also have small uncredited roles in a film-inside-the-film in Cleo de 5 a 7!)

Ahh.. you gotta love soft focus.

As well as a successful film acting career with Jean-Luc Godard and others, she is also an accomplished singer, a theatre actor, and has written two fiction books. If I'm not mistaken, she also became something of an animal activist in her later life, and she is still alive!


The top photo is from here.
And see Anna Karina's filmography here.

Une Femme est une femme

I found some great old posters for Une Femme est une femme (1961)! It's one of my favorite films by M. Jean-Luc Godard. It's sort of an anti-musical ode to musicals--in typical Godardian fashion. Starring the inimitable Anna Karina (married to Godard at the time), Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean-Claude Brialy. Write-up to come! For now enjoy these.
This bottom one is my desktop wallpaper right now.

Like Jean Seberg

I just stumbled upon this a couple weeks ago. (Click here for the whole series) Apparently it is a fairly renowned fashion spread from the 1990s for a couple reasons, Christy Turlington for one, and two, it's an awesome set of photos. But beyond the obvious aesthetics, it's the source material I am interested in. I am a huge fan of the Jean-Lic Godard's French New Wave film A Bout de souffle (it's the picture behind the title of this blog!) and this spread takes all its cues from that film, in particular the character played by the gorgeous Jean Seberg!

Gorgeous.

In the film, Seberg plays Patricia, a young American woman in 1960 Paris, who helps her acquaintance and (sort-of) lover Michel (the now iconic French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo), who is wanted for the murder of a police officer. Michel is determined to have Patricia run away to Rome with him, and he spends a couple days bumping around Paris, avoiding detectives and trying eke out cash from whoever will give him the time of day. Patricia also wanders Paris, pondering the many options and choices her life ahead has in store for her.

Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Seberg's performance is delicate, funny, and introspective. Godard largely had his actors improvise the scenes. He was frequently coming up with new ideas on set, and writing the scenes the morning before filming. What resulted are some really genuine sequences between Seberg and Belmondo; they flirt, they laugh, they fight, and they discuss life.

Breathless.

Unfortuntely, Seberg herself had a fairly sad life. A number of personal problems almost derailed her career, and in the 1970s the FBI concocted a plot to discredit her due to her outspoken political and anti-war views. She also lost a child and had several problematic marriages. In 1979, she disappeared and was found dead in her car several days later at the age of young age of 39. It was largely thought to be a suicide.

Seberg's tragic life makes her performance in A Bout de souffle just that much more powerful. Like Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and other actors whose lives ended prematurely, there is something eerie and beautiful about her portrayal of Patricia. Patricia is in the same league as Agnes Varda's Cleo. She is ephemeral and she knows it. She looks at the world with curiosity even though she knows her experience is a fleeting one. Characters in the films of the French New Wave often have that fatalistic outlook. They suffer from ennui, a dissatisfaction with the world as it has been passed to them. They look around, they wander, and they examine their surroundings in a constant search for a meaning to their existence.

Along with Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows, A Bout de souffle is considered the beginning of the French New Wave--le nouvelle vague. These two films and the subsequent films of the movement are creative, fresh, innovative, and playful. The sensations of optimism and opportunity, of exploration and experimentation, are integral to many films of the movement. It was a genuine cry for more, a refusal to accept life as it is handed down, and it gave birth to generations of fascinating and inspiring cinema.

Cleo de 5 a 7 (1961)

Agnes Varda's contribution to the French New Wave is one of my favorites. It is an example of the magic of character, film, and zeitgeist, in that it is very basic in its structure and story, but is not limited in any way. The film is basically Cleo, from 5pm to 7pm, wandering Paris, talking to people, friends, strangers, colleagues, and herself. She is a successful Parisian chanteuse who is anxious about the impending results of a biopsy. Cleo fears the worst, and sets out to the streets of Paris on her own to process the dread, the grief, and the beauty of the here-and-now.

What I love about the film is, like I said, the simplicity. There is something so appealing to me about someone just wandering the streets of Paris. It is such a beautiful, elegant, unusual, and magical city that is best seen by just walking. The handful of times I have been fortunate to explore Paris, I always find myself getting off a random bus or metro stop and walking. Jean-Luc Godard once said "All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl," and here instead of a gun, you have a telephone call, a meeting with a doctor, some bad news. Cleo takes in the world through slightly jaded eyes, she's forlorn and obsessed with omens. She gives meaning to everything in her life that could be a symbol, a metaphor, or a sign from the heavens. She is obsessed with both life and death, and the anxiety of sitting on the fence between the two is driving her crazy. Nobody she knows seems to understand her or are able to comfort her, and she only eventually finds solace with a soldier she meets while wandering through a park. He is full of life despite having seen the horrors of war and his own impending departure back to active duty, he still manages to inspire Cleo to take life as it comes and appreciate the little things.

This is one of my favorite films, and certainly one of the most interesting and accessible films to come out of the New Wave. It shows the creativity, the simplicity, and the excitement of possibility in cinema during the early sixties in France. It is shot in glorious black and white. I own this, if you know me I can lend it to you!

Vivre sa vie