In tribute to Jean-Luc Godard, who died on September 13, 2022, the Alliance Française Glasgow takes you through a summary of this emblem of French cinema’s achievements, and a suggestion of his films available from our library.

One of the most studied filmmakers in the world, Godard has been honoured with a César and an Oscar for his career, as well as a special Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2018.

Jean-Luc Godard pushed the aesthetic and narrative boundaries of the 7th art and embodied the French New Wave, a film movement of the 1950s and 1960s that was one of the most influential in cinema history. The directors who belonged to this movement criticised the loss of authenticity of cinema, locked into a tradition of craftsmanship and quality. In contrast, New Wave filmmakers advocated location shooting, long takes, natural lighting, simple stories and committed films.

According to French President Emmanuel Macron: « Jean-Luc Godard, le plus iconoclaste des cinéastes de la Nouvelle Vague, avait inventé un art résolument moderne, intensément libre ».

Below are Jean-Luc Godard's films that are available to borrow from the library.
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Une femme est une femme/A Woman is a Woman – 1961 (DVD)

The film centers on the relationship of exotic dancer Angéla and her lover Émile. Angéla wants to have a child, but Émile is not ready. Émile's best friend Alfred also says he loves Angéla, and keeps up a gentle pursuit. Angéla and Émile argue about the matter; at one point they decide not to speak to each other, so continue their argument by pulling books from the shelf and pointing to the titles.

Available at the library!

Vivre sa vie/To live her life – 1962 (DVD)

The film is told through 12 “episodes", each preceded by a written intertitle. Nana Kleinfrankenheim is a beautiful Parisian in her early twenties. She leaves her husband Paul and her infant son, hoping to become an actress. The couple meet in a café and play pinball one last time before deciding to end their marriage. She works in a record store, helping customers find music based on their tastes. After leaving her husband, she is not able to make much money on her own and is worried she will not be able to afford rent. She asks several coworkers if they can spare her 2,000 francs but all refuse.

Available at the library!

Bande à part/Band of Outsiders – 1964 (DVD)

A young woman named Odile meets a man named Franz in an English language class. She has told him of a large pile of money stashed in the villa where she lives with her aunt Victoria and Mr. Stolz in Joinville, a Parisian suburb. Franz tells his friend Arthur of the money, and the two make a plan to steal it.

Available at the library!

Une femme mariée/A married woman – 1964 (DVD)

Charlotte is a woman in her twenties, married to Pierre, an affluent man in his later thirties or forties. Pierre's passion is flying, and he flies his own private plane, after previously having been an air force pilot. Pierre has a young son, Nicolas, from his first marriage, which dissolved when his wife left him for another man. Pierre, Charlotte, and Nicolas live together in a modern apartment outside Paris. Charlotte spends her days going to cafes, shopping, swimming, at the cinema, reading women's fashion magazines, or with her lover, Robert, an actor. Pierre believes that Charlotte's affair is over, having previously confronted her with evidence from a private investigator.

Available at the library!

Alphaville – 1965 (DVD)

Lemmy Caution is a secret agent with the code number of 003 from “the Outlands". Entering Alphaville in his Ford Galaxie, he poses as a journalist named Ivan Johnson and claims to work for the Figaro-Pravda. Caution is on a series of missions. First, he searches for the missing agent Henri Dickson; second, he is to capture or kill the creator of Alphaville, Professor von Braun; lastly, he aims to destroy Alphaville and its dictatorial computer, Alpha 60. Alpha 60 is a sentient computer system created by von Braun, which is in complete control of all of Alphaville.

Available at the library!

Masculin Féminin/Masculine Feminine – 1966 (DVD)

Paul, a young idealist who recently fulfilled his military service, is looking for a job. In a café, he meets Madeleine Zimmer, a young singer who wishes to make a record. They witness a woman having an argument with her partner, which culminates in the woman drawing a gun and shooting him. Paul goes to meet with his friend Robert Packard, a journalist who has Paul sign a petition to free a group of artists and writers in Rio de Janeiro accused of voicing their opposition to state policy.

Available at the library!

Weekend – 1967 (DVD)

Roland and Corinne Durand are a bourgeois couple. Each has a secret lover and conspires to murder the other. They drive out to Corinne's parents' home in the country to secure her inheritance from her dying father, resolving to resort to murder if necessary. The trip becomes a chaotically picaresque journey through a French countryside populated by bizarre characters and punctuated by violent car accidents. After their own Facel-Vega is destroyed in a collision, they wander through a series of vignettes involving class struggle and figures from literature and history, such as Louis Antoine de Saint-Just and Emily Brontë.

Available at the library!

Prénom Carmen – 1983 (DVD)

Carmen, in a voice over paired with shots of the city and the sea, introduces herself as “the girl who should not be called Carmen." Somewhere a string quartet is rehearsing the late string quartets of Beethoven. The eccentric Jeannot (played by Godard himself) is living in a sanitarium where the doctor threatens to throw him out if he doesn't start to show signs of real illness. Carmen comes to visit him, and it is revealed he is a washed up filmmaker and her lecherous uncle. After getting her Uncle Jeannot to loan her his seaside apartment, Carmen and some others attempt to rob a bank.

Available at the library!