Jean-Luc Godard

[JSC]

Knowing Godard's tendency to completely rewrite source material or come up with spur-of-the-moment ideas,
I don't think the project would have gone past pre-production. (I can't see directors like Godard and Coppola
working in tandem on a project without something giving way).

[domino harvey]

New book on Godard’s unmade films coming in December

[Noiretirc]

New book on Godard’s unmade films coming in December

The price listed must be some kind of mistake.

[Mr Sausage]

New book on Godard’s unmade films coming in December

The price listed must be some kind of mistake.

Welcome to the sad world of Priced for Libraries.

[domino harvey]

It’s still keeping me away from that incredible Caboose release of Bazin’s newly translated writings

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

The Bazin collection actually has a separate, lower price point for individuals, it's just that said price point is still CA$90 (versus 200 for libraries).

At least for the Godard book, Bloomsbury Academic typically puts out paperback editions at a much more consumer-friendly price around a year and a half after the initial hardcover release (with a corresponding drop in the ebook price as well).

[domino harvey]

You can’t purchase the Bazin book if you are in the US

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

That's true, but that's probably a rights issue like the one that bedeviled their edition of What Is Cinema? (specifically, that Bazin's works are public domain in Canada and some other countries, but not in the U.S.). The Reader was originally available for institutional sales in the U.S. through Indiana University Press, but it looks like that's not the case anymore—the only trace of it I can find on IUP's site is a blank author page for Bazin. My guess is the University of California Press allowed Caboose and IUP to release the book in the U.S., but only as an institutional offering and only for a limited time. Bazin's works might enter the U.S. public domain in 2029, but even if they do, who knows whether Caboose will come down on that "individual" pricing, which is still steep enough to keep me away despite having means of getting the book via friends and family. Maybe they'll finally do a paperback?

[domino harvey]

Read Bert Rebhandl’s Jean-Luc Godard: the Permanent Revolutionary, which the University of Wisconsin press translated into English from its original German in 2023, and while it is a decent overview of Godard’s career, it never manages to justify its existence.

Ostensibly there should be some differentiation points: the author claims that Godard frequently utilizes and is aware of German cultural markers. That is intriguing but it turns out he doesn’t, actually, exhibit these references all that much. There are not enough instances highlighted in this book to fill a term paper, much less a whole book. You know this aspect is cooked when even the German-set Alphaville sequel only gets two pages of coverage. The German angle does lead to several spurious footnotes to political and current events in Germany that have no apparent relation to what’s being discussed, though! The “actual” theme of the book, as emphasized in the title, isn’t much of a throughline to hang a whole new study on either— has any book on Godard ever not claimed he was a revolutionary in some way?

There are new intros and post scripts acknowledging Godard’s death and the book is, as far as I know, the only career retrospective that spans his entire career through his last feature. But the book relies heavily, and I mean heavily, on previous Godard overviews, especially Brody’s book (and the author admits as much in his introduction). Though it is amusing that after seemingly agreeing with Brody’s controversial perspective that Godard is an anti-Semite for most of the book (including numerous references to unflattering anecdotes Brody shares in his book), near the end the author finally offers his own differing perspective, as nothing anywhere else in the book suggests he differs in opinion. This kind of third hand summation hampers the book, which is otherwise well-written (and seemingly well-translated) and gives a decent overview. If you’ve never read another Godard book this isn’t a terrible primer, but fundamentally this just doesn’t bring anything new to the table

[Stefan Andersson]

Operation Béton:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/a ... n-concrete

[andyli]

The Japanese label IVC, who released the lovely Notre musique blu-ray in its new 4K restoration last year, is releasing In Praise of Love on blu-ray this September. First time in the world as far as I can tell, also in a brand new 4K restoration.

[Stefan Andersson]

JLG´s Introduction to a True History of Cinema and Television, with an essay by Michael Witt, translated with annotations by Timothy Barnard- "For this edition, the faulty and incomplete French transcription has been entirely revised and corrected, working from the sole videotape copies of the lectures, housed in the Concordia University archives."

https://www.caboosebooks.net/true-history-of-the-cinema - Downloadable errata sheet available online.

[hanabi]

The Japanese label IVC, who released the lovely Notre musique blu-ray in its new 4K restoration last year, is releasing In Praise of Love on blu-ray this September. First time in the world as far as I can tell, also in a brand new 4K restoration.

Both being screened in the US thanks to The Film Desk. Hopefully an English-friendly release of both to come?

[Calvin]

Michael Witt has curated a season at the ICA London called Godard: Unmade and Abandoned. The centre piece seems to be the world premiere of a new project by Witt called The Wild Palms which "puts into practice a radical Godardian proposition: the screening of his Made in USA (1966) and 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle (Two or Three Things I Know About Her, 1966) as a single work, with their reels and narratives intertwined."

[razumovsky]

I was lucky enough to get to The Wild Palms at the ICA yesterday. A few brief initial thoughts. It was a real feat of film projection, they couldn't source two subtitled 35 mm prints so it was soft titled throughout (a miracle of simultaneous translation). Michael Witt believes this was the first time the films were shown this way - even he hadn't seen it done before. I thought it worked really well, certainly it was a lot more than the Godardian joke I suspected it might be. The two films (Two or three things I know about her and Made in USA) are aesthetically similar enough but sufficiently different that alongside one another they spark new meanings without being smushed into one very long Godard film. I was particularly struck by how it became a dual portrait of Anna Karina (so poignant in in Made in USA) and Marina Vlady. That said, Made in USA suffered rather in the process, the plot such as it is becomes even harder to follow, and in the later stages all the energy is with 2 or 3 things. It was also a lot. I was exhausted by the end. It's not the best way to see either film. Would love to hear from anyone else who was there. Oh, and the I C A made a,really cool poster for the event, will try to upload a picture.

[domino harvey]

Guitry’s Les 3 font la paire, one of only three films named by Godard in his year end lists to have no circulating English friendly copy, has been subbed on back channels

[yoloswegmaster]

Also showing up on back channels is The Wild Palms

[therewillbeblus]

Also showing up on back channels is The Wild Palms

Can't seem to find that one - is it just a mashup of Made in USA and 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her?

[yoloswegmaster]

Also showing up on back channels is The Wild Palms

Can't seem to find that one - is it just a mashup of Made in USA and 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her?

Yep, it's shown together where a reel of Made in USA will play, then a reel of 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, then a reel of Made in USA and so on and so forth.

[domino harvey]

Guitry’s Les 3 font la paire, one of only three films named by Godard in his year end lists to have no circulating English friendly copy, has been subbed on back channels

I can see why Godard would have liked this, as he was extremely interested in self-reflexive films at this time (Guitry’s film concerns a camera crew who inadvertently film a murder, with lots of name-checking jokes like mentioning Michel Simon when he’s the star of the movie, &c) but this wasn’t very funny and the contrivances are… excessive, and not as amusing as they should be. I did like the little bit about Darry Cowl being incapable of using a chalkboard to draw a simple murder scene though

[Stefan Andersson]

A Michael Witt book on Notre musique:
https://www.livres-cinema.info/livre/23 ... re-musique

[caboose]

It’s still keeping me away from that incredible Caboose release of Bazin’s newly translated writings

We have a few very slightly damaged copies of the Bazin Reader we're offering at a 33% discount ($60 CAD). These books got very slightly bumped on a corner of the hardcover "boards" when shipped from the printer.

A reminder that the Bazin Reader is 670 pages, is printed offset on premium cream book paper, and has a sewn binding and a full cloth cover. Practically no publisher does any of these things anymore, even on their much more expensive hardcovers: digital printing on white photocopy paper, glued binding, paper covering on the hardcover boards, which will tear and the book will come apart.

Another reminder, for those who think and spend in USD, that $60 CAD is less than $45 USD (and $90 is about $65 USD), which is what you'll pay today for a paperback university press book one-half or one-third the size.

If you'd like a pristine Bazin Reader, we're offering them for $70 CAD with the purchase of the volume Reading with Godard.

Thanks to all our customers. caboose

[Noiretirc]

Domino, in your opinion, if I was to get ONE book on Godard, which one should it be?

The Brody book, no question.

Rosenbaum scared me away from that one! Perhaps I shall reconsider.

17 years later....

I finally ordered Brody's book. (Damn you Rosenbaum!)

No book is perfect. But I've really warmed up to Brody via King Lear.

I was wondering if Brody would update it though, with the last 3 or so films, and Godard passing. (Naturally he will now that I finally ordered.)

[Noiretirc]

Unsurpisingly, Kino Lorber has bought North American distribution rights to Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars. They're also apparently planning a theatrical release for the 20-minute short this fall

Apologies if reviews of this are elsewhere on the forum and I'm not locating it:

Do any of you Godardians have thoughts on the Kino Blu -Godard Cinema, which includes this short, released in early '24?

Thanks in advance.

[accatone]

https://www.swissinfo.ch/ger/schweizer- ... d/91107378

Regarding the JLG Foundation. On top right you may be able to change language settings.