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Give it to Polanski instead.

Via the Jewish Journal, Is Godard an Anti-Semite?. A reasonably even-handed article, although it does include the howler "Given his family background and pro-Palestinian activism, it would not be surprising if Godard were also a Holocaust denier."

Oedipax wrote:Via the Jewish Journal, Is Godard an Anti-Semite?. A reasonably even-handed article, although it does include the howler "Given his family background and pro-Palestinian activism, it would not be surprising if Godard were also a Holocaust denier."

That howler caused me not to bother.

Well, the next sentence brings up his career-long preoccupation with the Holocaust, so it's not quite as bad as it might read up in the quote there. It really does try to be fairly reasonable in its exploration of the issue. I just didn't like the equivalency of pro-Palestinian activism and Holocaust denial as if one were a gateway to the other.

Not sure if this has been mentioned elsewhere on the forum, but Numéro deux has been released as part of a Spanish DVD set

"Este pack de 4 DVD´s contiene: ‘La Gaya Ciencia’, ‘Soft and Hard’, ‘Número dos’, ‘Guión del film Pasión’, ‘Cómo va eso’, ‘JLG/JLG’, ‘Carta a Freddy Buache’ y ‘Metting Woody Allen’."

EDIT: Arf. It was already mentioned here

The New York Times on the "anti-semitism" meme and Richard Brody's answer to said meme

Any thoughts?

sdyoung wrote:Any thoughts?

The comments underneath the Brody post make me want to throw a brick through a window somewhere out there in cyberspace (well, 4/5 of them).

Anyway, as for this whole brouhaha I think it's a fool's errand to try to parse Godard's films and statements in such an simplistic sound-bite manner. It is to assume, for instance, that every quotation and snatch of conversation/voiceover we hear in his films is equivalent to a statement Godard is endorsing, which is ludicrous (and, actually, logically impossible since he deals often in contradictory statements/ideas in order to create a sort of intellectual montage/'third image.') Needless to say the vast majority of these stories are written from the point-of-view, at best, of outsiders who only know of Godard (if at all) from his 60s films, and are reading the Brody quotes in a total vacuum. At worst, it's a continuation of the intellectual assault on anyone who dares criticize Israeli government policy by labeling them anti-Semitic. This seems particularly prevalent in the American press, which wouldn't dare print anything 1/10 as strongly-worded as editorials appearing daily in Israeli newspapers in the form of honest internal criticism of the Israel/Palestine conflict.

There's something deeply unsettling about how this latest Oscar episode has highlighted the absolute intellectual impoverishment of the American press, how it no longer can grapple with complicated ideas and shades of nuance. If someone wants to write an editorial taking the position that Godard harbors some anti-Semitic attitudes, fine, but don't just pull a piece here and a piece there and pretend you've understood his work and his attitudes at all. It's all just so deeply childish and stupid; I guess we all assume on some level that most reporting is like this, but when the spotlight turns to something you actually have some specialized knowledge of, and can therefore spot the flaws quite easily, it's pretty harrowing stuff.

sdyoung wrote:The New York Times on the "anti-semitism" meme and Richard Brody's answer to said meme

Any thoughts?

70 feature films? Come on, NYT, try fact-checking for a change.

Honestly I'm totally sick of this thing. As a Jew and sometimes fan of Godard I've had to deal with the very prominent issue of what Godard feels about modern Judaism and why he tackles the issue so often. But anyone who has seen the films that tackle Judaism would know in a heartbeat that what Godard has is not something as simple as antisemitism. He is obviously and totally sympathetic to what has happened and continues to happen. I've yet to see any thing, for example, that so expresses my own conflict with my ethnic history and how it is viewed compared to what it is as Notre Musique. Yes Godard is antagonistic to Spielberg, but look at his relationship with Woody Allen. Not only have they worked together several times, but they've promoted each others work. Given how much Allen has worked to make himself the modern personification of Ashkenazis if Godard was truly antisemitic he would not act in this way. Also if being anti-zionist, hating Spielberg, and being sympathetic to the Palestinians (to put things in very simple terms) is equivalent with antisemitism than I guess I'm the worst sort of self-loather.
He's become a complicated man with a complicated world view that has the grand misfortune of only being able to express that properly with images. If Godard occasionally explains things in an idiotic manner that doesn't mean we should kill him for it. Rather we should try to understand why the hell he'd say that.
God, I'm sounding like Stewart on the Sanchez thing.

Just don't expect Jean-Luc Godard to be as noble as Star Trek commander Jean-Luc Picard. “He'll be churlish and meanspirited. He doesn't want to be admired as a nice guy.”

What? I found this worse than any antisemitism accusation.

A rather incoherent article jumping from point to point without much focus, eventually becoming more about the likely more important issue to the Hollywood Reporter of the Honorary Awards not being a part of the main ceremony any more. Though poor Godard - if it turns out that all this controversy has affected whether the makers of The Hangover 2 will be interested in working with him due to fears of anti-semitism, the whole world will be the poorer for it. Remember the sparkling, feisty performance that Polanski brought to Rush Hour 3?

( )

New interview in the Swiss Sonntagszeitung about (among shooting in 3D…) Anne-Marie Miévilles dog starring in his new film alongside a (star-) couple that he will pay from the earnings of selling his famous archiv.

(no doubt the whole interview or at least JLG answers - is only half serious…)

Adieu au langage is a great title for a Godard film

The only good that will come of this is Godard in The Hangover 3.

Cold Bishop wrote:

Just don't expect Jean-Luc Godard to be as noble as Star Trek commander Jean-Luc Picard. “He'll be churlish and meanspirited. He doesn't want to be admired as a nice guy.”

What? I found this worse than any antisemitism accusation.

That line nearly made me throw my laptop against the wall. Check out the journalist's author page, complete with a list of all the asinine things he's done with celebrities. It's a shame monkeys are allowed to have their tripe published.

Just one more...

“Godard's 'I'm coming, I'm not coming' game...

That would be Godard's I'm not coming, I'm not coming 'game' in which he did exactly what everybody expected him to do...

«Ich werde nicht gern mit Picasso verglichen – er malte zu viele Teller»

Another interview with the oscar winning swiss.

Does anyone know if they'll be streaming the AMPAS Governor's Award ceremony tomorrow night? It'd be great to see how they honor Jean-Luc Godard.

Godard's next film is called Adieu au langage which is in his words:

It’s about a man and his wife who no longer speak the same language. The dog they take on walks then intervenes and speaks. How I’ll do it, I don’t yet know. The rest is simple.... Maybe I’ll even shoot my next film in 3-D. I always like it when new techniques are introduced. Because it doesn’t have any rules yet. And one can do everything.

French intellectual Bernard Henri Levy takes position on supposed antisemitism & reveals four never published before scripts he had with Godard.

Production601 wrote:French intellectual Bernard Henri Levy takes position on supposed antisemitism & reveals four never published before scripts he had with Godard.

For those who cannot speak French, what is his stance?