Diary Entry 7

This week has probably been my slowest for posting, I am beginning to approach the end and admittedly running out of things to think of but i will maintain posting til the very end and for my next post I shall be talking about Avant-Garde which refers to Godard’s filmmaking style.

Riots Of 68

France in the month of may was the beginning of endless amounts of riots against the government and especially against ‘Charles De Gaulle’. Students and workers combined created a number of 800,000 strong protesting against the way their country was run, Students wanted the ‘Bourgeois’ university system and the workers of course wanted better working environment and money, but together they also wanted to stop police brutality.

After some of the riots, police were criticised for being too heavy-handed and brutal and often were related to the nazi police. This type of criticism would make the police try a new approach but with 800,000 against them they would always stumble into trouble.

It was a 4 hour march along the river Seine, they were continuing to rise in numbers waving flags and banners against the government and the police and this spread to the rest of france, 10 million decided to follow suit and soon after there was fears of a revolution in may 29th.

This kind of media would have a dramatic effect on cinema and especially Godard who had problems with the government, this type of protest would only ever help the way Godard works because the passion he see’s in the riot would only inspire him and give him more ideas.

References

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/13/newsid_2512000/2512413.stm

Diary Entry 6

Its been another week and have been bundled with endless amounts of knowledge, I have come to realise that France was a hard place to make films for everyone to enjoy and not only that but budgets where non existent as most of Godard’s films were made with low finances.

My last post about French cinema helped me to think about the history behind cinema and I read somewhere how Godard was involved in some riots that took place after he created the film ‘Weekend’.

Therefore fo next week I am focused to see what these riots were about and whether it had an impact on Godard’s style of filmmaking.

French cinema

After world war 1, french cinema was very low-key due to financial difficulties. Many films created were low-budget and often the quality would not be ideal but this wasnt only in france, many countries in europe had the same problem as they were all involved in the same war some way or another.

It wasnt until after the 2nd world war when the french new wave came into existence. Between the 1940’s and 70’s, the french new wave was a major part of french cinema and Godard who worked for the magazine cashiers du cinema as a critic became one of the leading members and directed many experimental films. His first success being ‘Breathless” and the end of his mainstream days was signified in his film ‘Weekend’.

This symbol appeared in the film ‘weekend’ as a power message to his critics, audience and France. The words in English means ‘End Of Cinema’, and the end of his mainstream productions. Instead of now giving the audience what they want and expect, H e creates images for his own purpose whether people like it or not and now more importantly puts political thoughts into his films.

Onwards from the 1960’s, The new wave of Hollywood cinema directors looked at the success of the French New Wave and was influenced to use the techniques and ideas in their own films.

References

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Nkyr7ARHY6sC&printsec=frontcover&dq=french+cinema&source=bl&ots=sxvEu7al8t&sig=KfquAWMKf68YDHRqRGGURxbpWTY&hl=en&ei=lnHzTMDtHYOGhQfArf3ZDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&sqi=2&ved=0CEUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://filmsdefrance.com/homepage_eng.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_France

Man behind the camera.

Born in Paris, France in 1924. Raoul Coutard originally started his life as a soldier, He had ambitions to study chemistry but it was short lived due to financial diffulties, this being the case Raoul chose to study photography as an alternative. In 1945, Raoul Coutard made the decision to enlist himself into the French army where he later became based in Indochina for around 11 years. Here is where he used his camera to effect and started out as a war photographer, After the war he worked freelance for magazines and before he knew it he ended up by accident in the crowd of the French New Wave of directors.

“There was never a problem. Right from the start, Jean-Luc simply said, ‘We are going to shoot this film like a photo reportage.”

Raoul and Godard’s relationship was mainly professional and together they made in total 17 films together. In the nouvelle vague era, Raoul and Godard shot many types of different films together, they made black and white films and colour films with a very minimal  budget and weekend was suggested to be the start of Godard’s experimental era.

Raoul’s camera techniques were mostly influenced by the type of budget they had, in many of the films it was noticeable because he had to use many hand held shots and the lighting was mainly natural due to not having funds to buy any artificial lighting. The quality of Godard’s films were effected with these types of shots but once he started shooting colour he found new techniques like the tracking shot in weekend to improve the quality and giving the film a experimental outlook.

References

http://motion.kodak.com/US/en/motion/Publications/On_Film_Interviews/coutard.htm

http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/Raoul_Coutard

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2001/jun/09/books.guardianreview

 

Diary Entry 5

In my last post, I had given a quote which talked about the imagery and photography. This helped me to think about the cinematographer and his impact on Godard’s career. I have an incline that ‘Weekend’ was not the only time they worked together because I know that some unique directors always likes to keep hold of people who they understand and vice-versa.

Also if i can i want to explore French cinema in the times of Godard, i want to see if it was popular to be different or whether the wars that went on in Godard’s life had an impact not only on Godard but France itself.

Godard Quote

“Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second. “

Reference

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jeanluc_godard.html

‘French New Wave’

The French New Wave, a term given to those who challenged the conventions of hollywood cinema. Director’s such as Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Éric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol and Jacques Rivette were all associated with the French New Wave, Due to their camera techniques of long tracking shots and jump cuts they made themselves secluded from the mainstream and entered a whole new world of experimental cinema.

“A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end… but not necessarily in that order. ” Jean-Luc Godard.

The long tracking shot in Weekend is probably one of the most recognisable experimental shot Godard had created, this seven minute tracking shot was considered experimental due to the technique of time and space, with no close-ups or cut-away some of the viewers tended to disengage with the film and therefore disliking it. If a technique wasnt seen in classic Hollywood cinema then it would be immediately exploited as experimental and this is where the French New Wave came into play.

The French New Wave was created by critics who created a word for the new era of cinema, there were many influences on the French New Wave:

• Italian Neorealism
• Classical Hollywood cinema
• Poetic realism
• Auteur theory
• Parisian cinephile culture
• Existentialism

In the 1950’s, the aftermath of war had a big influence on the French New Wave, society was still slowly recovering to go back to how things used to be and that was no different in cinema either. People did not want change in cinema as enough had already changed and therefore seeking films with simple narratives that can be easily enjoyed. But in 1958 when the style of the French New Wave came into play, they challenged what people thought they wanted and instead of going back they went forward to the future of cinema. Using a low budgets to help fund the new wave cinema they became admired for their artistic visions.

References

http://www.newwavefilm.com/

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1-Ai9vCiUn0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=french+new+wave&source=bl&ots=FheAqPYNgZ&sig=364u736gJGqds5oNjk9DSxZsc1o&hl=en&ei=Ih30TOumF4qyhAf75N3ADw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&sqi=2&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://filmsdefrance.com/Best_Nouvelle_Vague.html

Diary Entry 4

I am nearly approaching the end of october and i feel i have made some good progress, although i have had other things to focus on i feel that if i can do as much as i can now then i will benefit later on before the deadline of next month.

So far ive talked about Brecht and Neorealism and understand that Godard has probably been influenced by these to create his own technique which would lead it me on to my next subject of the French New Wave.

Italian Neorealism

Before the French New Wave in the 1950’s and 60’s, Italian Neorealism was said to have been a small influence on many director’s who were associated the French New Wave. Bicycle Thieves directed by Vittorio De Sica in 1948, was a film I watched about a year ago about stolen identity, the father who was played by Lamberto Maggiorani had his bicycle stolen and in a pursuit to get it back he went through all types of emotions.

 The bicycle represented his bread and butter and without it he had no job, In a sense he switched roles with his son as he no longer became the main provider for his family and his son took it in his own hands to look after his dad. To really appreciate and understand the relationship between the father and the son I recommend that this film should be watched as it is known all around the world.

In relation to weekend, you can see some similarities of techniques used in both films. Both storyline’s have two main central characters who are constantly on the move, although for different reasons you could suggest that Godard was inspired by the way De Sica approached this and Godard may have used this as a guideline for his own film.

Another similarity is the artistic approach to portraying the characters in different environments. In Bicycle Thieves it was very image based as it was filmed in Rome, De Sica took full advantage of the history on offer by filming from a distance making sure in the background there was a lot of culture to be identified, and its apparent that in Godards films he does the exact same thing to show the audience a new perspective of culture and reality.

 Godard in the early years was criticised for his films being to isolated from the audience as he mostly shot films from a distance, Like De sica he used his location as a base for his characters to explore and give meaning to each scene, in weekend we can see the environment is full of colour and history as there is many cars which look to be expensive which could connote to the upper class society.

• In the next post I want to examine the French New Wave that Godard was apart of.

References

http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/French_New_Wave