"Jean-Luc Godard: Rebellious Filmmaker (Cineaste)" Director Cyril Luthi Deconstruction of the Godard myth [Director's Interview Vol.353]

Reexamining Godard's films from a woman's perspective

Q: There are so many testimonies in this film, including critics who have written books about Godard and friends who worked with him. What I found particularly interesting is that many of the actors who appear in his films and are interviewed for this work are women. How did you choose your witnesses?

Ruti: There are various reasons for choosing people, such as those who absolutely must appear, and others who I personally wanted to interview. Sometimes, even if we wanted to do an interview, we would be turned down, saying, ``I don't want to appear.'' However, in order to look back on the Nouvelle Vague era, we have to talk to a lot of older people, so it was inevitable that the number of women would increase. In general, women live longer (lol).

What's interesting is that while many different people talk about Godard, a man, the core of the stories are always women. Women say important things about men. In the end, I am very happy that this composition is in line with the gradual rise in the status of women that has been occurring for several years.

During my interviews, I realized that when a man is the director and the actor is also a man, a hierarchical relationship tends to develop between the two. On the other hand, many women seemed to see Godard as just another man, and were able to criticize him rather harshly. I think it's interesting that these differences in the director's position are revealed by gender differences. Many of the actresses did not worship Godard as a god, but saw him as just a person.

“Jean-Luc Godard: Rebellious Filmmaker (Cineaste)” ©10.7 productions/ARTE France/INA – 2022

Q: In fact, Marcia Merrill, who appeared in `` The Lover's Time '' (1964), clearly said, ``He's a misogynist.''

Luthi: Those were words that she spontaneously said in an interview, but it was of course my intention to leave them in the film. The issue of misogyny by male artists has become a pattern of behavior that can no longer be ignored, with Le Monde even covering it this year and classes being held to analyze misogyny among male artists at film schools in France. .

Godard now belongs to a generation of many of these problematic male artists. Recently, some people have declared that they will never watch Godard's `` Contempt '' (63) again. They rejected it as a film directed by the male gaze, treating women's bodies as tools. That said, it is true that the films made by Godard are wonderful, and I think it would be great if art could progress again through various discussions, rather than erasing them completely. .

Deconstructing the Godard myth