History Creator / JeanLucGodard

He's famous in America primarily for his [[TheSixties '60s films]] which strongly influenced college students and rock musicians at the time. He collaborated with Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} and recorded the original recording sessions of ''Sympathy for the Devil''. This was a period of many radical films that were [[GenreDeconstruction Genre Deconstructions]] of FilmNoir, BMovie, ScienceFiction, TheMusical and even a film about film-making like ''Contempt'' starring Creator/BrigitteBardot and director Creator/FritzLang AsHimself. ''Film/{{Breathless}}'' pioneered the JumpCut which was later adopted and overused by later directors and ironically in the kind of action films and music videos which were worlds away from the kind of films Godard made. He himself became involved in radical leftist political causes which made him unfashionable in the United States and a divisive figure around the world. Despite this, he remained active up till the end of his life, still as untamed and unpredictable as ever.

The Academy gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions in 2010, at a private ceremony that was not part of the main viewing. Godard refused to attend citing this, saying, [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks "It's not the Oscars!"]] and partly because of his contempt for awards in general.

Godard also has a history of collaboration with his romantic partners. His first wife was the actress Creator/AnnaKarina, who served as his muse during the sixties and acted in some of his most famous films. His second wife was the actress Anne Wiazemsky (who starred in ''Film/AuHasardBalthazar''). He also had a relationship with filmmaker Anne-Marie Mieville, who collaborated with him behind the camera, co-writing several of his movies.

[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1282834651-jean-luc-godard_3160.jpg]]

He grew up in UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}} but was born in UsefulNotes/{{Paris}} and made his career as a film critic there, writing for André Bazin's influential magazine ''Les Cahiers du Cinéma'' and belonging to a circle of friends that included Creator/EricRohmer, Creator/FrancoisTruffaut, Creator/ClaudeChabrol, Jacques Rivette [[AndZoidberg and others]]. Together they dreamed of shaking up what they felt was the inferior French films of the '50s, taking inspiration from the American, Italian and Japanese films they eagerly devoured at the Cinemathèque Française and believing the director was the artist and that it was possible to make films which were as personal as a book was to an author. The [[MediaNotes/FrenchNewWave Nouvelle Vague]] was born, along with the concept of MediaNotes/TheAuteurTheory.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1282834651-jean-luc-godard_3160.jpg]]

Jean-Luc Godard (December 3, 1930 - September 13, 2022) was a French-Swiss filmmaker.

He grew up in UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}} but was born in UsefulNotes/{{Paris}} and made his career as a film critic there, writing for the movie critic magazine ''Les Cahiers du Cinéma'' founded by André Bazin and part of a circle of friends that included Creator/FrancoisTruffaut, Creator/EricRohmer, Creator/ClaudeChabrol, Jacques Rivette [[AndZoidberg and others]]. Together they dreamed of shaking up what they felt was the inferior French films of the '50s, taking inspiration from American, Italian and Japanese films they eagerly devoured at the Cinemathèque Française and believing the director was the artist and that it was possible to make films which were as personal as a book was to an author. The [[MediaNotes/FrenchNewWave Nouvelle Vague]] was born, along with the concept of MediaNotes/TheAuteurTheory.

He grew up in UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}} but was born in UsefulNotes/{{Paris}} and made his career as a film critic there, writing for the movie critic magazine ''Les Cahiers du Cinéma'' founded by André Bazin and part of a circle of friends that included Creator/FrancoisTruffaut, Creator/EricRohmer, Creator/ClaudeChabrol, Jacques Rivette [[AndZoidberg and others]]. Together they dreamed of shaking up what they felt was the inferior French films of the '50s, taking inspiration from American, Italian and Japanese films they eagerly devoured at the Cinemathèque Française and believing the director was the artist and that it was possible to make films which were as personal as a book was to an author. The [[UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave Nouvelle Vague]] was born, along with the concept of UsefulNotes/TheAuteurTheory.

His films are studied and viewed around the world. They are taught in film schools whose graduates go on to create ad films and music videos or go into other fields but who follow his inspiration or react against it one way or another. He had a huge following among the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood. Creator/FrancisFordCoppola at one point presented his films in America for release and he and Godard planned to collaborate. Creator/MartinScorsese has always testified to his influence as well. That said, in later years, he became very unflattering to American films and especially the films of Creator/StevenSpielberg though he liked Creator/WoodyAllen enough to make a movie about him (''Meeting WA'') and cast him in one of his works. In Europe, he's an inescapable influence with directors dividing movies pre and post Godard with his MeaningfulName and his own love for puns leading to the easy word association of God/Art, and basically anyone wanting to go to the most elitist film schools in France must have watched and dissected several of his films.

* ProductionPosse: In addition to working with each of his wives (Creator/AnnaKarina, Anne Wiazemsky, and Anne-Marie Mieville) several times (Karina appeared in seven of his films and Wiazemsky in eight, while Mieville worked with him on a number of films), Godard also worked with Creator/JeanPierreLeaud on nine films, Laszlo Svabo on seven films, and Creator/JeanPaulBelmondo on three feature films.[[note]]as well as the short film ''Charlotte and her Jules''[[/note]] In the 1960's, he also worked frequently with cinematographer Raoul Coutard (who worked with other UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave directors such as Creator/FrancoisTruffaut).

With the deaths of Jacques Rivette in 2016 and Agnès Varda in 2019, Godard became [[LastOfHisKind the last surviving director of the French New Wave]], until his death by assisted suicide in 2022 at the age of 91, at his home in Rolle, Switzerland (it is legalized there). The company that helped him end his life indicated that he chose to do so because he suffered from multiple kinds of pain due to his old age.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: After Truffaut turned down ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'', Godard was offered the film, but after he and the producers reached an impasse (he wanted to make a modern-day version on the cheap, while the producers wanted to keep it true to the period), he dropped out.
** Before he decided to make ''Every Man for Himself'', Godard was considering making a movie about Bugsy Siegel, with Creator/RobertDeNiro (as Siegel) and Creator/DianeKeaton, and produced by Creator/FrancisFordCoppola, but when Keaton decided not to do the film, Godard dropped out as well.[[note]]Ironically, just as Creator/WarrenBeatty went on to appear in ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'' after Godard, he also appeared in his own film about Siegel, ''Film/{{Bugsy}}''.[[/note]]

* TheMovieBuff: Godard, of course, started out as a movie critic, and most of his movies in the 1960's contain numerous movie references, as in ''Film/{{Breathless}}'', when the main character sees a poster of Creator/HumphreyBogart for his last movie, ''Film/TheHarderTheyFall'', and says in a reverent tone, "Bogie".

He grew up in UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}} but was born in and made his name UsefulNotes/{{Paris}} as a film critic, writing for the movie critic magazine ''Les Cahiers du Cinéma'' founded by André Bazin and part of a circle of friends that included, Creator/FrancoisTruffaut, Creator/EricRohmer, Creator/ClaudeChabrol, Jacques Rivette [[AndZoidberg and others]]. Together they dreamed of shaking up what they felt was the inferior French films of the '50s, taking inspiration from American, Italian and Japanese films they eagerly devoured at the Cinemathèque Française and believing the director was the artist and that it was possible to make films which were as personal as a book was to an author. The [[UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave Nouvelle Vague]] was born, along with the concept of UsefulNotes/TheAuteurTheory.

His films are studied and viewed around the world. They are taught in film schools whose graduates go on to create ad films and music videos or go into other fields but who follow his inspiration or react against it one way or another. He had a huge following among the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood. Creator/FrancisFordCoppola at one point presented his films in America for release and he and Godard planned to collaborate. Creator/MartinScorsese has always testified to his influence as well. That said, in later years, he became very unflattering to American films and especially the films of Creator/StevenSpielberg though he liked Creator/WoodyAllen enough to make a movie about him (''Meeting WA'') and cast him in one of his works. In Europe, he's an inescapable influence with directors dividing movies pre and post Godard with his MeaningfulName and his own love for puns leading to the easy word association of God/Art.

He grew up in UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}} but was born in and made his name UsefulNotes/{{Paris}} as a film critic, writing for the movie critic magazine ''Les Cahiers du Cinéma'' founded by André Bazin and part of a circle of friends that included, Creator/FrancoisTruffaut, Creator/EricRohmer, Creator/ClaudeChabrol, Jacques Rivette [[AndZoidberg and others]]. Together they dreamed of shaking up what they felt was the inferior French films of the '50s, taking inspiration from American, Italian and Japanese films they saw at the Cinemathèque Française and believing the director was the artist and that it was possible to make films which were as personal as a book was to an author. The [[UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave Nouvelle Vague]] was born, along with the concept of UsefulNotes/TheAuteurTheory.

* HesBack: After over a decade of making either experimental films or essay films (with the exception of ''Tout Va Bien'', starring Creator/JaneFonda and Yves Montand), Godard returned to more conventional filmmaking in 1980 with ''Every Man For Himself'' (starring Creator/IsabelleHuppert), which he considered his second "first" film.

-> ''"Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second."''

* TakeThat: For all the vocal reverence and influence acknowledgement many contemporary US directors have had towards him (such as Creator/StevenSpielberg, Creator/MartinScorsese and Creator/QuentinTarantino), he didn't think much of it and even loathed the way they saw/did cinema. In one of his last films, a soulless movie production company that's eager to acquire rights to a book is named "Spielberg".

He's famous in America primarily for his [[TheSixties '60s films]] which strongly influenced college students and rock musicians at the time. He collaborated with Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} and recorded the original recording sessions of ''Sympathy for the Devil''. This was a period of many radical films that were [[GenreDeconstruction Genre Deconstructions]] of FilmNoir, BMovie, ScienceFiction, TheMusical and even a film about film-making like ''Contempt'' starring Creator/BrigitteBardot and director Creator/FritzLang AsHimself. ''Film/{{Breathless}}'' pioneered the JumpCut which was later adopted and overused by later directors and ironically in the kind of action films and music videos which were worlds away from the kind of films Godard made. He himself became involved in leftist political causes which made him unfashionable in the United States and controversial around the world, despite this he remained active up till the end of his life, still as untamed and unpredictable as ever.

He's famous in America primarily for his [[TheSixties '60s films]] which strongly influenced college students and rock musicians at the time. He collaborated with Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} and recorded the original recording sessions of ''Sympathy for the Devil''. This was a period of many radical films that were [[GenreDeconstruction Genre Deconstructions]] of FilmNoir, BMovie, ScienceFiction, TheMusical and even a film about film-making like ''Contempt'' starring Creator/BrigitteBardot and director Creator/FritzLang AsHimself. The film Film/{{Breathless}} pioneered the JumpCut which was later adopted and overused by later directors and ironically in the kind of action films and music videos which were worlds away from the kind of films Godard made. He himself became involved in leftist political causes which made him unfashionable in the United States and controversial around the world, despite this he remained active up till the end of his life, still as untamed and unpredictable as ever.

[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1282834651-jean-luc-godard_3160.jpg]]

With the deaths of Jacques Rivette in 2016 and Agnès Varda in 2019, Godard became [[LastOfHisKind the last surviving director of the French New Wave]], until his death in 2022 at the age of 91, at his home in Rolle, Switzerland. His death was as an assisted suicide, which is legalized there. The company that helped him end his life indicated that he chose to do so because he suffered from multiple kinds of pain due to his old age.

With the deaths of Jacques Rivette in 2016 and Agnès Varda in 2019, Godard became [[LastOfHisKind the last surviving director of the French New Wave]], until his death in 2022 at the age of 91, at his home in Rolle, Switzerland. His death was as an assisted suicide, which is legalized there. The company that helped him ending his life indicated that he chose to do so because he suffered from multiple kinds of pain due to his old age.

With the deaths of Jacques Rivette in 2016 and Agnès Varda in 2019, Godard became [[LastOfHisKind the last surviving director of the French New Wave]], until his death in 2022 at the age of 91, at his home in Rolle, Switzerland. His death was reported as an assisted suicide, which is legalized there.

* AnachronicOrder: Though Godard was famous for saying, "Every film should have a beginning, a middle, and an end - but not necessarily in that order", oddly enough, for the most part, his movies were an aversion of this trope, as most of them went from beginning to end, even if the stories weren't straightforward. There are exceptions, as with the deaths of [[spoiler:Camille and Prokosch]] in ''Film/{{Contempt}} possibly being a FlashForward, and the sequence in ''Film/Weekend1967'', when the two garbagemen deliver monologues while Godard [[{{Flashback}} flashes back to earlier scenes]] and also [[FlashForward shows us bits of upcoming scenes]], but that's about it.

* TheMovieBuff: Godard, of course, started out as a movie critic, and most of his movies in the 1960's contain numerous movie references, as in ''Film/{{Breathless}}'', when the main character sees a poster of ''Creator/HumphreyBogart'' for his last movie, ''Film/TheHarderTheyFall'', and says in a reverent tone, "Bogie".

* HesBack: After over a decade of making either experimental films or essay films (with the exception of ''Tout Va Bien'', starring Creator/JaneFonda and Creator/YvesMontand), Godard returned to more conventional filmmaking in 1980 with ''Every Man For Himself'' (starring Creator/IsabelleHuppert), which he considered his second "first" film.
* ProductionPosse: In addition to working with each of his wives (Creator/AnnaKarina, Anne Wiazemsky, and Anne-Marie Mieville) several times (Karina appeared in seven of his films and Wiazemsky in eight, while Mieville worked with him on a number of films), Godard also worked with Creator/JeanPierreLeaud on six films.

He's famous in America primarily for his [[TheSixties '60s films]] which strongly influenced college students and rock musicians at the time. He collaborated with Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} and recorded the original recording sessions of ''Sympathy for the Devil''. This was a period of many radical films that were [[GenreDeconstruction Genre Deconstructions]] of FilmNoir, BMovie, ScienceFiction, TheMusical and even a film about film-making like ''Contempt'' starring Creator/BrigitteBardot and director Creator/FritzLang AsHimself. The film Film/{{Breathless}} pioneered the JumpCut which was later adopted and overused by later directors and ironically in the kind of action films and music videos which were worlds away from the kind of films Godard made. He himself became involved in leftist political causes which made him unfashionable in the United States and controversial around the world, despite this he remains active to this day, still as untamed and unpredictable as ever.

With the deaths of Jacques Rivette in 2016 and Agnès Varda in 2019, Godard became [[LastOfHisKind the last surviving director of the French New Wave,]] until his death in 2022 at the age of 91.

With the deaths of Jacques Rivette in 2016 and Agnès Varda in 2019, Godard became [[LastOfHisKind the last surviving director of the French New Wave.]]

Jean-Luc Godard (born December 3, 1930) is a French-Swiss filmmaker.

He's famous in America primarily for his [[TheSixties '60s films]] which strongly influenced college students and rock musicians at the time. He collaborated with Music/TheRollingStones and recorded the original recording sessions of ''Sympathy for the Devil''. This was a period of many radical films that were [[GenreDeconstruction Genre Deconstructions]] of FilmNoir, BMovie, ScienceFiction, TheMusical and even a film about film-making like ''Contempt'' starring Creator/BrigitteBardot and director Creator/FritzLang AsHimself. The film Film/{{Breathless}} pioneered the JumpCut which was later adopted and overused by later directors and ironically in the kind of action films and music videos which were worlds away from the kind of films Godard made. He himself became involved in leftist political causes which made him unfashionable in the United States and controversial around the world, despite this he remains active to this day, still as untamed and unpredictable as ever.

* ''Film/{{Weekend}}'' (1967)