Jean-Luc Godard(Dziga Vertov Group)
:
Godard's relation to the cinema began with his critical essays in the French cinema journal Cahiers du Cinema (co-founded by film theorist and critic André Bazin in 1951). Soon he and his fellows at the Cahiers du Cinema started making films that aimed to counter the French mainstream cinema by developing alternative cinematic styles and focusing on social issues. Later, the movement was named the French New Wave. During this period (1950s to mid 1960s), Goradrd made a crucial contribution to the approach of Cahiers du Cinéma to auteurism – a theory that considers the filmmaker, through a distinctive stylistic choice and an aesthetic organization, as the creator and the author of her or his film. His early films were generally successful and were produced within mode of production of the mainstream film industry. After the events of May 1968, when Gordad rejected and condemned the system as a whole as 'bourgeois,' including his previous films. He then formed, with French filmmaker Chris Marker, the Medvedkin Group, a politically leftist group inspired by the Russian filmmaker Alexander Medvedkin. Godard left the group soon after and formed the Dziga Vertov Group with Jean-Pierre Gorin. While both groups were involved in similar political activities, the Dziga Vertov Group were much more radical in terms of its divergence from mainstream conventions and its attempt to invent new cinematic forms. This approach was confirmed by Godard's view of cinematic form as not only a dramatic choice, but as a political and ideological one; he and his fellows at the group claimed that they wanted to make “political films politically.” If Godard had violated narrative conventions in his early films, then it would be after May 1968 when he deconstructed the whole structure in order to create a new cinematic expression that reflects and speaks of the revolution - expression that is liberated from the structural constraints of the bourgeois cinema.
Bibliography:
- Godard, Jean Luc. Godard on Godard; Critical Writings. Edited by Jean Narboni and Tom Milne. New York: Viking Press, 1972. Introduction by Richard Roud.
- MacCabe, Colin. Godard: Images, Sounds, Politics. British Film Institute Cinema Series. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980. Essays by Mick Eaton and Laura
Mulvey; interviews with Jean-Luc Godard.
- Silverman, Kaja and Harun Farocki. Speaking About Godard. New York: New York University Press, 1998. Foreword by Constance Penley.
- Ed. Jane de Almeida, Dziga Vertov Group (São Paulo: witz edições, 2005)
- David Sterritt, Jean-Luc Godard: Seeing the Invisible (Cambridge University Press, 1999)
- Ed. Michael Temple, James S. Williams & Michael Witt, Forever Godard (Black Dog, 2004)
- Nicole Brenez, “Forms 1960-2004: ‘The Critical Faculty Invents Fresh Forms’” in ed. Michael Temple & Michael Witt,The French Cinema Book (BFI, 2004)
- Kaja Silverman and Harun Farocki, Speaking About Godard (NYU Press, 1998)
- Andrew Sarris, “Godard and the Revolution”, 1970, in ed. David Sterritt, Jean-Luc Godard: Interviews (University of Mississippi Press, 1998)
- James Roy McBean, “Godard and the Dziga Vertov Group: Film and Dialectics” in Film Quarterly, 1972, Vol. 26, no. 1, pp30-44
Godard's relation to the cinema began with his critical essays in the French cinema journal Cahiers du Cinema (co-founded by film theorist and critic André Bazin in 1951). Soon he and his fellows at the Cahiers du Cinema started making films that aimed to counter the French mainstream cinema by developing alternative cinematic styles and focusing on social issues. Later, the movement was named the French New Wave. During this period (1950s to mid 1960s), Goradrd made a crucial contribution to the approach of Cahiers du Cinéma to auteurism – a theory that considers the filmmaker, through a distinctive stylistic choice and an aesthetic organization, as the creator and the author of her or his film. His early films were generally successful and were produced within mode of production of the mainstream film industry. After the events of May 1968, when Gordad rejected and condemned the system as a whole as 'bourgeois,' including his previous films. He then formed, with French filmmaker Chris Marker, the Medvedkin Group, a politically leftist group inspired by the Russian filmmaker Alexander Medvedkin. Godard left the group soon after and formed the Dziga Vertov Group with Jean-Pierre Gorin. While both groups were involved in similar political activities, the Dziga Vertov Group were much more radical in terms of its divergence from mainstream conventions and its attempt to invent new cinematic forms. This approach was confirmed by Godard's view of cinematic form as not only a dramatic choice, but as a political and ideological one; he and his fellows at the group claimed that they wanted to make “political films politically.” If Godard had violated narrative conventions in his early films, then it would be after May 1968 when he deconstructed the whole structure in order to create a new cinematic expression that reflects and speaks of the revolution - expression that is liberated from the structural constraints of the bourgeois cinema.
Bibliography:
- Godard, Jean Luc. Godard on Godard; Critical Writings. Edited by Jean Narboni and Tom Milne. New York: Viking Press, 1972. Introduction by Richard Roud.
- MacCabe, Colin. Godard: Images, Sounds, Politics. British Film Institute Cinema Series. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980. Essays by Mick Eaton and Laura
Mulvey; interviews with Jean-Luc Godard.
- Silverman, Kaja and Harun Farocki. Speaking About Godard. New York: New York University Press, 1998. Foreword by Constance Penley.
- Ed. Jane de Almeida, Dziga Vertov Group (São Paulo: witz edições, 2005)
- David Sterritt, Jean-Luc Godard: Seeing the Invisible (Cambridge University Press, 1999)
- Ed. Michael Temple, James S. Williams & Michael Witt, Forever Godard (Black Dog, 2004)
- Nicole Brenez, “Forms 1960-2004: ‘The Critical Faculty Invents Fresh Forms’” in ed. Michael Temple & Michael Witt,The French Cinema Book (BFI, 2004)
- Kaja Silverman and Harun Farocki, Speaking About Godard (NYU Press, 1998)
- Andrew Sarris, “Godard and the Revolution”, 1970, in ed. David Sterritt, Jean-Luc Godard: Interviews (University of Mississippi Press, 1998)
- James Roy McBean, “Godard and the Dziga Vertov Group: Film and Dialectics” in Film Quarterly, 1972, Vol. 26, no. 1, pp30-44