Joshua, great topic to pick. This is right up my alley, since Godard is my second favorite director.
Without doubt, my favorites are Breathless, A Woman is a Woman, My Life to Live, Les Carabiniers, Alphaville, Pierrot le Fou, and Weekend.
My runners-up would be Le Petit Soldat, Contempt, La Chinoise, Two or Three Things I Know About Her.
None of his omnibus work is really up to his usual standard — omnibus films were huge in the 60s, where four or five directors would contribute short films — Paris Vue Par Six; Rogopag; Montparnasse-Levallois — all are really skippable, with the possible exception of “Anticipation” from The World’s Oldest Profession.
I have never warmed to Band of Outsiders, I’m trying to, but of all his vintage films it feels like the stiffest and coldest. Masculin Feminin is a film of youth; you must see this when you’re 19 or 20, otherwise it loses a lot of meaning.
I kind of stopped keeping up with the maestro after the enormous King Lear put-on. Of all his more recent work, First Name Carmen and Hail Mary probably worked the best for me.
The ones that I would probably never watch again are:
Le Gai Savoir — I know he was trying for zero degree cinema here, but this is just way too didactic and boring for the director who used to love splashes of red and blue all over the screen;
Tout Va Bien – okay, it’s a film about hypocrisy, fat sellout Yves Montand, sexy sellout Jane Fonda, but the bile wears a little thin;
Sauve Qui Peut (La Vie) – in which he embarrassed himself by knowing far less about sex in the 80s than any other auteur of his generation.
I loved Weekend for the first hour when I saw it for the first time because I had no idea what was going on, but it was exciting, and I hated it for the last half where I had no idea what was going on, and it wasn’t exciting. On second thought, Weekend isn’t especially grand considering everything he’d done beforehand, with the exception of the tracking shot of the traffic jam.
My current favorites after having watched and rewatched alot of his confusing ass later films would be Prenom Carmen (because the dialogue is awesome, and I think I understood it) Masculin Feminin (because Leaud does that cigarette flip) Tout va Bien (it’s got alot to say about a society that the majority thinks is great), Notre Musique with it’s beautiful intro, and maybe Hail Mary. I’ll have to think about that.
I didn’t like La Gai Savior. I was looking for loop holes in my brain to help me think clearly about it. Oh Woe is Me grows worse as it’s narrative continues. Keep Your Right Up, and King Lear are the providers of misery. Unless you can function on that same level of understanding that one needs in order to enter alot of Godard films, those two will destroy you. In Praise of Love, I love the music, and what that girl has to say to the movie producer, but not much else. I got tired of watching waves in alot of his new films, too. So, I’m wondering if it’s even worth checking out Forever Mozart, which is so available but also has so many chances to ruin my life. Anyone like that one?
I should watch more Godard. I’ve only seen Alphaville, but I thought it was great.
My favourite is Bande à part, my least favourite is Weekend. With a fair range in between.
I wouldn’t attempt to argue that they were the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ by any stretch, but the question was about favourites.
Favorite would have to be the entire Histoire(s) du Cinema series, but if I had to pick just one film, it would be Pierrot Le Fou.
Least favorite….hmmm….I guess I’ll go with Les Carabiniers. Not a film I enjoyed at all.
Pierrot is a masterpiece, to be sure. Corduroy you are hardly alone in shunning Les Carabiniers. Audiences threw things at the screen when Les Carabiniers premiered. Much hate mail. But I think it really holds up as a great antiwar movie, how the underprivileged are always doing the dirty work of the powers that be. There’s also a great subtext about the power of the image subsuming real life in late capitalist society, from the bewildered response to the film of a lady bathing, to the postcard spoils of war. I admit, everyone in the film is exceedingly ugly, there’s none of the chic nouvelle glamour of Karina, Belmondo, or Leaud here.
À bout de Souffle
Pierrot le Fou
Une Femme Est Une Femme
Bande à Part
La Chinoise
Masculin Féminin
Weekend
Alphaville
Le Mépris
Meetin’ WA
Une Femme Mariée
JLG/JLG, autoportrait de décembre
Ici et Ailleurs
Les Carabiniers
Notre musique
Le Gai savoir
These are the Godard films I’ve seen so far, and I think the last two are the only ones I really didn’t like.
Not a big Godard fan. I like Breathless and Contempt okay. Hate Tout Va Bien. Alphaville and Weekend. Sympathy For the Devil is amusing since it’s obvious Godard hasn’t a clue about rock n roll and the Stones know it. But than he’s French- when the US and Great Britain were giving us Dylan, The Beatles, The Stones and The Who France was giving us Johnny Hallyday. Find most of his films cold and pretentious. Admit that I haven’t seen many of his films after the early 70’s.
I must say that I prefer Gainsbourg, Gall, Aznavour, Hardy and Dassin to The Stones, Beatles etc..
Oz-that’s not rock and roll tho. I like Gainsbourg and Aznavour but it’s a different genre of music altogether.
Le Mepris is my favoirte. Notre Musique my least favorite. Back in the 60’s Godard was my favorite. Now it’s Patrice Chereau.
“that’s not rock and roll tho. I like Gainsbourg and Aznavour but it’s a different genre of music altogether.”
Fair enough – I thought you were comparing the two (genres)
Oz-Not at all. The French have produced some very good popular music but are not very good at rock-neither are the Italians or Spanish. I think it is a language think. Some languages lend themselves better to rock music, English, Germany, the Scandinavian languages. Languages that are more guttural.
I loved A bout de souffle(Breathless) and Vivre Sa Vie(My Life to live). Don’t really get much of his other work.
Most of his 60s work, especially his collaborations with Anna Karina. Absolute faves: Breathless, Vivre Sa Vie, Band of Outsiders, Contempt, Alphaville, Pierrot le Fou, parts of Weekend. Of the later works, Every Man For Himself.
Trying to rate Godard films is like trying to rate is like trying to rate Renoir or John Ford. There are a few benchmarks and then it’s all conjecture. Anna Karina is the French Maureen O’Hara.
my faves – Weekend, Alphaville, Breathless, First Name Carmen, Hail Mary, Sympathy for the Devil, A Married Woman, Pierrot le fou
Forget the name of the last one I went to, but it was definitely my least fave. An end of life and work piece, but not for me.
Favorite – Pierrot le fou
Least favorite – Sympathy for the Devil (I’m not a Stones fan)
I have also seen
weekend
Passion
Contempt
Detective
Prénom Carmen
La Chinoise
Oh, woe is me
Tout va Bien
Hail Mary
Bande à part
À bout de souffle
Une femme est une femme
Alphaville
Masculin, féminin
i’ve got too many favorite godard’s. i really can’t single out a few.
but for the ones i like the least, it has to be his dziga vertov collective period. i watched them all for the first time on ubuweb, and there wasn’t one i could stomach. criterion released the best ones (“tout va bien”, with “letter to jane”). but even still, “tout va bien” is a weak film. it just doesn’t have that godard magic. godard repeated a lot of strategies and subjects, so sometimes its easy to dismiss certain films of his. still and all, i say he’s the elder statesman of cinema. maybe the most important filmmaker that’s ever lived. his best works, i love with a passion that no other director stirs in me.
I’m obsessed. Plain and simple. He’s just so good at being a brutally honest and neurotic storyteller! rebel rebel.
Some favorites in order:
Weekend (pure madness!)
Pierrot Le Fou (the greatest pace)
A Bout De Souffle (the most romantic)
Le Mepris (the most glamorous, yet romance is put to death)
Une Femme est Une Femme (the most awkward couple)
Bande a Part (the cutest dance you’ll ever see)
Not so into Notre Musique or other recent pieces.
Favorite: ALPHAVILLE
Bande a Part
Hail Mary
A Bout De Souffle
Least Favorite: WEEKEND
dbl post
Justin Kane, I share your enthusiasm for Godard. All of modern cinema truly comes from him. “Romance is put to death,” that’s a very good way of explaining what happens at the end of a lot of his films. I always feel like his use of sudden flashbacks and flashforwards in Le Mepris is very elegaic. I’m not sure I can explain why, but it’s like a way of controlling time itself. His films are so vivid because he let his actors/friends improv and do things in front of the camera that were typical of them; as a result you are instantly drawn in. I’ll always remember Jean-Claude Brialy riding the bicycle around and around the apartment in A Woman is a Woman. It’s such a unique thing to do, that it creates the whole character right there. I recently watched Weekend again and was amazed all over again by how deliberately the film is conceived — the long tracking shots and long camera set-ups that dominate the first two thirds give way in the last third to these sudden, discordant shock moments that last for a few seconds and then we’re on to something else. Ernest the cook is one of Godard’s great creations; an essay could probably be written about the Totem and Taboo scene. And the drumming is just maddening — maybe it isn’t that Godard doesn’t understand rock, maybe it’s that he just doesn’t like it.
You nailed it right on the head, Justin Biberkopf!
And, you brought up some great little snippets that I admire so much. Godard’s playfulness and design of characters are so visceral, yet important for his discourse of modern society/politics. Another thing that I love about his tiny details are the way he can convince the man to love the woman after she tries so hard, yet the moment he does fall in love, she is over it. And, this is not just how it looks on the surface – as ignorant or shovinistic…it truly is a great argument on how human beings toy with emotions, play games, and find disgust in simple comfort. Good stuff…Don’t forget that little car he likes to put in every film, along with spouting out anti-social, or anti-political vulgarities that are only injected to anger common idealists and American capitalists…even though he does want to be your friend…really :-).
1.Vivre Sa Vie
2.Helas Pour Moi- Tie
2. Breathless
3,Pierrot Le Fou
4,Band of Outsiders
5.2 Or 3 Things I know About Her
6.Masculin Feminin
7. Une Femme est un femme
8. Weekend
9.Contempt
10. La Chinoise
11. Gai savoir, Le
12. Alphaville
13. Le Petit Soldat
14. Les Carabinerines
Post-60’s Period:
Histoire Du Cinema(all volumes)
Passion
Detective
Prenom Carmen
Éloge de l’amour
‘Je vous salue, Marie’
Ici et ailleurs
Tout va bien
Notre Musique
I can’t say I have a least favorite but I’m surprised to see how highly you all rate ‘Vivre Sa Vie’..Maybe I was just in the wrong mood though. I found ‘first name:Carman’ (Prénom Carmen) today, and I’m eager to watch, seeing as I haven’t read alot nor heard many opinions on it.
i’m actually surprised how many of you rate “prenom: carmen” highly. it didn’t impress me at all, but it’s been a while. i need to dust off my vhs and look at it again.
“vivre sa vie” is absolutely beautiful though. the film is near perfect. i’d put it right up there with godard’s supreme efforts like “breathless”, “band apart”, “alphaville”, and “masculin feminin”.
my favorites are in praise of love, prenom carmen, passion, ici et ailleurs…two or three things i know about her…weekend…
least favorite…ummm
i guess i see something in all of them. wouldnt argue that theyre all masterpieces…but every godard film ive seen has hit me in some way or other.
I’ll add my own:
Favorite five:
1. Hail Mary
2. Pierrot le fou
3. Weekend
4. Contempt
5. Breathless
Not that I don’t enjoy these, but they would rank as my least favorites still…
Band of Outsiders
Tout va Bien
Alphaville
Joshua Kelley
just curious to read what everyones favorite and least favorite godard films are. my favorites include weekend, band of outsiders, alphaville, le petit soldat, les carabiniers and contempt. my least favorite (even though i find greatness in all of his films) is la chinoise.