Pierrot le fou and À bout de souffle, are simply the best………to me
contempt!
Breathless
then Weekend and Pierrot Le Fou
I have seen À bout de souffle, Bande à part, Le Mépris, Pierrot le Fou, Masculin Féminin, Une Femme est une Femme, Notre Musique, and Alphaville. I love all but Notre Musique, which I’m beginning to like.
pierrot le fou is my favourite film of all time, with breathless a close second, so obviously my list of favourite godard would flow in the same order.
has anyone else on here seen l’histoire(s) du cinema? i used an old vhs copy as a study aid years ago, but finally managed to pick up an official copy whilst in paris over the cinema. the subtitles on the release arent great, but with so much going on it would be impossible to get it perfect without destroying a lot of the subtle nuances and image-based musings that were never intended to be viewed as vocal (a lot of the american film clips didnt carry french subtitles upon its original release in france), but its an incredible experience. its just been released in the UK so a US release surely cant be far off. i would love to see it in a cinema, the whole way through.
I adore Weekend and Le Mepris. King Richard is really great, as, of course, is Breathless. I also love l’histoire(s) du Cinema as well as Helas Pour Moi, JLG/JLG, Nouvelle Vague and a smattering of his Vertov group films, especially Le Vent d’est.
Vivre sa vie & Pierrot le fou.
Because it hasn’t gotten much play here, I would put in a vote for the less familiar later film NOUVELLE VAGUE (New Wave). Gorgeous looking and sounding; a greyer dimmer Alain Delon stars; a great ellliptical story; and an unusually strong lyrical tug from the erstwhile master of the jump-cut and other modes of defamiliarization. It’s as if he put down the Essential Brecht glued to his left hand, and found a late little Heidegger pamphlet in his right hand. There’s a terrific reading of this film in the terrific book SPEAKING ABOUT GODARD by Kaja Silverman and Harun Farocki, that I can’t recommend highly enough to fellow Godardians.
I LOVE that book “Speaking About Godard”. It’s got a great structure. It was a really refreshing and original read for me when I first got it.
Band of Outsiders is so fun!
Pierrot Le Fou
Vvire Se Vie
Breathless
Weekend
A Woman is A Woman
Band of Outsiders
Alphaville
I love the films from Godard’s Pre-Incoherence period, like Breathless, Band of Outsiders and My Life to Live. I tried watching Weekend again recently, and it’s as much of an Excedrin headache now as it was when I first saw it.
“Band of Outsiders”. I can’t get enough of that dance scene.
Although, if I was going to introduce someone to Godard’s work, I would probably begin with “Masculin, Feminin”.
if you want to introduce someone to godard’s work, you start right at the beginning, with “breathless”. with no fooling around. it’s the textbook example of his style and concerns. on top of that, it’s arguably one of the best and most important films ever made.
I need to see more recent Godard, but as it stands now my favourites would be Masculin Féminin and Pierrot Le Fou. Maybe it’s that doomed film noir feeling in them. I love that
Band of Outsiders and A Woman is a Woman have brought much joy to my life but it all starts with Breathless.
Ditto with Kawon, those 3 are probably my favourite Godard films and probably his most accessible. Although in reply to Marko’s comment, I wouldn’t introduce someone new with ‘Masculin, Femini’. My lecturer last year showed us the film and let’s just say, nearly 2/3 of the class are now put off by Godard/French New Wave films!
I can’t get enough of Pierrot Le Fou
I am boring. I like Breathless. Then a Woman is a Woman.
The only post-1970 films I’ve seen were Comment Ca Va and Numéro Deux – the first of those was rather interesting, if tough to recommend. #2 I absolutely hated.
Of the 60s films, Pierrot and Contempt are my faves; I haven’t seen anything from his 60s period that I didn’t like. Thus far.
There is no bad Jean-Luc Godard films. All of it’s good. He has excellent films and then really interesting work. i have never been disappointed with respect to Godard’s work. I think due that he’s always questioning his own material. So it’s an on-going conversation about the work. And what it means to culture, politics, etc.
Nobody loves Pierrot Le Fou more than I do!
‘Éloge de l’amour’ … ‘Masculin Féminin’ … JLG/JLG …
I don’t know if I can tell you my favorite, but I’ll name my least favorite so far, “Détéctive” !
Johnny is cool and all, but God, I really don’t understand why JLG made this film.
BAND OF OUTSIDERS and CONTEMPT
Given his tremendous body of work, it’s kind of simplistic to suggest “Breathless” is his best film, but it’s the one I always enjoy the most. “Contempt”, “Pierrot le fou”, and “Vivre sa vie” I also rate highly, otherwise I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Godard, who is either too self-important for my tastes, or too over analyzed. Truffaut was the best of the young New Wave critics, always my position, I don’t think it’ll ever change.
Vivre sa vie, Le Mepris, and basically everything else. But especially those two.
Breathless… but I haven’t seen many of his films.
Band of Outsiders.
It just sums up Godard for me. It has both the crazy Godard aspects – like the dance sequence – as well as a touch of his more serious side, as in his other movies like Contempt.
Karl McCool
I’m not saying it’s his best film, but my favorite might just be King Lear. It was the first post-1960s Godard film I saw. And the images and the use of sound are just so beautiful.