Jean luc godard in Foreign DVDs & Videos

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This set of three of Mr. Godard's early films includes one of his legendary films, BREATHLESS, as well as two lesser known works, LE PETIT SOLDAT and LES CARABINIERS, both of which are every bit their predecessor's equal. See individual titles for details.

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Godard's first feature has been widely hailed as one of the most influential motion pictures ever made. On the run after killing a cop, a small-time crook (Belmondo) hides out in Paris with an American girl (Seberg). After she betrays him, he chooses to face his fate with an absurd stoicism modelled on his hero, Humphrey Bogart. BREATHLESS is the arguable cornerstone of the French New Wave, exhibiting the trademark documentary shooting style, natural sound design, and thematic interest in the detritus of American popular culture. (Rereleased theatrically in April, 2000.)

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French master Jean-Luc Godard's NOTRE MUSIQUE is a passionate, scathing indictment of war. Divided into three segments, the film boldly condemns the notion of war and the damage that it causes. The first segment, Hell, is a breathtaking visual montage that captures the cruelty and brutality of battle. Next comes Purgatory. Set in postwar, modern-day Sarajevo, this chapter of the film finds Godard at his most philosophical. Godard himself appears as a lecturer at a cultural conference, in which he points out, through a photographic presentation, the similarities between such seemingly opposite groups as the Israelis and Palestinians. Meanwhile, a young Israeli student (Sarah Adler) searches for answers of her own by taking photographs and interviewing various individuals about the concept of power. Another young woman, Olga (Nade Dieu), shows her disdain for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict by performing an act of defiance that leads to the film's third and final segment, Paradise, in which Olga finds herself on the other side of consciousness. NOTRE MUSIQUE is an expression of frustration with the violence in the world. The opening montage recalls Godard's experimental work from the 1970s, while the middle segment features the same literate, philosophical musings that have been with Godard since day one. Meanwhile, the closing vision of paradise brings to mind his audacious films from the late-1960s (WEEKEND, SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL). NOTRE MUSIQUE is the work of a genius who is still at the top of his game. This film was included in the 42nd New York Film Festival organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

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Jean Luc Godard's follow-up to his Nouvelle Vague landmark and debut feature, BREATHLESS, LES PETIT SOLDAT was originally banned in France because of its frank depiction of the Algerian War, which was tearing France apart at the time of the film's completion. Michel Subor stars as Bruno, a hitman under contract by the French government who suddenly develops a conscience and a philosophy when he is ordered to kill a left wing Arab leader. His newfound ideals are provoked by the stunning Veronica (Karina), a young woman who is secretly employed by the Arabs. The two fall in love, and, not surprisingly, Bruno finds it impossible to carry out his mission, bringing down the wrath of the French government on both he and Veronica. Beautifully filmed by Raoul Coutard, LES PETIT SOLDAT is less interested in the mechanics of plot as it is in providing Godard a voice for thoughts and musings on the politics and horrors of the Algerian War.

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A bizarre, surreal, and potent antiwar film, Jean-Luc Godard's LES CARABINIERS is a complex tale of two riflemen who travel the world in the service of "The King." Recruited by two other members of the army, Michel-Ange and Ulysses leave their wives, Cleopatra and Venus, to wander as far as Egypt and the U.S., killing and torturing innocent victims for their unseen leader. Full of the innovative editing techniques and intellectual vigor that punctuates almost all Godard's films, LES CARABINIERS finds Godard playing promiscuously with images and ideas, including favorite preoccupations such as the destructiveness of capitalism, often presenting ideas and opinions that are forgotten almost as soon as they are articulated. Beautiful, complex, fascinating, and frustrating, LES CARABINIERS is vintage Godard.

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A film about "the children of Marx and Coca Cola" directed by the child of Brecht and Hollywood, MASCULINE-FEMININE is a touchstone in the career of Jean-Luc Godard, a window into the kinetic world of Paris in the 1960s, and a high point in the cinema of the French New Wave. It chronicles the love affair between Paul (Jean-Pierre Leaud), a young zealot with revolutionary leanings, and Madeleine (Chantal Goya), a fetching pop singer. Their relationship gradually breaks down as the two attempt to bridge their differences, albeit unsuccessfully (he likes Bob Dylan, she is only interested in the top 40). Along the way, they discuss current world culture and politics with their friends, and encounter a variety of bizarre individuals who only serve to exacerbate the youthful confusion of both Paul and Madeleine. One of Godard's most insightful films, MASCULINE-FEMININE represents a search for tenderness, and is, at the same time, an unsettling illumination of the Battle of the Sexes. By casting legitimate pop sensation Goya in the lead role, Godard threatened to date his film, taking into account the speed with which pop singers are replaced. Luckily for him, Goya is an engaging screen presence whose mere appearance is enough to keep things interesting.

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French New Wave master Jean-Luc Godard continues his fascination with dime store novels and American crime films with 1964's BAND OF OUTSIDERS, a free-spirited romp in the same vein as the director's breakthrough smash, BREATHLESS. More traditional than BREATHLESS in its technical execution, BAND OF OUTSIDERS sparkles with freshness and originality--it uses comical, poetic narration by Godard himself, and has a bouncy musical score by Michel Legrand. The performances from Claude Brasseur, Sami Frey, and especially Anna Karina combine satirical melodrama, overflowing hipness, and moving sincerity, giving the film plenty of heart. An irreplaceable contribution to 1960s film, this movie is much more than a mere genre reworking. The story follows two friends, Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and Franz (Sami Frey), who are searching for a way to make a big score. When Franz meets the beautiful Odile (Anna Karina) and she informs him of a large chunk of cash her aunt keeps hidden in her house, the duo are convinced that this is their lucky break. Odile is a sensitive young woman who, out of fear and guilt, opposes their plan, but Arthur and Franz coax her to go along with the idea. When the time comes to pull off the heist, a miscalculation delays the seemingly perfect plan, resulting in a confrontation that has dire consequences.

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With A WOMAN IS A WOMAN, French director Jean-Luc Godard pays tribute to American musicals in much the same way that his debut feature, the critical and commercial smash hit BREATHLESS, did to American gangster films. The story follows the beautiful Angela (Anna Karina), a strip-tease artist who wants nothing more than to have a baby. Her live-in boyfriend, Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy), doesn't want to refuse and risk sparking major friction between the two. However, fed up with her constant pleading, Emile finally suggests that she shack up with his best friend, Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo), and much to Emile's dismay, she eventually takes his advice. Godard's second feature employs jump cuts and jarring sound mixing--most notably during Karina's strip-tease performances. A WOMAN IS A WOMAN is Godard at his most affectionate and good-natured. He also makes several cinematic in-jokes, including one in which Belmondo's character mentions that he wants to hurry home to watch BREATHLESS, the film that turned Belmondo into a megastar just one year before. Featuring a magnetically cute performance from Karina, who soon after the film became Godard's wife, this loving romantic comedy is a dazzler.

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With 1965's ALPHAVILLE--part sci-fi action film, part noir thriller--the acclaimed French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard achieves a stunningly clinical futurism using absolutely no special visual effects. The result is a moving, original film that, with its abstract, political, and intellectual themes, essentially redefines the apocalyptic science fiction genre. ALPHAVILLE, clearly the product of one of cinema's greatest contributors, is nothing less than a bona fide cult classic. A bizarre space-chase across a glass and metal landscape of futuristic Paris--here called Alphaville--is the movie's premise. Creating a dystopian "tomorrow" characterized by alienation and cold corporate comforts, Godard slyly suggests that the future is now. Secret agent man Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) travels across the expanses of intergalactic space and time to uncover the fate of his missing predecessor. Working under the alias of Ivan Johnson, Caution is accompanied in his quest by the lovely Natasha Vonbraun (Anna Karina), the daughter of a supposedly missing professor. Caution later discovers that the elder Vonbraun is the mastermind behind Alpha 60--the rigid, masterful computer that governs Alphaville. Alpha's job is to crush individuality, eradicating any human being who does not conform. Ultimately, Lemmy is left with no other choice but to destroy the calculating chip-and-wire monolith, with the only weapons he has left: his heart and soul.

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French auteur Jean-Luc Godard continues his fascination with the crime genre--after BREATHLESS and BAND OF OUTSIDERS--with PIERROT LE FOU. After escaping his stale, bourgeois marriage, Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a man on the run, encounters a captivating woman, Marianne (Godard's then-wife, Anna Karina). Striking up an immediate connection, the two begin a freewheeling affair that leads them to the Mediterranean Sea. There's one slight problem, though. Marianne is being pursued by a group of bloodthirsty mobsters who have chased her out of Algeria. Making matters worse for Ferdinand is the unfortunate fact that she turns out to be as much of a headache as his wife was, constantly referring to him as "Pierrot," much to his disdain. As their relationship reaches its boiling point, the hit men arrive, threatening to terminate both their relationship and their lives. Based on Lionel White's OBSESSION, PIERROT LE FOU is an example of a filmmaker's lack of preparation actually working to his benefit. Godard has said that he had no script on which to proceed, forcing him to make up the film as he went along. It is this seemingly improvised, brisk pacing--in addition to the performances of Belmondo and Karina--that makes the film such a fresh and original twist on an oft-mimicked genre.

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Jean-Luc Godard's cynical look at the art of filmmaking follows a screenwriter in his attempts to recount Homer's THE ODYSSEY. Full of insights into the compromises required of filmmakers, as well as autobiographical allusions, especially concerning the failed union of Godard and actress Anna Karina, 1964's CONTEMPT is one of the most widely recognized films about the filmmaking process. It is also considered the film that made Godard realize that lavish productions were not for him, sending him back into a lower-budget world where he could maintain complete control over his films. Shot in glorious CinemaScope by Raoul Coutard, CONTEMPT is a poignant artistic commentary and a dramatic exposé of a dying marriage. Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli) is struggling with Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance), the manipulative American producer financing his big-budget venture, and is frustrated by Fritz Lang (playing himself), the film's egotistical director. Concomitantly, his marriage to his gorgeous wife Camille (Brigitte Bardot) founders, and the emotional distance between them weighs heavily upon him.

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This set contains two documentaries and one feature film all by the German auteur. Special features including deleted scenes, featurettes, and commentary accompany each film. LIGHTNING OVER WATER: Director Wim Wenders assembled this experimental project with the legendary American director Nicholas Ray. Shot as Ray was dying of cancer, the film finds him surrounded by family and friends as he reflects on his life and career. As he tells some amazing stories about his successes and compromises, it becomes clear that Wenders and Ray are creating something that is far more than a documentary, a film about a great artist and the nature of collaboration. THE AMERICAN FRIEND: Jonathan Zimmermann, a German picture-framer, is dying of a rare blood disease. Despite his illness, the happily married Jonathan does his best to live each day to the fullest with his wife and child. But when Tom Ripley, a cunning American gangster, learns of Jonathan's sickness, he convinces the dying man--deeply concerned about his family's financial future--to work as a hit man for a big payoff. Will Jonathan get in over his head by making a deal that could ruin what's left of his life? German director Wim Wenders delivers a sensitive, film-noirish tribute to the American gangster film, based on the novel RIPLEY'S GAME by Patricia Highsmith. NOTEBOOK ON CITIES AND CLOTHES is a fascinating documentary by Wim Wenders that explores the work of noted Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto. The filmmaker follows Yamamoto from Tokyo to France as the designer arranges his Paris showing. Through a dialogue between the director and his subject, the film offers an original take on the meaning of fashion and style in the art world as well as in contemporary life.

Description:

French auteur Jean-Luc Godard continues his fascination with the crime genre--after BREATHLESS and BAND OF OUTSIDERS--with PIERROT LE FOU. After escaping his stale, bourgeois marriage, Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a man on the run, encounters a captivating woman, Marianne (Godard's then-wife, Anna Karina). Striking up an immediate connection, the two begin a freewheeling affair that leads them to the Mediterranean Sea. There's one slight problem, though. Marianne is being pursued by a group of bloodthirsty mobsters who have chased her out of Algeria. Making matters worse for Ferdinand is the unfortunate fact that she turns out to be as much of a headache as his wife was, constantly referring to him as "Pierrot," much to his disdain. As their relationship reaches its boiling point, the hit men arrive, threatening to terminate both their relationship and their lives. Based on Lionel White's OBSESSION, PIERROT LE FOU is an example of a filmmaker's lack of preparation actually working to his benefit. Godard has said that he had no script on which to proceed, forcing him to make up the film as he went along. It is this seemingly improvised, brisk pacing--in addition to the performances of Belmondo and Karina--that makes the film such a fresh and original twist on an oft-mimicked genre.

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MY LIFE TO LIVE is Jean-Luc Godard's political, philosophical and, above all, rapturous portrait of a Parisian prostitute who attempts to take control of her own life and understand the meaning of freedom. Godard's technically audacious film is an invigorating masterpiece that strikingly blends original film techniques with genuine human emotion, including long takes, asymmetrical framing, and jarring inter-titles. Anna Karina is Nana, a distraught young woman who leaves her husband and child with the hopes of becoming a big-screen actress. Realizing the futility of making her dream a reality, she instead is goaded into prostitution by a persuasive pimp. Nana begins to question the decisions she has made, sparking even greater personal confusion and leading toward an inevitably somber conclusion. The tale is divided into 12 chapters that combine a variety of disparate storytelling genres--ranging from Brechtian to B-movie gangster. MY LIFE TO LIVE is a hallmark of the French New Wave, an example of critic-turned-director Godard at the peak of his craft.

Description:

French auteur Jean-Luc Godard continues his fascination with the crime genre--after BREATHLESS and BAND OF OUTSIDERS--with PIERROT LE FOU. After escaping his stale, bourgeois marriage, Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a man on the run, encounters a captivating woman, Marianne (Godard's then-wife, Anna Karina). Striking up an immediate connection, the two begin a freewheeling affair that leads them to the Mediterranean Sea. There's one slight problem, though. Marianne is being pursued by a group of bloodthirsty mobsters who have chased her out of Algeria. Making matters worse for Ferdinand is the unfortunate fact that she turns out to be as much of a headache as his wife was, constantly referring to him as "Pierrot," much to his disdain. As their relationship reaches its boiling point, the hit men arrive, threatening to terminate both their relationship and their lives. Based on Lionel White's OBSESSION, PIERROT LE FOU is an example of a filmmaker's lack of preparation actually working to his benefit. Godard has said that he had no script on which to proceed, forcing him to make up the film as he went along. It is this seemingly improvised, brisk pacing--in addition to the performances of Belmondo and Karina--that makes the film such a fresh and original twist on an oft-mimicked genre.

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Famed auteur Jean-Luc Godard's fascination with the female race continues with A MARRIED WOMAN, an unconventional cinematic portrait of a woman who is at a crossroads in her life. Charlotte (Macha Meril) is a beautiful young wife and stepmother, who also happens to have fallen in love with Robert (Bernard Noel), a charming actor. While her husband, Pierre (Philippe Leroy), is away on business, she and Robert continue to spend time together in a hotel. When Pierre returns, Charlotte must lie in order to cover up her infidelities. She eventually learns that she is pregnant, forcing her to choose between a life with her husband, or a fresh new start with Robert. Shot in a series of extreme close-ups that mostly focus on Charlotte's flesh, Godard shows his obvious reverence for the female body. He also allows his actors the time to express their own confusion and philosophies--most notably in an extended dinner sequence. Godard's intellectual approach to male-female relationships, and especially the institution of marriage, is on full display with this influential drama, in a similar manner to the director's MY LIFE TO LIVE, TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER, and CONTEMPT.

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This dense, layered, and highly political film is an example of French auteur Jean-Luc Godard's work at its most challenging and exhilarating, adding another powerful social commentary to his startlingly original 1960s catalogue. The "her" of the title refers to two objects: Juliette, a woman who resides in one of Paris's drab, ugly suburbs, and the capital city itself. Using a fragmented narrative style that mirrors Juliette's clipped, confused existence, Godard looks at a day in the life of Juliette and the cast of Parisian women that revolves around her. A constant juxtaposition of images compares Juliette's alienating existence as a housewife and a prostitute with the equally alienating and constantly changing face of Paris--seen in documentary-style footage, shot in glorious CinemaScope by Raoul Coutard. Godard also sets his sights on the concept of language itself, questioning the reality of words, their history, and their ability to convey the truth of actual day-to-day occurrences. Godard himself provides a whispered, but very trenchant, narration throughout the film, which further implicates the modern world for moving too quickly and soullessly, condemning the escalating violence in Vietnam, the growing infatuation with television, and the world's animalistic dependence on sex and sexuality. Simply put, this is cinema at its most thought provoking.

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Famed French director Jean-Luc Godard delivers his most controversial drama with this modern retelling of the birth of Christ. In Godard's version, the Virgin Mary is a Swiss gas station employee and Joseph is her taxi-driving boyfriend. Marie (Myriem Roussel), who also plays basketball for a local team, claims to be a virgin and maintains a chaste relationship with Joseph (Thierry Rode). One day, a passing stranger named Uncle Gabriel (Phillippe Lacoste) informs a confused Marie and an angry Joseph of Marie's impending pregnancy. After the initial shock passes and his prediction comes true, the expectant couple marries and raises their child, Jesus (Malachi Jara Kohan), who eventually abandons his family to pursue "his father's business." All the while, Marie grapples with her sexuality, searching for a link between her individual body and spirit. Picketed and protested during its highly publicized theatrical release, Godard's film isn't the blasphemous outrage religious conservatives deemed it to be. Instead, it is a challenging work that transplants the classic story of the Immaculate Conception into the modern world, asking new questions about femininity in a male-dominated society. Roussel's Marie is a striking invention, a character that works literally, as well as being a symbol of the new woman of the late-20th century.

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Jean-Luc Godard's cynical look at the art of filmmaking follows a screenwriter in his attempts to recount Homer's THE ODYSSEY. Full of insights into the compromises required of filmmakers, as well as autobiographical allusions, especially concerning the failed union of Godard and actress Anna Karina, 1964's CONTEMPT is one of the most widely recognized films about the filmmaking process. It is also considered the film that made Godard realize that lavish productions were not for him, sending him back into a lower-budget world where he could maintain complete control over his films. Shot in glorious CinemaScope by Raoul Coutard, CONTEMPT is a poignant artistic commentary and a dramatic exposé of a dying marriage. Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli) is struggling with Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance), the manipulative American producer financing his big-budget venture, and is frustrated by Fritz Lang (playing himself), the film's egotistical director. Concomitantly, his marriage to his gorgeous wife Camille (Brigitte Bardot) founders, and the emotional distance between them weighs heavily upon him.

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ROGOPAG is an anthology of four short films by a quartet of world-renowned directors. Roberto Rosselini's ILLIBATEZZA (Virginity) chronicles a beautiful Italian stewardess's efforts to dissuade a desperate American suitor despite his near-psychotic persistence. Pier Paolo Pasolini's controversial LA RICOTTA (Curd Cheese) takes an irony-laden look at the bizarre goings-on during a film shoot that aims to re-create the Biblical story of Jesus (starring Orson Welles as an incredibly pretentious director). Jean-Luc Godard's IL NUEVO MONDO (New World) equates the ending of a problematic love affair with a tragic nuclear holocaust. And finally, Ugo Gregoretti's IL POLLO RUSPANTE (Range-Grown Chicken) takes a comedic--and tragic--look at the world of advertising, as a young family treks into the country to contemplate buying a plot of land. With these shorts, each director takes time to further explore the themes that permeate their feature-length works, focusing on issues of religion, jealousy, and corporate influence in the early 1960s. Blending satire, melodrama, and social commentary, the overall result is a vital historical time capsule as well as a lighthearted work of entertainment that foreign film afficionados are sure to enjoy. The four shorts feature standout performances from Rosanna Schiaffino, Ugo Tognazzi, Lisa Gastoni, and Welles.

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Jean-Luc Godard has returned to the existential, surreal world he mined in the 1960s with IN PRAISE OF LOVE, which was up for the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was chosen as the closing film for the 39th Annual New York Film Festival. Godard's film is about nothing and everything as a man continually speaks of his "project," with many of the characters conversing offscreen in fabulously vague and confusing parables and platitudes. The plot comes in bits and pieces, in memorable shots and bizarre scenes: a man reads a blank book; an attractive woman passes by a car and flashes the passengers; Hollywood wants to buy the story of an older couple who fought in the French Resistance; and such familiar Godardian themes as death, art, politics, and religion are discussed, however anamorphically. And then, suddenly, the 35mm black-and-white film is awash in reds and oranges as Godard switches to color digital video when the story goes back two years into the past, and the camera starts and stop, freezing on various shots, then moving on. As with the best of Godard, IN PRAISE OF LOVE is challenging, difficult, nonlinear, and wholly original, so unlike anything else.

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Capitalizing on the worldwide success of the French New Wave, six celebrated directors came together to showcase the foibles of metropolitan life in the City of Lights for SIX IN PARIS. In Jean Douchet's SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRES, a young American woman is disappointed to learn that the man she slept with after a chance encounter wasn't the person he claimed to be. Jean Rouch's GARE DU NORD tells the moralistic tale of an unhappy married woman who yearns to recapture the overpowering feelings of mystery and love in her life. In Jean-Daniel Pollet's RUE SAINT-DENIS, a lonely dishwasher brings home a prostitute, only to put off the actual act--until a power outage forces him into action. Eric Rohmer's PLACE DE L'ETOILE tells the comical tale of an unassuming clerk who fears he has murdered a man with his umbrella after the two bump into each other while he's on his lunch break. Jean-Luc Godard's MONTPARNASSE-LEVALLOIS is another morality tale concerning a beautiful Canadian woman who fears she has mixed up sending telegrams to her two boyfriends. And finally, Claude Chabrol's LA MUETTE tells the somber tale of a young boy who ignores his constantly bickering parents by vandalizing his house. Combining deft storytelling with startling color photography, SIX IN PARIS is an entertaining ode to one of the world's most famous cities.

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The master of the French New Wave indicts consumerism and elaborates on his personal vision of Hell with this raucous, biting satire. A nasty, scheming bourgeois Parisian couple embarks on a journey through the countryside to her father's house, where they pray for his death and a subsequent inheritance. Their trip is at first delayed, and later it is distracted by several outrageous events and characters including an apocalyptic traffic jam, a group of fictional philosophers, a couple of violent carjackers, and eventually, a gross display of cannibalism. By the time the film concludes, their seemingly simple journey has deteriorated into a freewheeling philosophical diatribe that leaves no topic unscathed. With WEEKEND, Jean-Luc Godard reaches an impressive plateau of film originality, incorporating inter-titles, extended tracking shots, and music to add an entirely new grammar to film language. The result is a deeply challenging work that will most certainly invigorate some viewers just as much as it will as frustrate others. Standout highlights include a jarring, sexually graphic opening monologue shot with a roaming camera and blaring musical accompaniment, and the infamous traffic jam scene, where an endless parade of cars sit bumper to bumper amidst burning cars, picnics, and honking horns. The work of a true artist and pioneer, Godard's WEEKEND is a landmark film that hasn't aged or lessened in impact over time.

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Godard's first feature has been widely hailed as one of the most influential motion pictures ever made. On the run after killing a cop, a small-time crook (Belmondo) hides out in Paris with an American girl (Seberg). After she betrays him, he chooses to face his fate with an absurd stoicism modelled on his hero, Humphrey Bogart. BREATHLESS is the arguable cornerstone of the French New Wave, exhibiting the trademark documentary shooting style, natural sound design, and thematic interest in the detritus of American popular culture. (Rereleased theatrically in April, 2000.)

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A portmanteau film from the 1960s, LOVE AND ANGER features shorts from some of the most accomplished filmmakers of all time. Bernardo Bertolucci (THE CONFORMIST, LAST TANGO IN PARIS), Jean-Luc Goddard (BREATHLESS, BAND OF OUTSIDERS), Marco Bellocchio (DEVIL IN THE FLESH, CHINA IS NEAR), Pier Paolo Pasolini (SALO, TEOREMA), and Carlo Lizzani (THE HUNCHBACK OF ROME, THE LAST DAYS OF MUSSOLINI), each contribute to a portrait of a volatile decade. Pure arthouse fare, the films feature performances by Living Theatre founders Julian Beck (POLTERGEIST II) and Judith Malina (THE ADDAMS FAMILY), as well as Andy Warhol Factory member Tom Baker (BLOW JOB). Brutal indifference to violence is tempered by images of joy against a backdrop of war, while Godard's characters self-consciously debate love and war.

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With A WOMAN IS A WOMAN, French director Jean-Luc Godard pays tribute to American musicals in much the same way that his debut feature, the critical and commercial smash hit BREATHLESS, did to American gangster films. The story follows the beautiful Angela (Anna Karina), a strip-tease artist who wants nothing more than to have a baby. Her live-in boyfriend, Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy), doesn't want to refuse and risk sparking major friction between the two. However, fed up with her constant pleading, Emile finally suggests that she shack up with his best friend, Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo), and much to Emile's dismay, she eventually takes his advice. Godard's second feature employs jump cuts and jarring sound mixing--most notably during Karina's strip-tease performances. A WOMAN IS A WOMAN is Godard at his most affectionate and good-natured. He also makes several cinematic in-jokes, including one in which Belmondo's character mentions that he wants to hurry home to watch BREATHLESS, the film that turned Belmondo into a megastar just one year before. Featuring a magnetically cute performance from Karina, who soon after the film became Godard's wife, this loving romantic comedy is a dazzler.

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Jean-Luc Godard revisits the crime genre with FIRST NAME: CARMEN, an offbeat drama that follows the unlikely relationship that blossoms between a criminal and an officer of the law. Carmen (Maruschka Detmers) is a sexy terrorist who plans to team up with her cohorts in order to rob a bank, securing enough money for her to shoot a documentary film. Complications arise during the heist when she is drawn to the bank's security guard, Joseph (Jacques Bonnaffe). The pair flees to her crazy uncle's seaside house, where they embark on a passionate affair. Eventually, Carmen's boss (Christophe Odent) arrives. He is a cocky criminal who won't allow Joseph into their gang. When they decide to rob a wealthy businessman and his daughter, a shootout commences and the doomed relationship between Carmen and Joseph ends once and for all. Godard's award-winning film recalls his earlier PIERROT LE FOU and DETECTIVE, two other high-octane crime dramas that successfully toyed with conventions of the genre, resulting in highly original works. Featuring the stunning Detmers in the title role, Godard's FIRST NAME: CARMEN is also aided by the supporting turns from Bonnaffe and Odent. Godard himself plays an aging, borderline-insane director.

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Acclaimed French director Jean-Luc Godard continues to develop his strikingly original cinematic language with FOR EVER MOZART. The film is more an abstract collection of scenes that merge on an extremely loose level than it is a typical narrative (for followers of Godard, this should come as no surprise). The story concerns an aging movie director who attempts to film a new production of a Musset play in besieged Sarajevo. Along the way, various strange things happen to him and his stars, including landing in an apocalyptic rural landscape (ala the director's 1967 masterwork WEEKEND). As usual, Godard peppers his film with cultural references--literate and historical--including nods to William Shakespeare, Albert Camus, and John Ford. Adding even more spark to the proceedings is Godard's now-trademark use of fractured editing, as well as his blunt musical transitions (featuring the works of David Darling, Ketil Bjornstad, Jon Christensen, Ben Harper, and Gyorgi Kurtag). Proving that his distinct vision only continues to grow as he edges toward his fortieth year as a film director, Godard's FOR EVER MOZART is another challenging, intellectual cinematic discourse from one of the French New Wave's most notable luminaries.

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This set of three of Mr. Godard's early films includes one of his legendary films, BREATHLESS, as well as two lesser known works, LE PETIT SOLDAT and LES CARABINIERS, both of which are every bit their predecessor's equal. See individual titles for details.

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French master Jean-Luc Godard's NOTRE MUSIQUE is a passionate, scathing indictment of war. Divided into three segments, the film boldly condemns the notion of war and the damage that it causes. The first segment, Hell, is a breathtaking visual montage that captures the cruelty and brutality of battle. Next comes Purgatory. Set in postwar, modern-day Sarajevo, this chapter of the film finds Godard at his most philosophical. Godard himself appears as a lecturer at a cultural conference, in which he points out, through a photographic presentation, the similarities between such seemingly opposite groups as the Israelis and Palestinians. Meanwhile, a young Israeli student (Sarah Adler) searches for answers of her own by taking photographs and interviewing various individuals about the concept of power. Another young woman, Olga (Nade Dieu), shows her disdain for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict by performing an act of defiance that leads to the film's third and final segment, Paradise, in which Olga finds herself on the other side of consciousness. NOTRE MUSIQUE is an expression of frustration with the violence in the world. The opening montage recalls Godard's experimental work from the 1970s, while the middle segment features the same literate, philosophical musings that have been with Godard since day one. Meanwhile, the closing vision of paradise brings to mind his audacious films from the late-1960s (WEEKEND, SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL). NOTRE MUSIQUE is the work of a genius who is still at the top of his game. This film was included in the 42nd New York Film Festival organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.