For Ever Godard

EVENT DESCRIPTION

From May to July 2023, the Cine Fan retrospective presented by HKIFF will showcase a total of 56 films directed by Jean-Luc Godard and a reference film directed by his partner, Anne-Marie Miéville.

One of the greatest filmmaking giants of all time, Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022) seemed like an unstoppable force of superhuman intellect who would live forever, but he finally chose to go out on his own terms. It looked as if he was having his last laugh, bidding us farewell at will, and stunned us with his last breath.

In his lifetime, he shocked and enthralled everyone when he introduced jump cut as a cinematic tool for editing, and broke the fourth wall in the middle of a sentence without hesitation. Many filmmakers were daring, few were willing to try something new, but it’s another thing to keep on breaking the rules, experimenting with cinematic forms, pushing the narrative boundaries, reinventing new sets of film language, as well as embracing new technologies. Ever since Godard made Breathless, cinema has never been the same.

Godard began writing film criticism in the 1950s for the film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. Together with fellow critics François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer, they formed a group of enthusiasts who criticised the traditional ‘quality’ French cinema and believed in the Auteur Theory. These young critics would become the influential French New Wave when they began making innovative films that revolutionise the world of cinema with their agility and creativity.

Having made over 40 feature films in his lifetime, Godard inspired audiences by holding on to his independent spirit in film and in life. His career can basically be divided into four phases. During his New Wave period, one would be excited at the freshness and freedom of his filmmaking style and appreciate how he surpassed the boundaries of his narrative, and captured the charm of his muses who shone brightly in front of the camera; in his political years after the revolution of May 1968, one would be stimulated by his revolutionary spirit and unflinching passion; in his later years, one would be immensely moved and admire without reservation his abstract cinematic essays that managed to balance ideology and poetry.

Schedule:
https://cinefan.hkiff.org.hk/schedule