Jean-Luc Godard

This volume offers a new interpretation of the whole of Godard's career in cinema. Drawing examples from all periods of Godard's filmmaking, it examines the parallels between the director's innovative approach to film form and wider developments in French culture and thought since 1950. -- . 'This volume offers a new interpretation of one of the most innovative directors in the history of cinema. It is the first book to cover the whole of Godard's career, from the French New Wave to the recent triumphs of Histoire(s) du cinéma and Eloge de l'amour. Drawing on a wide range of literary, filmic and philiosophical texts, the book places Godard's work within its intellectual context, examining how developments in French culture and thought since 1950 have been mirrored in - and sometimes anticipated by - Godard's films. Numerous sequences from Godard's films are singled out for close analysis, demonstrating how the director's radical approaches to narrative, editing, sound and shot composition have made the cinema into an analytical tool in its own right. The book will be essential to all students of Godard's films, and of interest to scholars of modern and contemporary French cinema, culture and thought' --Back cover Front matter Dedication Contents List of plates Series editors’ foreword Acknowledgements Necessity or contingency: Godard as film critic, 1950–59 Scenes from domestic life: 1960–65 Outside: 1960–62 End of the beginning/beginning of the end: 1966–67 Plates Schooling: 1968–72 Home movies: 1974–78 Love and work: 1979–84 Smiling with regret: 1984–90 The sense of an ending: 1991–96 Old man river: 1998– Conclusion Filmography Select bibliography Index