Jean-Luc Godard: Interviews

Conversations With Filmmakers Series

by David Sterritt (Editor)

"I am trying to change the world, " film-maker Jean-Luc Godard told critic Gene Youngblood some thirty years ago. He has pursued his revolution in works ranging from the explosive Breathless to the eloquent Contempt to the controversial Hail Mary and the postmodern Histoire(s) du cinema, shaking up conventional formulas with boldly innovative approaches to every aspect of cinema and video - including film criticism via provocative essays in Cahiers du Cinema and interviews dating to the early years of his career. This book presents a varied selection of his conversations with critics, scholars, and journalists, spanning the 1960s to the 1990s and illuminating key facets of his life work and ideas.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

246 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

David Sterritt is a film critic, author and scholar. He is most notable for his work on Alfred Hitchcock and Jean-Luc Godard, and his many years as the Film Critic for The Christian Science Monitor, where, from 1968 until his retirement in 2005, he championed avant garde cinema, theater and music. He has a PhD in Cinema Studies from New York University and is the Chairman of the National Society of Film Critics. Sterritt is known for his intelligent discussions of controversial films and his lively, accessible style. He is particularly well known for his careful considerations of films with a spiritual connection, such as Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (2004).

His writings on film and film culture appear regularly in various publications, including The New York Times, MovieMaker Magazine, The Huffington Post, Senses of Cinema, Cineaste, Film Comment, Film Quarterly, Beliefnet, CounterPunch, and elsewhere. Sterritt has appeared as a guest on CBS Morning News, Nightline, Charlie Rose, Geraldo at Large, Catherine Crier Live, CNN Live Today, Countdown with Keith Olbermann and The O'Reilly Factor, among many other television and radio shows.

Sterritt has written influentially on the film and culture of the 1950s, the Beat Generation, French New Wave cinema, the films of Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Altman, Spike Lee and Terry Gilliam, and the TV series, The Honeymooners.

Sterritt began his career at Boston After Dark (now the Boston Phoenix), where he was Chief Editor. He then moved to The Christian Science Monitor, where he worked as the newspaper's Film Critic and Special Correspondent. During his tenure at the Monitor, Sterritt held a number of additional appointments. From 1978-1980 he was the Film Critic for All Things Considered, on National Public Radio. From 1969 to 1973, he was the Boston Theater Critic for Variety, and he sat on the selection committee for the New York Film Festival from 1988 to 1992. Between 1994 and 2002 he was Senior Critic at the National Critics Institute of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and he served as the video critic for Islands magazine from 2000-2003. From 2005-2007 he was Programming Associate at the Makor/Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y. He is a member of the National Editorial Advisory Group of Tikkun, sits on the Editorial Board of Quarterly Review of Film and Video, is a Contributing Writer to MovieMaker magazine, and the Chief Book Critic for Film Quarterly. Sterritt has also held a number of significant academic appointments. From 1999-2005 he was the Co-Chair, with William Luhr, of the Columbia University Seminar on Cinema and Interdisciplinary Interpretation. He is currently on the Film Studies Faculty at Columbia University's Graduate Film Division, and Adjunct Faculty at the Maryland Institute College of Art in the Department of Language, Literature and Culture and the Department of Art History. He is also Distinguished Visiting Faculty in the Goldring Arts Journalism Program at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and Professor Emeritus of Theater and Film at Long Island University, where he taught from 1993 to 2005, obtaining tenure in 1998.

Sterritt is the partner of psychoanalyst, author and cultural critic Mikita Brottman.

Reviews

[Talie · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب تاکید بیشتری بر پنجمین دوره‌ی کاری گدار دارد. بر فیلم‌های دهه‌ی نودش. فیلم " هر کس برای خودش" را دومین فیلم اولش می‌داند.
وقتی فیلم یک ساعت و نیمی "دو سه چیزی که از او می‌دانم" را طی یک بعد از ظهر جمعه در طول حدود ۶ ساعت دیدم فکر می‌کردم دارم از این کارگردانی که فیلم‌های سخت می‌سازد انتقام ‌میگیرم. ولی فیلم‌هایش را باید همین‌گونه دید. او نمی‌خواهد فیلم‌هایش مثل فیلم‌های آمریکایی یک تاثیر همه‌جانبه بر شما بگذارند و شما در آن گم شوید. سینما برایش یک ابزار علمی برای پژوهش درباره‌ی نگاه کردن است. فیلم‌هایش کلاژ است. کلاژهای صوتی و تصویری. گدار که خودش  ابتدا نقد سینمایی می‌نوشت، حال از تروریسم زبانی شکایت دارد. از کلام صاحبان قدرت که خود را پشت تلویزیون پنهان کرده. می‌گوید فیلم‌ها دیگر دیده‌ نمی‌شوند، خوانده می‌شوند.

[Blakepatterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating collection of interviews with one of cinema's greatest filmmakers. Whether you like the man or not, Godard does matter when discussing the history of cinema. His radical approach has influenced late twentieth and twenty-first-century filmmaking. Very intelligent, honest, and witty.

[Li-Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Godard is prob my fav director, but somehow I can never get through reading these interview type books. Just not that interested in reading analyses that filmmakers are (often) forced to give to explain their films. I think films speak for themselves.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would love to be at the table when these interviews took place between the great Godard and the various interviewers that are in this book. Always quotable, always smart, and always... well just always. Words from the mouth of someone who really made an incredible change in cinema.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read 1/11/15-1/16/15.

[Fenixbird SandS]

Might be the thing to give to a budding movie director wannabe friend?! Filmmakers whose televised interviews I have enjoyed include: Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Woody Allen.

[Clint · Rating 5 out of 5]

An invaluable resource.