Deux fois cinquante ans de cinéma français (1995)

Directors:

Jean-Luc Godard
Anne-Marie Miéville

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

At a lakeside hotel, Michel Piccoli discusses the centennial of cinema with Jean-Luc Godard. Godard...

Plot Keywords:

Number In Title

Cast

Jean-Luc Godard	...	Himself
Dominique Jacquet
Michel Piccoli	...	Himself
Cécile Reigher	...	La serveuse

Also Known As:

2 x 50 Years of French Cinema (USA)
Twice Fifty Years of French Cinema (International: English title) (literal title)

Runtime:

51 min | Argentina:55 min

Country:

Switzerland | UK | France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Certification:

Argentina:Atp

Company:

British Film Institute (BFI)

(God)ard as Grouch(o)

Setting up the intermittent clip show that, even without Godard's typical punctuation, would be worth the price of admission, is his interview with Michel Piccoli. Piccoli was head of (I'm sorry. I forget. Call it the film guild). Over Godard's shoulder we watch Piccoli, double-take, writhe, stammer at Godard's perfectly timed barrage of puns, innuendo, and insight.

The couple of times I've seen Godard in person, once or twice in the PFA's now closed Durant Ave. screening room with Jean-Pierre Gorin, and once in UC Berkeley's Wheeler Auditorium with Anna Karina and a male actor, maybe Sami Frey, for a screening of "Bande á parte," he was more grouch than poet. The Wheeler appearance, after some Q and A about improvisation (Karina insisted there wasn none, that he even choreographed the impromptu dance), deteriorated to shouted exchanges with a couple of persistent feminists. Interviewed for print in the Cahiers, he can be pretty dry as well, though sometimes not.

But I've always seen a comedian's timing in the intertitles, whether straight or fractalling off in multiple puns, the on and off music, the very film cuts themselves. Like another farceur, Wells, Godard has shown us himself at the editing table. Who knows how much was scripted, how much forewarning Piccoli may have had, how genuine or how acted his reactions may have been. But Godard's delivery is that of a supreme comedian. It's Godard as Groucho. For all Godard's sampling of American cinema, though there must be things I haven't managed to see, I don't recall seeing Groucho. Maybe it's a case of like poles repelling.