Alphaville (1965) La Chinoise (1967) Loin du Vietnam/Far from Vietnam (1967).
For later release - with Dziga Vertov Group: Le Vent d’est/Wind from the East (1968) Tout va Bien/Everything’s Fine (1972) Letter to Jane (1972).

French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard was first associated with a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950’s and 1960’s known as the ‘Nouvelle Vague’ (New Wave), a term coined by critics. Engaged with the social and political upheavals of the time, they made radical experiments with editing and narrative as part of a general break with the conventions of Hollywood cinema.

Godard’s filmmaking derived from his early work as a film critic and his studies in ethnology. Film history as well as Marxist and existential philosophy have been instrumental to his work. Critics often divide Godard’s output into a first period that was a determining factor in the French New Wave and a second period where his political ideas were more on the forefront. The first period introduced Godard’s distinct style, with its embrace of contradiction. Mainstream Hollywood aesthetics are quoted to formulate a critique of capitalism. In later productions, Godard’s films have a more explicit political outlook. This period is the focus of the Liberation chapter.

The science-fiction satire Alphaville (1965) tells the story of a secret agent on a mission to infiltrate the city of Alphaville. It is being controlled by a super-computer called Alpha60. The agent poses as a journalist to investigate Alphaville’s residents, and encounters a conflict of human emotion versus logical machines. In La Chinoise (1967) Godard’s most politically forthright film, his method and style is deliberately primitive. A  Communist cell made up of university students discusses how to apply Maoist ideas to society, if necessary, with terrorism. The film reflects the political climate and social change of the mid-1960’s, and is thought to foreshadow the May 1968 student rebellions in Paris.

In 1967, Godard also participated in Loin du Vietnam (Far from Vietnam), an anti-war film anthology. A range of influential film directors participated. The project  was begun by Joris Ivens, who was in Hanoi to make a documentary entitled The 17th Parallel. Ivens footage was sent back to Paris, where it was edited by Chris Marker, another artist whose work is shown in the Liberation Chapter. Godard’s entry is a monologue where he describes to the camera the dilemmas of the politically committed filmmaker as it challenges the idea of subjectivity. Godard’s engages the field of colonial discourse, and the monologue is interspersed with clips from La Chinoise that he was producing at the time.
(CNG)