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What Makes Michel Piccoli's Characters So Timelessly Compelling?

In Piccoli's characters there are always at least two selves—an outer self that strikes out at the world with aplomb and confidence and an inner self that crouches diffidently behind the façade, hoping not to be found out, hoping to get away with the deception.

Film

Down with Pleasure: The Lost Films of Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin

Arrow Films and Kino-Lorber offer hard-to-find works of Godard and Gorin.

Film

TIFF 2017: Le Redoutable

Blinded by love for Godard, Le Redoutable is an uncritically sexist bore.

Reviews

Les Durs and the Anatomy of the (French) Tough Guy: Gabin, Ventura, and Belmondo

At Les Durs (The Tough Guys) Film Fest, the tough guy is a bulwark against decay; he's the guarantor of value -- even if that value is compromised by the world around him.

Film

Notes, Hoaxes, and Jokes: Silkworm's 'Lifestyle' - "Contempt"

Lifestyle's sun-kissed opening track finds our heroes in languid mood, contemplating foreign climes and foreign bodies.

Music

Jean-Luc Godard and the 3D Dog: An Actress' Tale

Starring in a film directed by Jean-Luc Godard is an intimidating prospect (especially when it's in 3D), but not only did Héloise Godet rise to the challenge, she's starting to get rave reviews of her own.

Film

The Magical Presence of Anna Karina: More Than Godard's Muse

It’s not that Anna Karina couldn’t act, but that she didn’t have to. Her physical presence was the art, and her beauty, in and of itself, was a significant contribution to the culture.

Film

'Room 237' and The History of Cinematic Representations of Cinephilia

Room 237 is one of the only films that respects and even admires cinephilia and its various forms.

Film

Boundaries Are All Fictions in Godard's "Breathless"

Even now, after countless reviews and essays, it's easy to be captivated by the way Godard obfuscates our expectations for cinematic art.

Film

Effortlessly Cool and Youthful: 'Band of Outsiders'

While Band of Outsiders is less frequently canonized than certain of Godard's other works, it can still rightfully be read as a touchstone in the development of film form and cinema history.

Reviews

Portraits of Love and Death: Godard's Nostalgic Cinema in 'Le Mépris'

A half century later Godard's Contempt still captivates audiences. Contempt is not as simplistic as it may appear; it is not a mere telling of rejection but of absolute dissolution, of modernized romance and the failings of modernity.

Siobhan Lyons

Film

Are You in a Film or in Reality? Jean-Luc Godard's 'Weekend' Will Have You Wondering

Criterion's splendid edition of Weekend gives insight into the mind of visionary director Jean-Luc Godard, who aimed at nothing less than challenging the dominant social and cinematic paradigms of his time.

Film

'French Cinema' Is a Tangled, Rumpled Jumble of a History

French Cinema is a popular history that makes its own eccentric claims on what that history should be.

Books

ReFramed No. 3: Jean-Luc Godard - The Lost Later Years (1990-2011)

In this final installment in ReFramed's dissection of Godard, Cronk and Marsh consider age, attitude, and the angst of misplaced elitism.

Jordan Cronk and Calum Marsh

Film

The Changing Nature of the Nature of Art

As artists have become less concerned with telling stories and more concerned with creating emotional connections and mimicking experiences, art has shifted from creating beauty to expressing the heady nature of 'truth'.

Visual Arts

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