Research Paper On Jean Luc Godard

796 Words2 Pages

À bout de soufflé (1959) Jean-Luc Godard, a French film director, was one of the most significant directors within the "New Wave" in French cinema. As a student he belonged to the environment around the Cinematheque in Paris and wrote critiques for the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. Having worked with short films, he debuted with his first feature films, À bout de soufflé, in 1959. (https://snl.no/Jean-Luc_Godard) Godard wanted to show reality instead of interpret it, and aimed to present daily activates, especially the interaction between people, as they occurred in real life. By using a naturalistic stylistic approach, practices common to documentary tradition, like cinéma vérité, recognizable locations, and editing as tools to create a more …show more content…

It strives to erase the notion that a fictional world is being created for the camera and seeks to convince us instead that the camera is simply capturing events occurring in the real and familiar world. This can include long-take shooting and other practises common to the documentary tradition, like cinéma vérité’s use of handheld camera, location, and editing. (Rabiger et al., 2013, p.137) Godard knowingly uses these techniques to create a realistic representation of the world. He wants the characters to show life as it actually unfolds, and does therefor not cut out pauses and silences that occur in real interactions between people. He uses long takes to show the entire interaction and does not cut out parts that to more traditional filmmakers are seen as unnecessary. By using long takes, Godard is not only making the scene more realistic, but also objective. When we see the entire conversation between two characters, we know that the filmmaker did not cut the conversation to make us sympathise with one of the characters, but we are given all the information and has to take an unbiased decision our …show more content…

The movement and tracking of the camera looks like it’s not planned, but is following the action while it happens. The film is shot from a fairly objective perspective, and it’s like we are following the life of the characters as they are happening without any directorial interpretation. Godard also uses locations that do not feel like they are constructed or directed for the camera. He uses recognizable places and there are even times in the film where bystanders are turning and looking curiously into the camera. This shows that Godard did not clear the set before shooting, but instead took a choice of having them in the film as a way of creating a non constructed, documentary feeling to the scene. The action is taking place in actual streets with every day, non acting,

Open Document