Luc Godard: Last News

Juliette Binoche spoke about what she described as the challenging process of working with Jean-Luc Godard during a press conference at the San Sebastian film festival.

The 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival presented by Rogers has set their Wavelengths and Classics section. Wavelengths includes 11 movies, and 3 short programs and a special in-cinema looped presentation with diverse works from established auteurs and emerging talent.

Siddhant Adlakha A self-portrait and cinematic essay, Leos Carax‘s “It’s Not Me” is perhaps the most accurate impression of a late-era Jean-Luc Godard experiment anyone has ever attempted. From Carax’s raspy voiceover to his jaggedly assembled combination of archival footage and absurd original snippets, the 41-minute short probes a variety of personal and political subjects, but it never quite beats with the furious heart and provocative spirit of Godard’s twilight era.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic A year ago, the Cannes Film Festival presented the world premiere of what was widely taken to be Jean-Luc Godard’s final film. He had died by assisted suicide eight months before, and the 20-minute-long “Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist: ‘Phony Wars'” felt, by nature, like the aestheticized version of a last will and testament. It was a collage film, and it was (surprise!) oblique, yet it offered tea leaves to read about Godard’s state of mind as he prepared to leave the world.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent On Sept. 12, 2022, the day before Jean-Luc Godard died by assisted suicide at 91 in his home in Rolle, Switzerland, the Godfather of French New Wave completed his final 18-minute film, “Scénarios,” which premieres on today in Cannes. “Scénarios” — which comprises two components called “DNA, Fundamental Elements” and “MRI, Odyssey” — is followed by “Exposé du Film Annonce du Film ‘Scènario,’” a 34-minute, behind-the-scenes doc about the making of Godard’s last short.

Martin Scorsese was at the Berlinale this week for the first time in a decade. His presence to collect an honorary Golden Bear was a reminder of the festival’s glories of yesteryear.

Naman Ramachandran A 4K uncut restoration of Chen Kaige’s 1993 Palme d’Or winner “Farewell My Concubine” is a highlight of the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Classics strand while Jean-Luc Godard’s last film will feature in Wavelengths. The Classics strand also includes Canadian producer-director Brigitte Berman’s Oscar-winning feature documentary “Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” (1985), portraying the life of the clarinettist and bandleader, and, after decades of oblivion Jacques Rivette’s New Wave classic “L’amour fou” (1969), whose original celluloid elements were damaged in a fire.

Godard speaks! Again. Quite rightly there’s a lot of hoopla about the world premiere of a 20-minute trailer the late cinema legend Jean-Luc Godard made for a feature film that will never exist: Phoney Wars. 

EXCLUSIVE: International sales rights for late iconic director Jean-Luc Godard’s final work Trailer Of The Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars have been acquired by Goodfellas ahead of its world premiere in Cannes Classics on Sunday.

There are many stories about Jean-Luc Godard in Cannes, like the year he helped to shut it down (1968) because of the civil unrest that was sweeping France at the time. Then there was the time when (in 1985) he was ambushed in the Palais by a Belgian anarchist and hit in the face with a custard pie after the premiere of Détective. And, as recently as 2018, there was the time he conducted a press conference for his film The Image Book via FaceTime from Switzerland, making journalists line up to speak into a mobile phone.

Naman Ramachandran In keeping with tradition, the 2023 edition of Cannes Classics promises to be a feast for cineastes with tributes to global masters and restored versions of all-time classics. Cannes Classics’ Memories of Jean-Luc Godard strand pays homage to the master who died in 2022 by screening a restored version of “Contempt” (1963); “Godard by Godard,” a self-portrait of the auteur; and the world premiere of “Phony Wars,” a trailer for a film that will never get made, described by the festival as a venture where the filmmaker “transformed his synopses into aesthetic programs.” Liv Ullman will be present at the strand with “Liv Ullmann – A Road Less Travelled,” a documentary directed by Dheeraj Akolkar.

The Cannes Film Festival will pay tribute to iconic late director Jean-Luc Godard, following his death last September, with a trio of works in its Cannes Classic cinema heritage line-up.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent It was a leap of faith. When Isabelle Huppert started working with Jean-Luc Godard on 1980’s “Every Man for Himself,” there wasn’t a script for her to consult. “There were only fragments of scenes, poems, songs and paintings,” she remembers. “I simply knew my name in the film was Isabelle.  But Godard was a legend at that point, having helped pioneer the French “New Wave” movement with the likes of “Breathless” and “Contempt” and then undertaken an even more daring and experimental phase in films such as “Weekend” and “Masculin Féminin.” Something about their partnership worked. “Every Man for Himself,” was a rare commercial success for the auteur, and marked a milestone in Godard’s career as the the first movie he presented in competition at Cannes and the first which was nominated at the Cesar Awards (France’s highest film honors). Huppert would reunite with Godard for his follow up movie “Passion,” another acclaimed film, presented him with an honorary Cesar Award in 1987. Godard died on Sept. 13 at the age of 91, and Huppert spoke with Variety about her artistic collaborations with the filmmaker and his legacy.

Stubborn and iconoclastic as always, Jean-Luc Godard has passed to another realm–and by his own choice– at age 91. Ever-iconoclastic, impudent and exasperating, forever pushing boundaries but remaining elusive, and an artist in every fiber of his being, Godard always did exactly what he wanted to do; for a few years many followed him ardently, and for lots of us in the 1960s he led the way into a vastly exciting and personal form of cinema. Thereafter he went entirely his own way, losing most of his audience but remaining at the forefront of exploring what cinema is, could be, and, sometimes, what it absolutely shouldn’t be.

passed away on Tuesday (September 13) at the age of 91.Now, his long-time legal adviser, Patrick Jeanneret, has confirmed that the director died by assisted suicide, having suffered from “multiple disabling pathologies”.“He could not live like you and me, so he decided with a great lucidity, as he had all his life, to say, ‘Now, it’s enough,’” Jeanneret told The New York Times, noting that assisted suicide is both legal and tightly regulated in Switzerland.He went on to explain that Godard wanted to die with dignity, and “that was exactly what he did”.The Franco-Swiss director was known for movies such as Breathless (1960) and Contempt (1963), which pushed cinematic boundaries.His films showcased handheld camera work, jump cuts and existential dialogue that revolutionised French cinema and filmmaking in the 1960s.Also known for his witticisms, Godard famously once observed that “a film consists of a beginning, a middle and an end, though not necessarily in that order.”Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs director Quentin Tarantino was said to be heavily influenced by the late filmmaker, having been initiated by Godard and his Paris-based contemporaries.Other filmmakers have since taken to social media to pay tribute to Godard, with Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver) recently describing him as “one of the most influential, iconoclastic film-makers of them all”.“It was ironic that he himself revered the Hollywood studio film-making system, as perhaps no other director inspired as many people to just pick up a camera and start shooting,” he wrote.Director Asif Kapadia, who has helmed films and documentaries including Senna, Amy and Diego Maradona, also paid tribute to the late filmmaker, simply writing: “The King is Dead.”

After 25 years, Toronto International Film Festival Senior Programmer Steve Gravestock has decided to retire at the end of 2022.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticThe last time the Cannes Film Festival dropped a zombie comedy into its coveted opening-night slot, it was 2019, and the movie ­— Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die” ­— was no big whoop, but it served its purpose. It got this most highfalutin’ of festivals rolling on an agreeable note of macabre cheekiness. Since that was only three years ago, you may wonder why the Cannes programmers decided to open this year’s festival — the hallowed 75th edition — with another rib-nudging absurdist zombie comedy.

Angus Finney As the Cannes Film Festival celebrates its 75th anniversary, the concurrent Marché marches into its 63rd year (there were always deals done during the festival, but the powers that be made it official in 1959). The wilder, oft-times disreputable sister of the more sedate, ergo, more esteemed, official festival, there’s no shortage of tales when it comes to the Cannes Market.There’s no better place to start than Cannon’s “go-go” boys: Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.

Jean-Paul Belmondo, one of the most iconic French actors of the 20th Century and a leading face of the French New Wave, has died at the age of 88.