jean-luc godard

A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order.


GODARD'S ADVICE TO WANNABE FILM MAKERS:

"The advice I would give today to anyone who wants to become a director is quite simple : Make a film.

In the sixties, it wasn't so easy because there wasn't even Super 8. If you wanted to shoot anything, you had to rent a 16-millimeter camera, and often it would be silent. But today nothing is as easy as buying or borrowing a small video camera. You have a picture, you have sound, and you can screen your film on any TV set.

So when an aspiring director comes to me for advice, my answer is always the same : "Take a camera, shoot something, and show it to someone. Anyone. It can be a friend, your next-door neighbour or the grocer down the street, it doesn't matter. Show your audience what you have shot and observe their reaction. If they seem to find it interesting, then shoot something else.

For instance, make a film about a typical day in your life. But find an interesting way of telling it. If the description of your day is `I got up, shaved, had some coffee, made a phone call..' and on screen we actually see you getting up shaving, having coffee and making a phone call, you will quickly realise that this is not interesting at all. You must then think and discover what else there is in your day, which way you can show it to make it more interesting. And then you must try that. And maybe it won't work. So you'll have to think of another way. And maybe what you'll eventually realise is that you are not interested in making a film about your typical day. So make a film about something else.

But ask yourself why - always ask yourself why. If you want to make a film about your girlfriend, make a film about your girlfriend. But do it completely : go to the museums and look at the way the great masters painted the women they loved. Read books and see how authors talk about the women they love. Then make a film about your girl friend. All this you can do on video. Panavision cameras, spotlights and dollies? You'll have plenty of time to worry about that later on"

ON HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR:

I am always longing to see a film that will move me tremendously, and of which I cannot possibly be jealous, because it is beautiful and I love beautiful films. When I was part of the New Wave, we spent time discussing other people's films. And I remember that when we saw Hiroshima mon amour by Alain Resnais, we were just stunned. We thought we had discovered everything about cinema, we thought we knew it all, and suddenly we were confronted with something that had been done without us, without our knowledge, and that deeply moved us.

ON THE INVISIBLE:

There are two levels of content in a film : the visible and the invisible. What you put in front of the camera is the visible. And if there is nothing else, then you are making a TV movie. The real films, for me, are those where there is something invisible, which can be seen or discerned - through the visible part, and only because the visible part has been arranged in a certain fashion. Too many directors today do not go beyond the visible level. They should ask themselves more questions.

I think it is of primary importance for a film maker to be able to gather around him a group of people with whom he can communicate and most of all, exchange ideas. I feel that I am having more and more trouble finding people like that on the films I make. The people I work with don't really seem to care; they don't seem to ask themselves too many questions and they certainly never ask me any.

ON DIRECTING ACTORS:

I never really directed actors. Most of the time, my directions to actors rarely go beyond "Louder" or "More slowly". Sometimes, I will say things like, "If it doesn't ring true to you, then do it in a way that you think would ring true." But I often let the actors make their own creations.