Cahiers and shorts.

Nicholas Mosley nailed the 20th century most succinctly in the title of his novel Hopeful Monsters, and the new issue of Bookforum swarms with them, some more hopeful than monstrous, others not - Pound and Apollinaire, Sartre and Camus, Woody Guthrie, Georges Bataille, Walter Abish - and then there's a review of Colin MacCabe's Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at Seventy. Film Comment editor Kent Jones begins by noting right off that the book isn't really a biography, that it's both a little less (key events in the filmmaker's life go missing) and a little more (besides background on all that Cahiers and May 68 lore, we're treated to "historical digressions on the history of Switzerland, European Protestantism, Althusserian Marxism, and the inner workings of the Ecole Normale Supérieure"), all true and all contributing to my own enjoyment of the book, actually. But what disturbs Jones (and me, too, for what it's worth) is that MacCabe just barely manages "to keep his appreciation one small step away from hagiography." And for Jones, this prompts the question, "How great is Godard?"

In effect, Godard has given form to the sensation of revelation. Which is no small thing. As an artist, this has been his greatest contribution - to ground the cinema in the sense of discovery that marked its beginnings.

Yet I'm not sure that there exists in Godard's oeuvre a single film or video work that has the fearsome unity of an Ordet, a Voyage to Italy, a Fanny and Alexander, a Barry Lyndon, a Faces, or a Raging Bull. Fans would argue that concepts such as "unity" and, by implication, "narrative" are non-Godardian and thus beside the point. I would counter that unity and narrative hold more than usual significance for Godard himself, since he has spent the bulk of his life as an artist defining himself against them.

Filmbrain points to an English translation of an article by Luc Moullet that originally ran in the April 1960 issue of Cahiers du Cinema, "Jean-Luc Godard at the Tomb of Kenji Mizoguchi."

Segue alert: On page 186, MacCabe writes, "For the Cahiers critics in the fifties, [Robert] Bresson was one of the few directors who redeemed French cinema." For the P2P show at the Postartum Gallery in LA, Peter Luining interviews the artist currently known as Mouchette: "The work I created in reference to the film (the Film Quiz) is a homage. Too bad Bresson's widow didn't see it like that!"

For the Independent, John Walsh introduces and then listens in on producer Tanya Seghatchian's interview with Paul Schrader:

TS: How do your existential heroes compare with Quentin Tarantino's heroes?

PS: The existential hero asks: "Should I exist?" The ironic hero just "exists", in quotes.

Low culture redraws the map of Dogville.

Doug Cummings leafs through the new issue of Cineaste and watches Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

Matt Clayfield answers five questions.

A cameo in The Ladykillers prompts Clara Jeffery to list all the films Mother Jones magazine has popped up in, however briefly.

Slamdance is looking for a new director. Via Cinema Minima.

Events:

• New Directors / New Films, through April 4, NYC. Coverage:
  • Greg.org, with a brand spanking new design - sleek, readable, smart!
  • Offoffoff.
  • New York Times.
• Kevin Brownlow, Brigitte Mayr, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Martin Koerber and Thomas Elsaesser are just a few of the speakers at the "FILM. GESCHICHTE. SCHREIBEN" conference, April 1 through 4 at the Filmmuseum in Vienna.
• World Horror Convention, April 8 - 11, Phoenix.
• Reel Rhythms, through May 15, NYC.

"'Bloody hell,' I say. 'Every book in this room is about Napoleon!'" Jon Ronson explores what must be a simply astounding archive at the Stanley Kubrick estate. Also in the Guardian and Observer:

• David Thomson surveys the career of Roman Polanski on the occasion of the retrospective at the National Film Theatre in London, April 8 - 30.
• Decca Aitkenhead talks to Patty Jenkins about Monster while Gaby Wood profiles Christina Ricci.
• Neil Armstrong on US actors struggling to nail US accents.
• John Patterson on Alec Baldwin; and on The Ladykillers: "The brothers seem to have alighted on the wrong Ealing comedy. Surely Robert Hamer's Kind Hearts and Coronets, with its extreme literacy and utter heartlessness, would seem a more logical fit."
• Michael Billington reports on Vanessa Redgrave's return to the Royal Shakespeare Company.
• Victoria Coren dreams up more contemporary alternatives to The Stepford Wives.

Online listening tip. The Glengarry Mix. Via the cinetrix.

Posted by dwhudson at March 30, 2004 6:28 AM