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| Godard et Truffaut |
Jules et Jim
"When humor can be made to alternate with melancholy, one has a success, but when the same things are funny and melancholic at the same time, it's just wonderful." Truffaut
Breathtaking. Fascinating. Funny thing. Film as art should be separated from the other abstractions because of its age. It went on a different, though parallel road. However, the process and philosophy of art at that time urged the seventh art to catch up.
Truffaut's film is an excellent proof that film has langue (grammar?) and style, just like a text can have. The humor in this cinema not only comes from the dialogue and the situation, but also from the way it was edited, how the camera moves, how it frames. We feel the auteur behind the movie as he plays with the material, the 35 mm film. We feel that he does not even know where he is going with the story. We feel that is just happening in front of our eyes.
There is a scene where Catherine is photograped and the film stops for a few moments as if we see a picture. The interesting thing about this is that a film is able to highlight and emphasise moments that are more important than others. We would not remember them if they were not framed.
The creativity, playfulness of the film, however, does not shadow the somehow bitter circularity of the love triangle. Most often motion pictures cannot give rise to controversial, seemingly not entailing emotions at the very same time. Jules et Jim could. Usually one feeling follows another, and in the end you get an overall impression of the movie. In the case of J&J, emotions were parallell which means it could create the illusion of life.
Vivre sa vie
"All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl." Godard
It was probably the ars poetica of Godard's early films. Just think about À bout de souffle, Pierrot le fou, and Vivre la vie, his early films. Nana philosophizes about herself, her life, life itself as she becomes a prostitute. Just when she realized the meaning of life, what the words mean or do not mean, what truth is, she dies. Fin.
La peau douce
"Originally two images had struck François' imagination. A woman and a man kissing in a taxi and the sound of their teeth clinking. And female legs in silk stockings, crossing and uncrossing, and the sound of stockings rubbing against one another. The kiss in the taxi of course in an adulterous kiss. I don't think there are many husbands who kiss their wives making their teeth clink." Jean-Louis Richard, screenplay writer of Le peau douce
It is interesting how humor eludes the film from the middle. The falling in love of husband and lover is playful at the beginning, then slowly everything gets serious, tense. Every scene starts according to the pattern, the way people expected it. They all end in the most unusual way. The film reaches the peak at the end: the wife walks in to the restaurant where his husband eats, after learning his man has a lover. She shoots him. Fin.
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I think these films still work eventhough 50 years have passed. The American movies we are surrounded with are all built up like houses. Though they look different, they are the same. Luckily we have these rare islands (arts cinemas) like Tabán where you can still find a piece of art that stucks with you for a long time. In these films story is more important than plot. Plot is simply plain. Story is the description of how something has happened. What was the atmosphere like? Something that is lacking from the new mainstream films. Plain patterns. The time when the French new wave appeared, the situation was the same. Is it possible that a new wave is on its way? I see no signs. Then, again. It is only today.
Truffaut's film is an excellent proof that film has langue (grammar?) and style, just like a text can have. The humor in this cinema not only comes from the dialogue and the situation, but also from the way it was edited, how the camera moves, how it frames. We feel the auteur behind the movie as he plays with the material, the 35 mm film. We feel that he does not even know where he is going with the story. We feel that is just happening in front of our eyes.
There is a scene where Catherine is photograped and the film stops for a few moments as if we see a picture. The interesting thing about this is that a film is able to highlight and emphasise moments that are more important than others. We would not remember them if they were not framed.
The creativity, playfulness of the film, however, does not shadow the somehow bitter circularity of the love triangle. Most often motion pictures cannot give rise to controversial, seemingly not entailing emotions at the very same time. Jules et Jim could. Usually one feeling follows another, and in the end you get an overall impression of the movie. In the case of J&J, emotions were parallell which means it could create the illusion of life.
Vivre sa vie
"All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl." Godard
It was probably the ars poetica of Godard's early films. Just think about À bout de souffle, Pierrot le fou, and Vivre la vie, his early films. Nana philosophizes about herself, her life, life itself as she becomes a prostitute. Just when she realized the meaning of life, what the words mean or do not mean, what truth is, she dies. Fin.
La peau douce
"Originally two images had struck François' imagination. A woman and a man kissing in a taxi and the sound of their teeth clinking. And female legs in silk stockings, crossing and uncrossing, and the sound of stockings rubbing against one another. The kiss in the taxi of course in an adulterous kiss. I don't think there are many husbands who kiss their wives making their teeth clink." Jean-Louis Richard, screenplay writer of Le peau douce
It is interesting how humor eludes the film from the middle. The falling in love of husband and lover is playful at the beginning, then slowly everything gets serious, tense. Every scene starts according to the pattern, the way people expected it. They all end in the most unusual way. The film reaches the peak at the end: the wife walks in to the restaurant where his husband eats, after learning his man has a lover. She shoots him. Fin.
-
I think these films still work eventhough 50 years have passed. The American movies we are surrounded with are all built up like houses. Though they look different, they are the same. Luckily we have these rare islands (arts cinemas) like Tabán where you can still find a piece of art that stucks with you for a long time. In these films story is more important than plot. Plot is simply plain. Story is the description of how something has happened. What was the atmosphere like? Something that is lacking from the new mainstream films. Plain patterns. The time when the French new wave appeared, the situation was the same. Is it possible that a new wave is on its way? I see no signs. Then, again. It is only today.
