Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022) by Patrick McElroy

Last Tuesday I was disheartened, as many were, to hear of the passing of Jean-Luc Godard. He was a name in the world of film that was as influential as D.W. Griffith or Orson Welles, in that he destroyed the typical convention of storytelling and craftsmanship. He was not only the last of the French New Wave, but he was the last of a group of world filmmakers from the mid-twentieth century, at a time when art house could be a part of the zeitgeist. These other names consisted of Fellini, Bergman, Kurosawa, Antonioni, and Godard’s  own former friend and colleague Truffaut, where each new film of their’s would open, people would rush to see them and discuss the meanings of them.

But what I also wanted to shed light on, that some other tributes have left out, is Godard’s work as a film scholar. He, along with his fellow French New Wave directors, were the first to be cinephiles first, and filmmakers second, because  they were the first to have half a century of film to draw inspiration from.

Working as a young critic at Cahiers du Cinéma he — along with future directors such as Truffaut, Rivette, Chabrol, and Rohmer — would be under the influence of their magazine’s founder Andre Bazin. Bazin  advocated a form of personalism when analyzing films, which showed that a director’s style and  personality was in each of their films. This would lead Godard and his colleagues to recognize  the brilliance in many Hollywood directors at the time, some of whom weren’t taken seriously in their home  country, such as Howard Hawks, John Ford, Nicholas Ray, Stanley Donen, and many others. 

This way of thinking would then influence American critic Andrew Sarris who in 1962 coined it as the auteur theory, which has since changed the way we analyze movies. When Godard would  write, or speak about movies, he did it in a more psychological, and philosophical manner. Also, his interviews with filmmakers would always be intriguing. His interview with Ford is such a funny look at generational, and national differences.

So, as we mourn his loss, let’s not just look at his films, but also his writings and documentaries on film, for there was an example of someone  who devoted their entire self to an art form, like few have in our time.

Patrick McElroy is a movie writer and movie lover based in Los Angeles. Check out his other writing at: https://www.facebook.com/patrick.mcelroy.3726 or his IG: @mcelroy.patrick