JLG Carnival! #1

[Note: because of the editors' current time restraints, the current carnival remains unfinished. Help us finish it by posting links and thoughts in the comments section!]
Intro.
"I've seen so many people live so badly, and so many die so well." -JLG quoting Louis Aragon

Welcome to the Jean-Luc Godard Carnival, week 1. If you are not yet aware of it, JLG is this month's MoM; if you are participating, we are here to make the month easier and more exciting for you -- if you are not participating, we are here to molest, abuse, and ridicule you until you fold and watch some JLG or die from stubborness (we are OK with either).

JLG says: Give me love...


...watch my movies.

In Le gai savoir, JLG's students follow a three-course study of cinema: (1) they collect images and sounds; (2) they criticize them; (3) they construct their own images and sounds. Godard's career roughly follows this three-course study. Above all he is a student of cinema, and we are all his classmates.

Lesson -- cinema and reality, I cannot tell the difference. JLG had been making pictures years before he ever picked up a camera; he made them sitting in the cinematheque; he made them with Nic Ray and Sam Fuller; they were masterpieces. Language? Reality? That is cinema.

Lesson -- what is an image? Where is it born? What does it love? Whom does it hurt? Why does it move? How does it die?

Lesson -- love and work. History and catastrophe. Question and answer. Dream and reality. Cinema is all. There is no "or," no other; there is only and, only everything. Only cinema.

Much of JLG's reputation now rests with his 60s work -- his revolution has been co-opted. For this month's MoM, I would like to see more people go to school, take some notes from JLG. Too often people avoid his post-68 work, finding it withdrawn, regressive, too intellectual; this is unfortunate. It's in his post-68 work that JLG really grows, and in his post-80 work that he finally matures. His is not a cinema of consumption, but a cinema of dialogue. Too few people take up this dialogue. Too few ask themselves the difficult questions. If there is anything I hope this JLG month accomplishes, it is to inspire others to enter this dialogue.

"With our questions, we look as though we are always trying to have the last word, when actually it's the first word we're after. And if the second word rarely comes, it's because we are alone in doing this kind of work." -JLG

JLG says: cinema is cool.
-Mango

Movies.
Opération 'Béton' (1954)
Une femme coquette (1955)
Charlotte et Véronique (1959) R1DVD watch it
À bout de souffle (1960) 
... aka Breathless R1DVD trailer
Charlotte et son Jules (1960) 
... aka Charlotte and Her Jules R1DVD watch it
Une histoire d'eau (1961) 
... aka A Story of Water watch it
Une femme est une femme (1961) 
... aka A Woman Is a Woman R1DVD clip
Les sept péchés capitaux (1962) (segment "Paresse, La") watch it
Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (1962) 
... aka My Life to Live R1DVD trailer
Le petit soldat (1963) 
... aka The Little Soldier R0DVD clip
Ro.Go.Pa.G. (1963) (segment "Nuovo mondo, Il")
Les carabiniers (1963) 
... aka The Carabineers R1DVD clip
Le mépris (1963) 
... aka Contempt R1DVD trailer
Reportage sur Orly (1964)
Bande à part (1964) 
... aka Band of Outsiders R1DVD clip
Les plus belles escroqueries du monde (1964) (segment "Grand escroc, Le")
Une femme mariée: Suite de fragments d'un film tourné en 1964 (1964) R1DVD clip
Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965) R1DVD watch it
Paris vu par... (1965) (segment "Montparnasse-Levallois") R1DVD
Pierrot le fou (1965) R1DVD trailer
Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis (1966) R1DVD watch it
Made in U.S.A. (1966) R1DVD watch it
2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (1967) R1DVD clip
Le plus vieux métier du monde (1967) (segment "Anticipation") watch it
La chinoise (1967) R1DVD
Loin du Vietnam (1967) (segment "Camera-Eye")
Week End (1967) R1DVD R2DVD clip
Un film comme les autres (1968)
Cinétracts (1968) (segments 14, 16, 23) 23
Sympathy for the Devil (1968) 
... aka One Plus One R1DVD trailer
Amore e rabbia (1969) (segment "L'Amore") R1DVD
Le gai savoir (1969) 
... aka Joy of Learning R1DVD clip
Vladimir et Rosa (1970) watch it
Pravda (1970) watch it
British Sounds (1970) 
... aka See You at Mao watch it
Le vent d'est (1970)
... aka Wind from the East watch it
Lotte in Italia (1971) watch it
One P.M. (1972) watch it
Tout va bien (1972) R1DVD clip
Letter to Jane: An Investigation About a Still (1972) R1DVD watch it
Numéro deux (1975) 
... aka Number Two clip
"Six fois deux/Sur et sous la communication" (1976) clip
Ici et ailleurs (1976) 
... aka Here and Elsewhere watch it
"France/tour/detour/deux/enfants" (1977) watch it
Comment ça va? (1978) 
... aka How Is It Going?
Scénario de 'Sauve qui peut la vie' (1979)
Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980) 
... aka Slow Motion R2DVD clip
Scénario du film 'Passion' (1982)
Passion (1982) R1DVD clip
Lettre à Freddy Buache (1982) 
... aka A Letter to Freddy Buache
Petites notes à propos du film 'Je vous salue, Marie' (1983) watch it
Prénom Carmen (1983) 
... aka First Name: Carmen R1DVD clip
'Je vous salue, Marie' (1985) 
... aka Hail Mary R1DVD trailer
Détective (1985) R1DVD watch it
Meetin' WA (1986) watch it
Soft and Hard (1986) watch it
Aria (1987) (segment "Armide") R1DVD
King Lear (1987) clip
Soigne ta droite (1987)
... aka Keep Your Right Up clip
On s'est tous défilé (1988) watch it
Puissance de la parole (1988) 
... aka The Power of Speech watch it
Le rapport Darty (1989)
Nouvelle vague (1990) ... aka New Wave clip
Contre l'oubli (1991) (segment "Pour Thomas Wainggai, Indonésie")
Allemagne 90 neuf zéro (1991) 
... aka Germany Year 90 Nine Zero
Les enfants jouent à la Russie (1993) 
... aka The Kids Play Russian
Je vous salue, Sarajevo (1993) watch it
Hélas pour moi (1993) ... aka Oh, Woe Is Me R1DVD
Comment vont les enfants (1993) (segment "L'enfance de l'art")
Deux fois cinquante ans de cinéma français (1995) clip
JLG/JLG - autoportrait de décembre (1995) trailer
For Ever Mozart (1996) R1DVD clip
Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988-1998) R2DVD clip
The Old Place (1998)
L'origine du XXIème siècle (2000) 
... aka Origins of the 21st Century watch it
Éloge de l'amour (2001) 
... aka In Praise of Love R1DVD
Liberté et patrie (2002) 
... aka Liberty and Homeland
Ten Minutes Older: The Cello (2002) (segment "Dans le noir du temps") watch it
Moments choisis des histoire(s) du cinéma (2004)
Notre musique (2004) 
... aka Our Music R1DVD trailer
Vrai faux passeport (2006)
Une catastrophe (2008) watch it

David's R2DVD recs

For the innocent.
For the guilty.
For TLC.

MoM thoughts of the week.
DG on Eloge de l'amour
wigwam on lots...
wigwam on more...
Will on Detective
Mango on sarajevo
Ally on Soft and Hard
Carmelo on Hail Mary...
Carmelo on Slow Motion...
Carmelo on Le gai savoir
Will on A Woman is a Woman
Simon M. on Alphaville