Jean-Luc Godard

A Revolutionary in Cinema

“You will transcend beyond death into legend.” This dialogue from the brilliant film “Alphaville” is spoken by Professor Von Braun about the death of Lemmy Caution. Now, after about sixty years, the director of this work has taken it as a sign. Jean-Luc Godard, who found meaning and significance in the French New Wave cinema, decided to end his life at the age of 91 with “euthanasia.” Whatever Godard’s purpose may have been, he did not close the case of his life; just as he believed himself, “to be or not to be, it doesn’t matter.”

Godard’s presence in cinema is so eternal that his existence or absence does not change it; just like “legends” that do not exist, but their narratives find meaning in life regardless of time and place.

It can clearly be said that Godard’s path is separate from the rest of the cinema community. In his storytelling, he insisted on representing reality with minimal manipulation. Godard believed that cinema had deviated from its main duty of expressing truth. He viewed cinema as a medium through which artists should artistically narrate the real world.

During Godard’s time, filmmakers who looked at cinema somewhat like this were few. “Roberto Rossellini” in the Italian Neorealism movement after the war and “Alfred Hitchcock,” an American whom Godard also saw as a legend, were among those who deviated from what was considered the “mainstream” in cinema and created works that sought to depict the inner workings of humans more deeply and candidly. However, Godard saw the camera more as a weapon, and he used the cinema screen to display his radical political thoughts.

Godard’s criticism was not only directed towards politics but extended from culture to society and even cinema; his rebellious and protesting nature made him different from other filmmakers.

One of Godard’s most important characteristics was his influence on filmmaking styles worldwide. Godard inspired many directors, from “Martin Scorsese” to “Bertolucci” and “Tarantino.” This influence transcended European cinema and attracted many filmmakers from East to West with his narrative style.

In Iranian cinema, directors like Kamran Shirdel and Parviz Kimiavi took Godard’s path, to the extent that Kamran Shirdel even made the film “Morning of the Fourth Day” based on “Breathless,” acknowledging his debt to this film and Jean-Luc Godard.

In Abbas Kiarostami’s cinema as well, although he has significant differences in narrative style from Godard, similarities such as the use of non-professional actors, insistence on reflecting reality, and creating experiential, philosophical, and timeless films can be attributed to Godard’s cinema and the French New Wave to some extent.

Godard’s latest and most tangible link to Iranian cinema, which can also be considered his final presence in cinema, is in the documentary film “Seeing You on Saturday, Robinson” by “Mitra Farahani.”

This film, a joint production of Switzerland, France, Iran, and Lebanon, tells the story of the conversation between Jean-Luc Godard and Ebrahim Golestan. These two, who had no previous personal acquaintance, talk to each other in this film through Mitra Farahani; a conversation that is not very common.

Every Saturday, for eight months, Ebrahim Golestan wrote an email to Godard, and Godard responded to it in the form of images and videos, and after deciphering these images, Golestan responded again in writing. This film won the “Encounter” award from the Berlinale 2022 jury.

Godard’s cinema and his thoughts are always fresh. His works were fresh in the 1960s, and even after decades, the taste of his unique cinema does not get old. In 2014, at the age of 83, he once again proved with the 3D film “Goodbye to Language” that his direction is revolutionary.

This film, which is one step away from Godard’s final film, does not follow a fixed narrative line, which is, of course, the signature of this director. But “Goodbye to Language” ruthlessly undermines any structure that the viewer might find to unravel the narrative thread.

The film is full of visual collages, bewildering sounds, and short sentences designed to disrupt the viewer’s mind from the structured order in the world. In this film, Godard is also seeking to express the truth; a truth that this time wants to be found by breaking the facade of “reality.”

In the film “Breathless,” the writer tells Patricia that his greatest defiance in life is to “die while still young.” Jean-Luc Godard, just like the dialogue in his film, bid farewell to life in the most defiant way possible; he is now breathless, but his films never run out of breath.

Maryam TAHMASEBI