New Wave Plan
For my new wave short i wanted to re capture the essence of Jean Luc Godards rebellious and direct style of film making, whilst still maintaining a personal, accurate film that captures the mindset and attitude of teenagers in our time. simmmiraly to New Wave films, we wanted to create a film that was embolic of our time, using shots and editing techies that represented us, the youth of today. to plan this film we sat down and sincerely thought about what was personal to us, what social, cultural and personal issues that we, as film makers challenged us. for my film i intend to create a film that explore s the personal issues surrounding an individual who wants nothing more than to speak up and essentially disagree with the norm. this is easily comparable to Godards style of film making, his films challenge the social normality, and how his views were suppressed and essentially doomed. with our film we wanted to do exactly this, challenge the norm, not only with thematic issues but also technically, in our story board we planned how shots would linger long after the action of the scene has ended, how shots would focus more on the background. shots would remain distant and in personal, exactly how an individual would think of themselves in this world of anger and hate.
the narrative of the film will be about how an individual feels that he/she is trapped within a society of like minded individuals who feel powerless to speak out against this mind set presented to them. we plan to represent this using a strictly black and white monotone aesthetic, symbolic for how in this world, everything is either black or white, there is no gray area to issues, only right or wrong. in terms of camera techniques we wanted to crete the impression that the short was filmed in one shot, literally following an individual through his day, this type of footage would give the impression that we are literally filming someones day, that we are personally following this individuals life. shots will essentially remain at a personal 'Eye level" state, the audience should essentially feel like they are personally in the film, that there viewership is effecting the quintessential movement of the film.
in terms of editing i intended to keep the film appearing like a single take, a one shot, or apparent one shot would feel like we are literally following this individuals experience of the world. the impression of one apparent take of a scene is embolic of Godards films, and how he resorted to using one location for multiple takes due to budget restraints.
essentially, i want to create a bleak exaggeration of how individuals feel about there cculitre, about how tiny and unimportant they feel, and how even a tiny act of defiance can make a difference
the inspiration for this film came from "george orwell, 1984" in his book he explains how a couple defies and is broken by the system, i feel like this is a perfectly representaio of the youth of today, how there views and beliefs are bonded as liberal or radical. but with this film i hope to break that image. rather the being a love letter to left wingers and radicals, i want to create a film that accurately represents there fight for relevance, and how submerged they feel within the current social climate. The film we also have nihilistic themes, how nothing this individual does will impact the culture around him, the subject will be a soul voice against a tidal wave of oppression.
the aesthetic of the film will rely on the use of a black and white hue across the entire film, this will be used as an exaggeration of how for many people, life is a binary choice, how there is only good and evil, how there is only good and evil. this will also be represented in the clothing of the subjects within the film, black clothes would be symbolise a given conformity, and public mindset of a culture, and white would be symbolic of free thought and individuality
Saturday 21 October 2017
Thursday 12 October 2017
Unit 30- Camera % Lighting- Pull focus
Pull Focus
A pull focus is a camera technique used in which you change the focus of the camera mid shot, this usually involves changing the focus of the shot from one subject to another, for example this could be from the fore ground to the back ground or vice versa.
the effectiveness of a pull focus relies on the focal length of the lens you are using to film, camera zoom is measured in mm,
Unit 30- Camera & Lighting- Shutter speed
Shutter Speed
Shutter speed is also referred to as a cameras exposure time, it is the duration of time the cameras light sensor is exposed to light. if the camera's shutter speed is relatively high, it can help to freeze action completely, if the shutter speed is low that it creates motion blur, in which a moving object has blurred edges along side the direction it is moving in. This is different to shutter speed in photography however,For a start, with photography, you’re relying on a mechanical shutter. But when you’re recording video the noise of the shutter would be picked up during video recording. So instead, the shutter opens at the start and then an electronic shutter simulates the function of the mechanical shutter whilst you’re filming.
The frame rate the cinematographer choses to use during a shoot also effects the use of shutter speed, typically most scenes shot within a film have a frame rate of 24 frames per second as this gives the shot a constant smooth run without any drops in frames per second, whilst running on 24 frames per second the shutter speed should average around 1/50, as a general rule of thumb, the frame rate should be around half the frame rate, if the camera runs at 60 frame per second the shutter speed should be around 1/30.
1/300, whilst motion blur can still be seen, the frame is relatively smooth, with little motion blur being visible around the subject
1/30, with a slower shutter speed, the motion blur can clearly be seen around the subjects hand and phone, up closer inspection motion blur can also be seen around the subjects face
Unit 30-Camera & Lighting- ISO
ISO
ISO is the level of sensitivity of your camera to available light. The lower the ISO number, the less sensitive it is to the light, while a higher ISO number increases the sensitivity of your camera. The component within your camera that can change sensitivity is called “image sensor” or simply “sensor”. It is the most important part of a camera and it is responsible for gathering light and transforming it into an image. With increased sensitivity, your camera sensor can capture images in low-light environments without having to use a flash. But higher sensitivity in the iso creates extra noise or grain in the image,
Sunday 8 October 2017
Editing technology history
Editing technology history
editing technology, just like film itself has grown more advanced, precise and complex throughout its life, editing technology can be traced back to the start of film making itself, around 1890 along side the creation of the very first camera, the cinematograph, film around this time was essentialy one long take of a unremarkable subject, the context of the film itself was irrelevant for the audience, as the marvel of an animated photograph was enough to satisfy, it was only by accident that the very first primitive form of editing was discovered, a theatre owner by the name of Georges melies was filming a bus leaving a tunnel, however his camera jammed half way through the recording, when the camera began to roll again the bus had disappeared and was replaced by another automobile, upon developing the footage, he was shocked to see that the bus he was originally filming had instantly changed to the automobile instantly, this can be considered the first use of the jump cut, a cut in the film which there is an abrupt transition in the scene. after this revelation, that film could be more than a static uncut shot of raw footage, he began to develop more complex techniques in his editing, including fade in and fade outs, overlapping dissolves and stop motion photography. with these new techniques he began to push the medium of film from mundane single shots, into a narrative story telling vehicle. this can be considered the birth of film editing.
another historical event that could be considered the birth of cutting in editing would be the technique of photographer Eadward muybridge, who would take hundreds of photos of subjects in motion, whether it be a horse galloping, or a running man and layer the pictures next to each other to visualise various subjects in motion, he would then showcase these pictures in a device he created called the zoopratiscope, a machine that would spin and show each photo rapidly, giving the impression that it was a genuine moving image.
the process of editing would stay relatively primitive for the years to follow, until
a device called the moviola in 1924, a device that allowed film editors to view a film whilst editing it, created by iwan serruier. the moviola allowed individuals to study individual frames of a film reel in a cutting room, allowing an editor to precisely determine where the best cut-point might be. many high profile studios quickly picked up on the use of the moviola, and studios such as universal studios, warns brothers and charlie chaplin studios quickly adopted the moviola for its practicality and precision. the need for moviola products only increased as the application of sound, and larger film stock became more readily available, the need for portable editing equipment during world war two also expanded the use of moviola products.
moviola products were used for decades until the creation of flat bed suites around the 1970’s,
flatbed suites are a piece of editing equipment used to join film negatives and audio together on a single film reel. since the audio and film during this time was recorded separately, the editor must combine the two together to synchronise them, the editor will load the film reel onto a metal spinning plate, and the audio reel onto the plates magnetic counterpart. the editor must then find the exact point in both reel where the ‘clapperboard’ (the tool used to mark the beginning and end of a scene session) and conjoin them together. this then creates a single film reel in which the audio and film is perfectly synchronised, any further editing after this has now been dramatically simplified as the editor only has to locate one point to cut rather than two. from this point in history, the flatbed editing suites were used religiously by editors and film studios for its accuracy and precision, but during the 80’s and 90’s editing turned to the digital era, film reel was growing obsolete as digital editing allowed for more freedom and experimentation when editing. the very first digital editing tools was the Avid 1 media composer create in 1981, the avid 1 was a software tool designed on apples macintosh 2, the software played video as a motion jpeg codec, which was the primary video codec used during the 90’s, whilst the video quality wasn’t very high, the avid 1 made up for this with a focus on accessibility and ease of access, meaning that for the first time, editing and in turn film making could be brought to individuals interested in amateur film making and editing.
modern editing software has almost completely replaced the tradition flat bed suite or moviola, since a digital format allows for pin point precision cutting and accuracy, modern editing tools such as premier pro and final cut now allow for a wide range of digital effect to be added, along side colour and lighting correction, which result in a more professional and slick aesthetic, comparing this to the traditional film reel filming, the ability to alter the visuals themselves makes it obvious why there was such a drastic shift to digital editing.
film editing has come along way since its primitive origins in the 1980’s, with its static, mute visuals all the way to 2017.
Friday 6 October 2017
Bristol Promotional video planning
THE BRIEF
As a group you will create a 3- minute promotional video to entice students, young professionals (16-35) to visit Bristol instead of the attractions of other big cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool. The film will be fresh, vibrant and highlight all Bristol has to offer be it culture, retail or social. the video must not contain and copyright material and must be shot in full HD (1080p)
To begin planning our promotional video, we first had to review and critique other promotional videos, discussing and noting what we believe worked and didn't work in them, so that we could create a video that not only captured the raw atmosphere of Bristol, but also enticed our target audience to visiting.
We looked at promotional videos abroad and at home to guarantee our plan would be accurate and effective in portraying the city, the first promotional video i looked at was created by a student who attended Bristol University. A student who lives in Bristol would seemingly portray the city in a genuine and sincere way, as they would be more knowledgable in the atmosphere and culture of the city, as they are currently living in that city.
An interesting aspect of this film is that it relies heavily on time lapse shots of the city streets themselves, focusing more on the day to day routine and atmosphere of the cities people, rather than generic establishing shots of the cities attractions and monuments. The film seems to have been colour coded resulting in every shot having an almost yellow or orange tint to it. Whilst this is indeed visual striking, the fact that it is repeated for every shot eventually leaves it feeling generic and repetitive. the same can be said about the technical camera work for this video, the video opens with vast establishing shots of the city streets, almost with overwhelming depth and detail, but again this same shot is repeated constantly throughout the video.
What i took away from this film was that when it comes time to filming of my promotional video is that various camera shots must be used in order for the film to remain visually interesting, and that i should also experiment with colour coding to create an interesting visual flair that not only looks compelling, but is also symbolic of Bristols culture and atmosphere.
The next promotional video i researched was a video made by a professional advertisement company that creates promotional videos for cities and locations across europe. I chose this video to analyse and discuss as i wanted no only to take notes on a professional piece of work with more advanced equipment and budget, but also to explore possible thematic and technical choices throughout all of my research.
whilst this film is excellently made, all the camera shots and editing techniques used are pristine, light levels are balanced and every shot is focussed well, it feels devoid of atmosphere, rather than capture the raw atmosphere of london, its culture and its essence, the film makers have created an obviously artificial view of london. The video focusses on the attractions and monuments of the city rather than capture the streets, the culture and people that make london such a vibrant city. for lack of a better word the video feels to corporate, devoid of emotion, traded in for an obvious picturesque view of london which is unrealistic. if the film were to feature more abstract camera techniques, shots of the city streets outside of the tourist district than it would feel much more vibrant and real that it currently is. as it stands i believe this film would not attract the target audience we intend to market to.
from this video i have concluded that my promotional video shall incorporate shots of all the attractions explained in the brief, but also intertwined with shots of the streets, the people and the culture of Bristol in order for the video to feel more heart felt and sincere.
The next promotional video a researched was created by a freelance film making current working out of Bristol, i believe this film creates a more personal, heartfelt video whilst still looking professional and slick, i chose to discuss this video as as mentioned above, i wanted to view a promotional video that was both an accurate portrayal of the city by an individual who experiences the city everyday
i personally believe this film is an almost perfect template of a promotional video, it blends abstract camera and editing technchiques with a intimate portrayal of the city which results in a heart felt but professional portrayal. the video relies heavily on time lapse shots combined with an extremely slow pan or tracking shot, whilst similar promotional videos i have discussed use this same technique, what this video does differently is the combination of tourist attractions and city streets, we are presented with an impressive pan of the ss Great Britan, juxtaposed with a shot of graffiti artists creating a mural in the BearPit, this seamless transition between historic monuments and contemporary urban settings creates the impression that the city is just as historically influential as it is urban. i believe that this video is closer to the target audience of young professionals and students than the other videos i have analysed.
this promotional video will essentially be a template for my promotional video, i will emulate the videos use of wide establishing shots combined with more personal close ups of the city streets.
locations to visit
Our brief instructed us to include 10 pre established locations, in our group plan we came to the conclusion that rather than spend the entire day commuting between the ten locations, we should split the locations into 4 different teams, this way we would not only save time between the journey to each location, but send longer on each location, resulting in more professional and stylised footage.
TEAM 1
Joe; director
Aj ; cinematographer locations; Cabot Tower/ College Green
Caitlin; safety/runner
TEAM 2
Ben; safety/runner
Claudia ; cinematographer locations; Millennium Square/ Arnolfini/ Thekla
Leah; director
TEAM 3
Emily; Safety/runner
Olivia ; director locations; Clifton Bridge + Area/ Observatory
Ellie; cinematographer
TEAM 4
Emily; safety/runner
Connie; director locations; Bear Pit/ Xmas Steps/ Park Street
Leah; cinematographer
We will be staying at the Rock And Bowl Hostel located on Nelson Street, the hostel is essentially in the very centre of Bristol, meaning that it will be extremely convenient for all the groups, as we won't have to commute as far to our locations, compared to staying on the outskirts of Bristol, where a large majority of the day would have been the commute to each location.
Rock and Bowl hotel
Nelson Street
luckily all of our target locations are within a 30 minute walk from the Hostel, below are the locations shown on google maps,
approximately 20 minute walk
College Green
approximately 40 minute walk
EQUIPMENT LIST
DSLR Camera x2/per group
TRI- POD x2/per group
SD card/ 1 for each camera
GOPRO
Handheld Steady Cam
Story board
Monday 2 October 2017
4 hour film challenge- Gym
self review
or this 4 hour film challenge we were given a copy of another groups film plan, including a detailed story board and equipment list, our task was to effectively recreate the plan whilst still applying our own personalities to the film. for this film we worked in a large group of around nine people, whilst this proved challenging at times i believe we all benefited from the experience of working from a pre made plan and in a larger group.
for this particular 4 hour challenge we wanted to put our efforts into the technicality of the piece, rather than focussing on narrative and themes. to do this we resorted to working in the gym, this cavernous room gave us the flexibility to create the shots that we wanted, long wide shots which not only created a sense of isolation for these characters, but also as a way to establish the location of the film. by trading in narrative for an emphasis on technical work, we wanted to create a variety of shots, multiple angles on the same scenario would give multiple perspectives on the characters, high angle shots juxtaposed with low angles created a sense of mystery to the characters, allowing for a wider range of audience perceptions.we also wanted to experiment with more complex camera techniques, reverse dolly rooms, pull focus, tracking and panning, it was our belief that by littering our film with these shots, we could create a more in depth and professional film.
critique
upon reflection both myself, my group, and the creators of the original script have identified several aspects that diminish the films impact, the first point that was raised was the fact the setting didn't necessarily fit with the songs themes and atmosphere
French New Wave, Video Essay Notes, godard
new wave and the auteur jean luc godard
le petit soldat 1963
my life to live 1962
^ early 60's is considered the birth of the new wave, hope to pin point key stylistic choices and technical choices that re scour through his films to determine whether or not godarrd is an auteur
CHARACTERISTICS OF A NEW WAVE FILM
Unlike all classical Hollywood films, French New Wave films tend to break the rules of continuity editing and using free editing style. The directors of French New Wave often drew attention from audiences by discontinuity, reminding them that they are watching a movie. For example, the editing style they always used is jump cut
The directors of French New Wave had admired the Neorealists especially Rossellini, and in opposition to studio filmmaking, they decided to shoot on location. They replaced the glossy studio light with natural and available light. Thus, the French New Wave films always look natural and casual. In addition, they also doing experiment of the sound. Unlike studio filmmaking which remixing the sound, French New Wave directors recorded the sound during shooting and did not do any correction. For example, in A Bout De Soufflé , the sound come after action an
After World War II, France undergoes an economic crisis. Thus, the amount of investment in filmmaking is very low. Many films were produces on low budget. To produce a film, French New Wave directors borrowed friend's apartment or yard, using the director's friends as the cast and crew.
While watching French New Wave films, we will discover some scene look very shaky and unstable. It is because the directors took advantages of the new technology which developed by Eclair company that was available to them in the late 1950s- lightweight hand-held camera. This hand-held camera allowed them to shoot on location easily and creating many long tracking shoot. In these films, often only one camera was used. The directors used the camera to follow characters walking along the streets, into cafes and bars, or looking over their shoulders to catch their point of view
In opposition to the classical filmmaking, the directors of French New Wave often shot their films with loose structure and open-ended storyline. They did not wrap their climax tidily, much of the story is made up very close to the time of the shooting. They did not plan well before shooting and the dialogue was often change or write the same day it was read. Sometimes, the actors are giving the general idea of the scene. Thus, the dialogue sometimes was not related to the storyline at all.
When we watch French New Wave films, the protagonist in these films were always marginalized, young anti-heroes, and alienated loners, they live with no family ties, behave spontaneously, and often act immorally. They frequently seen as anti- authoritarian. For example, the protagonist in A Bout De Soufflé was a car thief, he killed policeman, steal money from his girlfriend, and spent his time to avoiding capture. While in Varda's Cleo From 5 to 7 (1961), the protagonist run away from the roles others expected from her after she discovered that she have cancer, she decided to live her own life.
this blog post identifies all the recurring thematic and technical aspects of a new wave, essentially the fundamental characteristics of what makes a new wave film, the post also include a brief history of the technicality of the films, for example, how money limitations meant that the directors couldn't afford more advanced camera and lighting equipment, meaning that they had to resort to shooting on location, with natural lighting, i plan to use this blog post in my video essay as an introduction to the movement, and the defining characteristics of it
http://makeawave-frenchnewwave.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/history-and-development-of-french-new.html
After the occupation by Nazi, the American cinema is return back to screen.This exposure to Hollywood films was a formative influence on the young critics who would become the director of the New Wave in the late 1950s.For them,America film was more vital,more varied and considerably more exciting than the postwar productions of the French industry
A group of directors, Truffaut, Godart, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Rohmer who had all worked as critics for Cahiers du cinema in the 1950s had a habit of attacking the most artistically respected French filmmaker of the day. Writing criticism didn’t satisfy these young men. They itched to make movies by borrowed money .At the end of the decade, they began to make films
this website identifies the socio and economic context in which the new wave was created from, it also references the young turks, the original four film critics in which the new wave was created by, i plan to use this as not only an introduction to the directors and auteurs of the movement, but also as a way to establish life within paris at the time
History and development of the new wave
The phrase “New Wave” (Ia Nouvelle Vague) refers to a group of film-makers who between the end of the 1950s and early to mid-1960s in France, momentarily transformed French cinema and had a great impact on film-makers throughout the world. Those directors who came to prominence through the New Wave and who have remained major names in the pantheon of European “auteur” director include Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and so on. The term New Wave was coined by a journalist named Francoise Giroud who wrote a series of article on French youth for the weekly news magazine L’Express.(Nelmes ,1996)
They argued that the French cinema was similar to the literature, which expresses the same ideas that are depicted in novels and paintings. In other words, the artists at that time used movies to voice their thoughts. Some of the leading film producers, whose names are mentioned above, wanted to change it and this is the birth of the radical movement in the history of French cinema.
This post goes into depth about the directors who are symbolic with the birth of the new wave, this will prove useful as i begin to show my research on jean luck godard, and how he can be considered an auteur
This post goes into depth about the directors who are symbolic with the birth of the new wave, this will prove useful as i begin to show my research on jean luck godard, and how he can be considered an auteur
https://indiefilmhustle.com/french-new-wave/
French New Wave and Auteur Theroy
During the French New Wave movements, particular attention was paid towards the theory called auteur theory. As per auteur theory, the director of a movie is also the producer of it.
Therefore, the directors took necessary measures to add a personal signature to the film. The directors who lived in France at that time praised the films produced by Jean Vigo and Jean Renoir because they were pioneer figures who fought against this theory.
They were able to create few memorable films with the help of talented script writers. The participation of script writers helped them to stay away from adding their personal opinions and views into the movies that they created.
this website provided me with the definition and history of the auteur theory, which will prove invaluable as i determine whether or not Jean Luc godard is an auteur
https://www.slideshare.net/staceyhall/auteur-theory-5416218
auteur originates from france, which is a literate translation of author, which means that a film is a reflection of a directors creative vision
francois truffaut; "a true film auteur is someone who brings something genuinely personal to his subject instead of producing a tasteful, accurate but lifeless rendering of the original material
an auteur has full creative control over every aspect of his or hers film, from editing to cinematography to mise en scene, the auteur controls it all.
he or she will make calculated choices resulting in a signature style or theme that runs through one or all of there films
this website provided me with an article that linked the new wave to the auteur theory, and how author there was born out of the creative moment of the new wave
this is again a further explanation
this is again a further explanation
making waves- new cinemas of the 1960’s
geoffrey novel smith
studio based films around this time were fixated on making a profit, studios would make the lowest common denominator film that would appeal to a wide audience to maximise profits, other than make heartfelt personal films that appealed to a minority
the new wave was created by the young turks, after they felt a cultural shift in france, a generation impatient with the attitudes of its elders and eager to throw off many aspects of the legacy of the past
it is also fair to say that there was a wave of changing rippling through french cinema during the mid-50’s, french films, with few exceptions, continued to be nostalgic and ritualistic in their attitude to national life
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/the-french-new-wave-revolutionising-cinema/
Perhaps the French New Wave’s most notable international figure is Jean-Luc Godard, a visionary of film both in France and abroad. In addition to being an accomplished screenwriter and director, Godard was also a highly respected critic of film.Admired for his inventive experimentation with both technical and thematic aspects of film (a passionate rejection of ‘traditional’ French cinema’s stories of the aristocracy), Godard’s film career started with his involvement with Cahiers du Cinéma as one of the publication’s first and most celebrated contributing writers. His full-length feature debut came with 1960’s À Bout de Soufflé (Breathless); a pop-culture inspired narrative told in a truly revolutionary style.
Breathless is a metropolitan romance (between a recent murderer on the run with a girl) set within the urban landscape of Parisian streets. The feature film introduced Godard as a truly innovative force within film. His films emphasize the presentation of story, more than the story itself,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/movies/23scott.html?mcubz=0 - on godard and breathless
It was a burst of youthful, irreverent energy that was also a decisive engagement in the continuing battle to establish cinema as a serious art form.
And yet even as Mr. Godard and his cinematographer, Raoul Coutard, record the sights and sounds of Paris with documentary immediacy, the images are infused with an unmistakable nostalgia. This is not something a latter-day viewer — perhaps besotted by secondhand memories of vintage cars circling the Place de la Concorde or pretty young women selling The New York Herald Tribune in front of cafes — brings to “Breathless.” Rather, the film’s evident and self-conscious desire to tap into a reservoir of existing references and associations is a sign of its director’s obsession with other movies
“Breathless” was there first. Which is to say that it was already late. Seen from its most unflattering angle, it is a thin and derivative film noir. A generic tough guy steals a car, shoots a policeman, sweet-talks a series of women, hobnobs with his underworld pals and tries to stay a step ahead of the dogged detectives on his trail. His poses and attitudes seem borrowed, arising less from any social or psychological condition or biographical facts than from a desire to be as cool as the guys in the movies.
The wonder is that he surpasses them, and that “Breathless,” quoting from so many other movies (and shuffling together cultural references that include Faulkner, Jean Renoir, Mozart and Bach as well as Hollywood movies), still feels entirely original. It still, that is, has the power to defy conventional expectations about what a movie should be while providing an utterly captivating moviegoing experience
a review of breathless by the ny times, the review mentions how jean luck films are drenched in pop culture of the time, i hope to compare this to not only my notes made on his other films, but also against other reviews of the films
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/le-petit-soldat-1960
Le Petit Soldat" was Jean-Luc Godard's second film, made in 1960 when "Breathless" was creating a sensation and the French New Wave made the cover of Time. It wasn't much of a success. Godard, it was said, had lost the light touch of his first film and gotten bogged down in politics. And his shooting and writing styles, alas, bordered on anarchy.
So "The Little Soldier" was dismissed by the critics, who were busy doing cartwheels for Truffaut's "Jules and Jim" and Resnais' "Hiroshima, Mon Amour." And Godard began a period of four years in which his films, one after another, were criticized for not fulfilling the promise of "Breathless."
Part of that relevance involves Godard's politics. Although "Le Petit Soldat" was attacked as "too political," it is refreshingly undoctrinaire in 1969 while "Hiroshima, Mon Amour" collapses into what Pauline Kael calls liberal soap opera. Godard, in 1960, making a film about the Algerian War, was portraying the sort of intellectual and moral confusion that good men have when they confront senseless events. And the 1960s have been full of them.
It becomes clear during the film that nothing the hero does is going to make much difference; forces are in motion that would just as soon kill him, but for no good reason. Photographs of previous victims are casually displayed, but without much feeling. The trouble with wars like Algeria and Vietnam is that death loses its significance
http://omarsfilmblog.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/la-petit-soldat-little-solider-dir-jean.html
Godard’s second feature was made in 1960 and instantly banned by the French government for its controversial political content – hard to believe that this was the first French film to examine the protracted colonial war in Algeria. ‘La Petit Soldat’ was eventually released in 1963 but the prolific rate at which Godard was making films meant it became somewhat lost in the sheer euphoria of the nouvelle vague. Godard shot the film with his regular cinematographer, Raoul Coutard, in Switzerland. Coutard’s contribution to the formation of a new wave aesthetic of hand held camera work, location shooting and the use of natural lighting is simply impossible to ignore. The absence of any kind of formal training in the art of cinematography meant that Coutard was free to break from tradition,
http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/cteq/soldat/
Nominally a thriller, Le Petit Soldat is set in Switzerland and deals overtly with the socio-political tensions of the Algerian War – albeit with an ambivalence not usually associated with the polemical Godard. Its troubled hero, Bruno Forestier (Michel Subor), is an ambiguously motivated secret agent, based in Geneva, who carries out a series of contracts for a division of the French Government, all the while under constant threat of deportation and punishment for his desertion of the army. He receives orders to assassinate an extremist leader of the leftist Arab underground, but baulks at the cold-bloodedness of the task. As both factions, French and Arab, begin to close in on him, he desperately tries to arrange passage to South America, but is unexpectedly drawn into a relationship with Veronica (Anna Karina), a mysterious woman with unknown loyalties.
Unlike the fast-paced, energetic environment of Paris in À bout de souffle – which derived in part from Godard’s famous use of jump cuts – the cityscape in Le Petit Soldat is jarringly edited together via a series of whip-pans, with the restless camerawork often forcibly yanking our attention from Bruno to the watching figures of the agents in the streets around him. More intrusive still, perhaps, is the role of the soundtrack: whereas Godard’s first film featured a light-hearted, up-tempo jazz score, his second is set to Maurice Laroux’s deliberately oppressive atonal piano music.
Le Petit Soldat is structured around Bruno’s reflective voice-over, in which he muses bitterly about the oppressive roles foisted upon him and his social contemporaries: his most pointed reference is to actors, who remain inherently driven by the whims of others. With a disjunctive commentary track – one that often challenges the integrity of the action on-screen
Often bleakly pessimistic, yet at all times stylistically adventurous and original,
http://www.actingoutpolitics.com/le-petit-soldat-1963-jean-claude-godard/
an existenal love story, a romance broken by political authority
Psychology of Private Love Blended With Political Thriller and Cultural Criticism
Talented individuals with psychologically deeply rooted and rich and multifaceted personalities not only have social ambitions and professional dreams, but moral and intellectual ideals demanding realization. And this last factor makes them even more vulnerable to militant political organisations.
We see here how Veronica (Anna Karina) is saying “no” to Bruno, following his own joking suggestion, but neither she nor he knows that she is talking for their destiny and for her life.
Veronica is playful with Bruno without any intentions. They are like children in the world of adults. They don’t know that childish games of adults can have grave consequences
Bruno is a young man with a developed internal world and his own will able to act according to his personal intentionality, not according to orders and expectations of his political bosses. But the issue is – is to be culturally educated and a decent person enough to resist the grip of a repressive and militant organization and ideology with, indeed, impressive power over even so called democratic societies?
Bruno looks at the viewers without asking for advice or help nor condescending pity. His gaze is already acknowledging that he is trapped (like the majority of people kept by the throat by the necessity to succeed in the world belonging to masters-decision-makers), but somehow we feel in his eyes a mute appeal of somebody who is victim of the socio-political manipulation.
Bruno is psychologically yearning for freedom to resist the conventional society, but he is controlled by very developed manipulative strategies modern societies are equipped with. We live not in traditional or ideological monarchies, but under a political establishment with a mighty arsenal of seducing, corrupting and intimidating tools. And now it is much more difficult, than in older times, to resist, if you want to avoid personal martyrdom.
His feeling of resistance against being manipulated and exploited for the sake of somebody else’s interests Bruno perceives not existentially, but “philosophically”, as if, it is a problem of human individual and his particular destiny, and not that of people’s socio-cultural life in general
http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/godard.html
My Life to Live is a highly stylized and extraordinarily unformulaic adaptation of a simple premise: a young woman, seeking the freedom and excitement of, what Federico Fellini calls La Dolce Vita, leaves her family to pursue an acting career, only to turn to a life of prostitution
we are introduced to the singular, iconoclastic vision that is Jean-Luc Godard. Stripped of expression and sentimentality, Godard, nevertheless, succeeds in creating a film that is visually stunning and full of pathos. We are drawn to Anna, not because of her seductive persona or compassionate actions, but because she ishumanity, lost and desperate, incapable of comprehending her misery nor articulating her pain
Godard's revolutionary camerawork transcends nouvelle vague novelty: it serves as a cinematic extension of Nana's soul. The awkward angles and long panning shots during Nana and Paul's conversations reveals the underlying tension and emotional distance between them.
Nana's conversation proceeds in silent film intertitles - reflecting her own suffering and innate desire to achieve greatness and escape the banality of her sordid life. The seamless camerawork following Nana as she dances uninhibitedly around the billiard room feels intoxicating, almost mesmerizing - a fleeting glimpse of the few brief moments of pure joy she has ever known. My Life to Live is a truly remarkable film: a synthesis of artistic vision and moral tale, suffused with haunting melody, the ballad of a contemporary tragedy.
https://filmcapsule.com/2014/11/19/godard-ism-constructing-philosophy-in-vivre-sa-vie/
Godard’s Vivre sa vie (1962), for example, is richly imbued with existentialism. In both form and content, this story of a woman’s descent into prostitution frequently seems motivated by the existentialism’s principals of self-formation, but the film’s judgement of this philosophy remains ambiguous. Is Anna Karina’s Nana indeed free to live the life she chooses, or is she instead defined by a conspicuous absence of free will? Is it individual autonomy, then, or the tendency to deny meaning that defines Vivre sa vie?
One of the principles of existentialism that haunts both the film’s form and content is the harmony between one’s teachings and one’s way of life, between words and actions. By this principal, Godard would surely be an admirable model for the cinephile of the 20th and 21st centuries. First as a devoted critic and theorist, then as a tenacious and prolific filmmaker, Godard practiced what he preached. His writings on the powers and politics of film were actualized in his work, just as his work itself exists as an extension of his own theory and philosophy.
Godard and Karina characterize Nana through her wells of emotions, as well as her inquisitiveness and naive thoughtfulness. For example, in one key scene Nana tearfully watches Carl Theodor Dryer’s 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc. The emotional power of this profoundly silent scene depends on both artist’s precision in their handling of Nana’s deep, almost sublime emotional response, indicating her receptiveness of feelings, another tenet of existentialism. Another key scene in the film sees Nana attempt a philosophy of her own, but her subsequent conversation with real-life philosopher Brice Parain leaves Nana even more confused with her initial theory on life.
existentialism
- a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.
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