Jean-Luc Godard was one of the filmmakers whose thought and filmic work exerted the most influence (and prompted the most theoretical and critical analysis, the incalculable effect of which continues) on modern cinema and other artistic fields. He has travelled in several stages – from the principles he defended as a critic at Cahiers du Cinéma, to the aesthetics of the Nouvelle Vague, of which he was a leading figure (with his seminal Breathless opening a series of equally remarkable titles such as My Life to Live, Contempt, Pierrot le Fou, Made in U.S.A. or the caustic Week End, where the end of cinema itself is declared), to recent experimental essay films (Film Socialisme, Goodbye to Language and his last film The Image Book), passing through the most radical period (that of the Dziga Vertov Group), aesthetically and politically – Godard has built up an immense and challenging body of work.
His work, deeply reflective, full of quotations, references or allusions from various sources (cinematographic, literary, musical, philosophical, scientific, from political theory), capable of fusing "high" and "low" culture, working in an innovative way with archive images, video (the entire production of SonImage, the company he founded with Anne-Marie Miéville in 1972, is a small world to discover) and 3D, questions history (and the history of cinema, with a climax in the monumental History(s) of Cinema), the traumas of our time and the language (and its limits) with which we (don't) communicate, always with an absolutely unmistakable signature.
In 2016, LEFFEST paid tribute to Godard by organising the first full retrospective of his work and the International Symposium "Godard vu par...", which brought together directors, writers, critics, essayists and other artists who discussed the filmmaker's influence on their work. It is also to this indispensable author that the festival will continue to return again and again, through special screenings and other programmes, thereby contributing to keeping his legacy alive.
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