Godard seul le cinéma, a feature film about the life of the French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, was presented this Saturday 22 October in the Por Amor al Cine section of the 67th International Film Week of Valladolid, with the presence of its director, Cyrill Leuthy. Its presentation at Seminci comes barely a month after the death of Jean-Luc Godard and, as Leuthy commented, “it’s strange for me to start the festival here, especially a month after Godard’s death. The whole theme of emotions changes the perspective and the approach.”
The play is directed and scripted by Cyril Leuthy and features Macha Meril, Thierry Jousse, Alain Bergala, Marina Vlady, Romain Goupil, David Faroult, Julie Delpy, Daniel Cohn Bendit.
“He couldn’t really speak of pride in himself. He compares himself to Picasso by having different periods. He was trying to destroy what he had done before and he didn’t want to talk about it, he wasn’t willing. He had an internal engine that made him criticise the film he was making at the time. This internal engine made him question everything,” Leuthy said during the discussion after the screening.
The documentary is divided into chapters because, as the director explained, they perfectly divide Godard’s creative periods and it is also a way of presenting it in a simpler and more aesthetic way. “What I find important and what I really like about it is to address an audience that perhaps doesn’t know him so well and after the film wants to know more,” Leuthy added.
The feature film is based on a review of the French filmmaker’s life and his more than 140 films. Where does his aura come from? From his legendary films, of course, but also from Godard himself. He was a public figure and a man shrouded in mystery. He is everything and its opposite, and he has taken all possible paths. It is not easy to encompass such a sacred and enigmatic monster. Godard’s itinerary follows a single course: the constant renewal of his art. He sees the creative act as a necessary act of critique and deconstruction. “I always start from the negative. I am a positive man who starts from the negative”.
