Throughout the 1960s, cinephiles eagerly awaited the latest film—or two—by Jean-Luc Godard (born 1930). A founding father of the nouvelle vague, the former critic was its most innovative in form, with each new work seemingly rewriting the grammar of film. Jump cuts, asynchronous soundtracks, self-narration, cinema as essay, cinema as collage, self-referential cinema, cinema of anarchy—you name it, Godard's 60s oeuvre redefined "cutting edge"—and, with location and available-light shooting, now provides a near-documentary time capsule of Paris and environs. Through JLG's movies, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, and Anna Karina became New Wave icons, with the dark-eyed, appealingly vulnerable Karina doubling as the director's muse through seven quintessential collaborations—and a four-year marriage. Forty years after the tumultuous events of May '68, and blessed with 100% hindsight, one can almost see the chaos coming through the satire and social criticism in Godard's chronicles of "the children of Marx and Coca-Cola." His eventual ever-more outré stylistic leaps would leave even art house audiences behind, but for at least one pivotal decade, Godard was a seminal force in redrawing the map of film.

Featured Works:

Breathless (1959); Le Petit Soldat (1960); A Woman Is a Woman (1961); Vivre Sa Vie (1962); Le Carabiners (1963); Contempt (1963, pictured); Band of Outsiders (1964); A Married Woman (1964); Alphaville (1965); Made In U.S.A. (1966); Masculine Feminine (1966); Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1966); La Chinoise (1967); Weekend (1967); Un Film Comme Les Autres (1968); Le Gai Savoir (1969); Pierrot Le Fou (1965); Sympathy for the Devil (1968)

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