Lionsgate: Jean-Luc Godard Collection
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 11:50 pm
To be released on February 5 according to Laser's Edge:
Experience four films from one of the most influential and well-known French filmakers, Jean-Luc Godard. This pioneer of the "New Wave" cinematic movement enjoys a prolific career that has already spanned over 5 decades. This collection features four works from the 1980s and 1990s phase of his career. The films include Passion (1982), First Name: Carmen (Winner of the Golden Lion Award at the 1983 Venice Film Festival), Detective (1985) and Oh, Woe is Me (1993). The collection represents a snapshot of the incredible work of one of the world's true cinematic geniuses.
Passion: Illustrating Godard's unique use of multiple narrative storytelling, this provocative film focuses on the interplay between love, work, and filmmaking. Uninspired and overbudget, a bored film director (Jerzy Radziwilowicz), who is shooting a tedious television movie, begins simultaneous love affairs with two very different women - Hanna (Hanna Schygulla), the owner of the hotel where his film crew stays, and Isabelle (Isabelle Huppert), a factory worker fired by Hanna's husband (Michel Piccoli).
First Name: Carmen (Prenom Carmen): This satirical black comedy that winks at Merimee's classic Carmen, stars Godard himself as a famous director pretending to be ill in a mental institution, but actually trying to avoid making films. He is enlisted by his niece Carmen (Maruschka Detmers) who wants his empty apartment as a hideaway for a bank robbery she and her friends are about to commit. Tragic and comical, this avant-garde work makes exceptional use of music to create the unusual pace and tempo, moods and rhythms of the film.
Detective: Godard's amazing pastiche of genres from romance and gangster films to slapstick, melodrama, crime stories and film noir, incorporates several stories set in one Parisian hotel. A powerhouse cast includes Laurent Terzieff and Jean-Pierre Leaud as the hotel's detective and assistant, Johnny Hallyday as a fight promoter having an affair with Nathalie Baye, and Alain Cuny as a Mafia chieftain. Julie Delpy and Emmanuelle Seigner also appear in this endlessly intriguing work which experiments with everything from the soundtrack to the credits.
Oh, Woe is Me (Helas Pour Moi): In this surrealistic, modern take on the Greek myth where Zeus descends to earth to seduce a woman by disguising himself as her husband, Godard also seduces viewers with his extraordinary images, unusual sounds, voices and music. Gerard Depardieu portrays Simon, husband of Rachel (Laurence Masliah) who is targeted by a cruel God determined to experience real love. As the drama unfolds, Godard also explores some of the most profound questions of man dealing with love, God and the meaning of life.