Seoul Art Cinema 'Forever Jean-Luc Godard' Retrospective
Highlighting Various Experiments Continued After Returning to the Establishment
Twelve Films Including 'Passion', 'Hail Mary', and 'Film History'
Jean-Luc Godard raised important issues related to cinema and discourse for 70 years since the 1950s. He expanded the horizons of thought by imagining new models of thinking. His trajectory, which had a profound impact on film history, has been rarely addressed domestically. Only early Nouvelle Vague works such as ? bout de souffle (1959) were introduced.
Cinematheque Seoul Art Cinema will hold a retrospective titled "Forever Jean-Luc Godard" from the 30th of this month to the 17th of next month. In memory of Godard, who passed away on the 13th of last month, twelve films he directed or appeared in will be showcased. These include Vivre sa vie (1962), Pr?nom Carmen (1979), Passion (1980), Hail Mary (1985), King Lear (1987), Keep Your Right Up (1987), Nouvelle Vague (1990), Oh! Woe Is Me (1993), JLG/JLG: Self-Portrait (1995), Forever Mozart (1996), See You Friday, Robinson (2022), and Film Socialisme (1998).
Pr?nom Carmen was the first feature film Godard made after completing his political video works. It questions the essence of love, sex, life, and cinema through the daily lives of three characters. Hail Mary is a reinterpretation of the story of the Virgin Mary, exploring issues of masculinity and femininity, sex, and the secular world.
King Lear reinterprets Shakespeare’s play of the same name, set in Nyon, Switzerland. It features rich citations from film history and Brechtian inquiry. Keep Your Right Up alternates between three episodes, offering brief commentary on popular culture and contemporary society. It is considered the most humorous among Godard’s later works.
Oh! Woe Is Me unfolds reflections on God, beauty, image, and identity through the Simons couple and residents of a Swiss rural village. JLG/JLG: Self-Portrait is exactly what the title suggests?a self-portrait of Godard. It discusses his views on history and cinema in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of film.
Forever Mozart features individuals contemplating their own art, expressing concerns and reflections on European society. See You Friday, Robinson is a documentary directed by Iranian filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan. It conveys conversations with Godard every Friday through words and images.
Most of the films screened were produced in the 1980s. At that time, Godard had returned to the mainstream but continued his experiments by crossing boundaries between philosophy, art, history, and politics. The result of his relentless contemplation can be glimpsed in Film Socialisme. Reflecting on the history of cinema, it contemplates 20th-century modern society. Through montage work of cutting and pasting film, it encourages viewers to examine the very model of thought through which we perceive the world.
Seoul Art Cinema stated, "Godard brought a fundamental revolution to the way films are made, thought about, and received, which, borrowing the expression of film critic Serge Daney, is deeply related to the 'pedagogy of the image.' We plan to shed light on the world of this generous and free artist’s works from various perspectives, providing an opportunity to freely explore the world of images."
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