Minutes for March 28th 2001

 The class opened with a discussion of the scene from Godard’s Breathless which we ended class with on March 26th.  The ending scene was viewed again and then we viewed the beginning of the film.  After those were viewed we viewed the beginning and ending of Jim McBride’s remake of the film.

Things to notice in Godard’s Breathless:

1.      jump cutting – instead of showing someone walking down a hall, out the door, and then outside, Godard uses jump cutting to make the movie go by quicker, to give it a "breathless" feeling." Besides, people don't need transitions and Godard has been proven right as audiences are now accustomed to putting things together in their own minds and don’t really want to be shown everything.

2.      how some strips are put together – an example of his random editing was one scene where Michel  is chasing after a car driven by his friend Berrutti..  The beginning on the scene shows Michel running after the car to the right of the screen.  The next shot shows Michel running after the car again, yet the car is now driving to the left of the screen.  This helps to show the feeling of his being trapped.  Michel is trapped by killing a cop, his girlfriend turning him in, and now actually being trapped by the film itself.

3.      the ending of the film – Michel blows out smoke as his final breath – this refers to the title Breathless, he is also all alone in the world.  This is shown through Michel having to clos his own eyes and by the fact that you learn his girlfriend only cares about her own career and that is why she turned him in.

4.      Godard also experiments in this film with an actor speaking directly to the camera, which gives us the feeling that we are still being pushed out of the film, and helps to give the feeling that the audience is only viewing a movie and not involved in a real story. 

Comparison with Jim McBride’s Breathless (20years later – Hollywood version)

1.      At the end of the film the man and woman, now called  Jesse and Monica are now outside in a car instead of in an apartment, Jesse sings, his girlfriend admits to loving him, and he actually picks up the gun and turns to shoot.  The audience never sees if Jesse is actually shot by the police. Instead McBride freezes the ending scene.

2.      Jesse does not smoke in the version and seems to be less vulnerable then Michel was in Godard’s version.  There is emotion being shown and his girlfriend does love him.  In Godard’s version you can tell that Patricia does not love Michael and the film is very emotionally cold.

3.      Jesse’s girlfriend, Monica, is French, Jesse is American, and the movie takes place in America.  Jesse idolizes Jerry Lee Lewis and Michel idolizes Humphrey Bogart.

4.      In Godard’s version Michel is trapped by the film itself.  In McBride’s version Jesse is trapped in a circle by cops and the park he just came from.

5.      Instead of reading a newspaper and smoking a cigarette, like in Godard’s version, McBride has Jesse reading a comic book.

6.      Godard’s version – Michel drives the car off the side of the road because it breaks down and there is no smooth transition between the shooting of the cop, his (Michel's) smoking, and his reading the paper.

7.      McBride’s version – the car is wrecked and stuck in a ditch, Jesse shows compassion by placing the jacket under his head, and this also makes it appear to be an accident.  You also can’t tell at the beginning who actually shot whom since the bullet went through the window.

 Godard tries to make the connection between images in movies and how they affect the youth of the times.  Michael wants to be like Bogart in the film.  He always has a cigarette in his mouth and rubs his finger across the top of his lip making a line, which Bogart is known for doing. 

Things to avoid in the paper to be written:

1.      not including  movie names

2.      opinions

3.      exaggeration -" I really liked. . ."

4.      vague language:

“sort of”

“they were different”

5.      sentences that don’t really say anything at all

 

Video Clips shown

Taxi Driver

Abrupt editing (French New Wave influence)

Back and forth influencing between Hollywood and French films

 

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy)

Re-released four years ago – restored as well

Musical

Sense of humor referring to itself

            Ex: one man says, “I don’t like singing. I go to movies.”  The movie was all sung

 

La Jete

Filmed all in stills – no movement at all

12 Monkeys staring Brad Pitt was a “remake” of this film

½ hour long

Experimental movie – can you make a movie with no movement?

 

Assignment for Next Week

Watch the movie No End