The posters for this year's and 69th Cannes Film Festivals are selected from Godard's films Pierrot the Madman and Contempt, respectively.
Pierrot the Madman
Born in 1930, Godard is still full of subversive spirit that revolutionizes the language of cinema.
(From left to right) Directors Claude Ruluccio, Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Louis Mahler, Romain Polanski at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival.
In the early morning of May 20, Beijing time, the 12-day Cannes Film Festival came to an end, and the major awards were announced, among which, unlike in the past, this year's Cannes Film Festival specially added a "special Palme d'Or" awarded to the 88-year-old New Wave living fossil Jean-Luc Godard. Godard's latest entry into the main competition is "Book of Images", before which he had been shortlisted for the main competition in Cannes seven times, all of which were not related to the Palme d'Or, and only won a jury prize in 2014 for "Goodbye Language". Prior to this, Godard had already won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival and the Golden Lion At the Venice Film Festival, except for the lack of a Palme d'Or, otherwise it would have achieved the "Grand Slam" of the three major A-category film festivals in Europe. In the eyes of many media, the "special Palme d'Or" specially set up by Cannes for Godard this time is more like a consolation award, after all, the old man is 88 years old this year, due to energy and physical problems, the next work is still unknown.
In response to a reporter's question after the award, Kate Blanchett, who is the president of the jury of this year's film festival, explained the matter, "At the film festival, there can always be exceptions. Godard's work surprised us, but also anger, and has been influencing everyone during the film festival and leaving a deep impression. The film is a work that transcends time and space, and also transcends the meaning of the competition, which will have an impact on the future of cinema, so we awarded this special Palme d'Or. We look at an award, not in isolation, but also in the context in which it appears. ”
The Book of Images
Sleep down a large audience
Among the 21 shortlisted films in the main competition section of this year's Cannes Film Festival, Godard's "Book of Images" has a field score of 3 points (out of 4 points) in Cannes, ranking third among the 21 main competition finalists, behind Lee Cangdong's "Burning" (3.8 points) and Kore-eda's "Thief Family" (3.2 points), which is quite highly evaluated.
However, in terms of viewing experience, this "Book of Images" is not "friendly" to the vast majority of audiences, and when it was screened in Cannes, it slept with a large audience. If "Goodbye Language", which won the Cannes Jury Prize 4 years ago, still has a protagonist and a story line, then "Book of Images" is more extreme, with a total of 85 minutes, no actors, and the images are also edited from some film clips, documentary materials and so on. And it is out of sync in sound and painting, deliberately undermining the integrity of audiovisual language and the coherence of narrative. For Godard, he has now largely given up shooting and put editing first, believing that this kind of creation is more free. In fact, Godard's subversive spirit of video language has always run through his creation, as early as his 1960 debut film "Exhausted", he boldly used "jumping shaft", "jumping cut" and other rules-ignoring editing methods to challenge the traditional audiovisual language.
In his later years, Godard was more thorough in his destruction of film form and language, completely freed himself, did not want to communicate with the audience, and created his own image world. Screen magazine said of his new work: "For many viewers, watching The Book of Images is undoubtedly a 'chat with a madman', and meeting a director like Godard who is not domesticated by modern cinema is a nightmare, but for a small number of viewers who can read the language of his films, watching the Book of Images will be a privilege and pleasure." ”
Cannes absentee
The most existential person
At the Cannes awards ceremony that night, the producer of "Book of Images" took the stage to receive the "Special Palme d'Or" on behalf of the director, while Godard was watching the live broadcast from his mobile phone at home in Switzerland. Festivals and the media seem to have become accustomed to Godard's absence from the festival's awards ceremony. Godard, who lived to this age, did not care at all about winning awards. In 2010, the Academy of Motion Picture and the Arts awarded Godard the Lifetime Achievement Oscar, none of whom attended the ceremony.
Since 2001, when "Elegy of Love" was shortlisted for the main competition section of the Cannes Film Festival, and Godard attended the film festival, he has never stepped into the Cannes Film Festival. "Why should I go?" I'm old now, and the place is chaotic all day, like a circus, and it's tiring to go once. Most crucially, I don't necessarily have the opportunity to talk about my film publicly and explain its content. In fact, Godard is not reluctant to participate in the film festival, he is willing to talk about his films at the film festival, but many media outlets focus on some political issues, "What do you think of Trump?" Questions like that caused Godard a headache and finally decided not to show up at the festival.
Although Godard was absent from the Cannes Film Festival, he was the most presenceist director at the festival. This year's official visual poster for the Cannes Film Festival pays tribute to the classic shot from his work Piero the Madman – Jean-Paul Belmondo sitting in a sports car and kissing Anna Carrina. At the 69th Cannes Film Festival two years ago, the organizing committee also paid tribute to the footage in his work "Contempt". At the media conference of "Book of Images", although Godard did not come to the scene, he interacted with the live media through mobile phone video, and the long queue of media asked Godard who smoked cigars in the video, which became a very memorable and wonderful moment at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Cannes Origins
Spoil the 1968 Film Festival
In 1980, Godard was shortlisted for the main competition section of the 33rd Cannes Film Festival for the first time with "Everyone for Himself". However, this was not his first contact with the Cannes Film Festival. His relationship with the Cannes Film Festival goes back to the "May Storm" that swept across Europe in 1968. At that time, the social situation was very chaotic, students went on strike, workers went on strike, but the Cannes Film Festival was in full swing, Godard, Truffaut and a number of new wave directors were dissatisfied with this situation, openly boycotted the Cannes Film Festival, at a forum held in Cannes, Godard took the lead in speaking out: "We are ten days late, and now we must immediately show solidarity with students and workers." So there is only one way left, and that is all the screenings of the film, and stop all of them immediately... I'm talking about fighting alongside students and workers, but what you're talking about is pushing and pulling and close-ups! You guys are such idiots! ”
However, the Cannes Film Festival did not stop the screening, and the Spanish director Carlos Shola's film "Mint Shaved Ice" was being screened that afternoon, and a group of protesters, including Godard, Truffaut, And Saula himself, stepped onto the stage, ripped off the stage curtain, and physically clashed with the staff. Godard's hands were hanging on the curtain, and his glasses were smashed, but he remained unmoved. In the end, the theater had to end the screening. The Cannes Film Festival ended five days early, and only 8 of the 27 shortlisted films were screened, and the final awards were not awarded.
Since the cannes film festival has been spoiled this time, Godard and Cannes have not had much fate, compared to his brilliant achievements at the Venice Film Festival with a Golden Lion Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award, two Special Jury Awards, and a Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival and a Silver Bear Award for Best Director, his achievements at the Cannes Film Festival are relatively bleak.
★ Godard's history of the Cannes Film Festival:
In 1980, at the 33rd Cannes Film Festival, he was shortlisted for the main competition for the first time with "Everyone for Himself"
In 1982, at the 35th Cannes Film Festival, he was shortlisted for the main competition section with "The Passion"
In 1985, at the 38th Cannes Film Festival, he was shortlisted for the main competition section with "Detective"
In 1987, at the 40th Cannes Film Festival, he was shortlisted for the main competition section with "Magnificent Aria"
In 1990, at the 43rd Cannes Film Festival, he was shortlisted for the main competition section with "New Wave"
In 2001, at the 54th Cannes Film Festival, he was shortlisted for the main competition section with "Elegy of Love"
In 2014, at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, he won the Jury Prize in the main competition section for "Goodbye Language"
In 2018, at the 71st Cannes Film Festival, he won the Special Palme d'Or with "Book of Images"
Written by Teng Dynasty