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Title: Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at Seventy by Colin McCabe, Sally Shafto ISBN: 0-374-16378-2 Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (2 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Not the definitive biography
Comment: The French New Wave is one of the most interesting eras of cinema. Much has been written about the whole Cahiers du Cinema group. And now, we have this new book on the life of Godard.
The book is well divided, broken into 5 chapters. Godard's early family life, the Cahiers years, his early films, his late 60's political films and his years with Anne Marie Mieville.
Unfortunately, minus the index, bibliography and filmography, the text runs only 330 pages. Probably 40% or more of the biography is made up of tangents by the author. He often spends several pages explaining some historical event (such as several pages on the history of Protestantism in France) or spending several pages interpreting a quote of JLG's. This would be fine in a longer biography, but when several of his films aren't even discussed, or described in just a sentence, it is rather frustrating. Plus, since the author has also written books on James Joyce, he spends quite a bit of time talking about and quoting from Joyce when he should be talking about Godard.
So, this isn't the definitive Godard biography, which has yet to be written. Still, when he does focus on Godard, it is quite interesting and worth a read. I only wish there had been a stronger editor to keep it in focus.
Rating: 3
Summary: vulpecula venenata
Comment: The author of this book writes aptly about the cultural and political contexts that frame the life of its protagonist and particularly well about Godard's experiences on or around May 1968. MacCabe shows himself as almost totally sympathetic (yet not completely uncritical) to a relatively unpleasant subject. Perhaps, Godard is too private for compassionate emanations, perhaps the priveleged scope of this work stretched only to the opus of the film maker and not beyond, but there seems to be very little evidence of the delightful emotions that mark most lives in the life of this subject. Will the brilliance of the films outshine the unkind specter of the living artist? MacCabe writes very well on the evolution of Godard's techniques and fascinations. Godard works autonomously, vigorously and in daring fashion from the beginning. There is no doubt that Godard is an innovator and a believer in his style and visions.
It's just that the creator of the films doesn't seem to be the sort of person who endures either the scrutiny of a biographer or the acquaintance of people who are not cinematic savants well at all. That surprise though is hardly grounds for the criticism of the book or its subject by one who stands wholly uninjured by both.
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Title: For Ever Godard by Michael Temple, James S Williams, Michael Witt ISBN: 1901033694 Publisher: Miscellaneous - General Pub. Date: 01 June, 2004 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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Title:The Rules of the Game - Criterion Collection ASIN: B00005JLV6 Publisher: Criterion Collection Pub. Date: 20 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $39.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $29.96 |
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Title: Movie Mutations: The Changing Face of World Cinephilia by Jonathan Rosenbaum, Adrian Martin ISBN: 0851709842 Publisher: British Film Institute Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: Essential Cinema by Jonathan Rosenbaum ISBN: 0801878403 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Pub. Date: 30 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title:A Woman is a Woman - Criterion Collection ASIN: B0001ZIYDO Publisher: Public Media Inc Pub. Date: 22 June, 2004 List Price(USD): $29.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $20.97 |
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