Series Site
Name any Jean-Luc Godard film, from his early or late period, and you will find a work that opens the eyes to a new way of thinking about cinema through its inspired use of elliptical structure, jump cuts, close-ups, Brechtian techniques, and text/image/sound design. Godard’s (1930–2022) politics and philosophical views underpinned the radical form of his films, creating rich layers of meaning.
Recognized in the 1950s first for his film criticism, Godard was catapulted into fame as a director with Breathless, his 1960 debut feature. His deep appreciation for film history, literature, art, and music pervades his films, which are filled with quotations from the works he admired. Godard’s films have, in turn, inspired many great filmmakers, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Quentin Tarantino, and Wong Kar Wai.
This series of Godard’s early films is presented in conjunction with a BAMPFA poster exhibition installed on the Collection Wall outside the Film Library & Study Center on the Lower Level. These exceptional posters were commissioned nearly sixty years ago by Tom Luddy, then the Program Director of the Pacific Film Archive. The posters were designed by the American painter and graphic artist Gvido Augusts (1932–2022) on the occasion of Godard’s first visit to Berkeley in March 1968. How fitting that our institution can once again showcase these posters alongside a selection of Godard’s films.
—Susan Oxtoby, Director of Film and Senior Film Curator