Goddard, a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement, died yesterday, September 13. He was 91 years old when he completely stopped his work from thinking about cinema.
Jean-Luc Gotthardt was born in Paris on December 3, 1930, the second of four children of a French-Swiss couple. Father used to run his own clinic and practice medicine. Ammao comes from a family of traditional Swiss bankers. However, they had to part ways at some point. He was left alone after completing his schooling in Switzerland. At that time he left the house with no other option. It was in this context that he traveled to Paris and was forced to shape his university career.
However, the mother and father were already separated, so they sent a small amount of money as if the child was studying. But when he finally learned that he was involved in film ventures, the money from his parents stopped, and Goddard took up various jobs and sought income for himself. It was at a time when he was struggling to eat and clothe himself that his theory of how the new cinema should be became a new wave. It started working under the name of New Wave and today it is talked about as the history of cinema.
The French New Wave is a French film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. This movement led the way to create a different kind of storytelling in these films, away from the conventional cinematic style of storytelling.
John Luke Gothart, Eric Romer, Jacques Rivette and Claude Chabrol tear apart the glaring flaws of conventional cinema in Here’s Two Cinema. They even used various magazines for this purpose. The articles written by these four in various magazines started creating huge waves.
“Then you are the one who will take the cinema and watch it” was given to them. They bravely accepted that call. Accordingly, they started their film endeavors instead of simply writing reviews. Those who initially started with small films then took up full-length films. These new wave films were often the most influential in the history of cinema.
Goddard began making feature films in the 60s. Breathless was the first film, and his milestones include Condemned, Band of Outsiders, Pirate Le Fou… Alphavelli, Good Bye Language, Masculine Feminine, Vivre Sa Vie.
A rare feature of this is that Jean-Luc Godhart was working with today’s 2K film generation, starting with shorts in the 50s and growing into feature films in the 60s. He also directed the film The Image Book at the age of 88. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was shortlisted for the Palme d’Or. Although he did not receive the award, a special Palme d’Or award was created for the first time in history and the award was awarded to Goddard by the jury. The film received good reviews as it was an avant garde film directed by Godert.
Recalling Picasso’s remark that his passion for painting will not diminish until it rejects me, Gothart said in an interview, “I say as Picasso says, I will not leave the cinema until the cinema rejects me.” That’s how he worked with cinema for many decades. Starting with Breathless in 1960 and ending with The Image Book in 2018, he has directed nearly 45 films. Goddard, who has won various awards and prizes in the world, was awarded the special award of Oscar in 2010.