Second film session of the film programme Jean-Luc Godard, with the screening of Paul Grivas' "Film Catastrophe" (2018) and "L'Incomparable du pas comparable" (2019), and Jean-Luc Godard's "Trailer for a film that will never exist: Phony Wars" (2023).

FILM CATASTROPHE

Paul Grivas | FRA | 2018 | 55'

Made two years after Film Socialism, in which Jean-Luc Godard used the Costa Concordia line cruiser as a kind of allegorical vessel to direct his political criticism, filmmaker Paul Grivas (who also collaborated on the cinematography for Film Socialism) revisits the ship – which sank in 2012. Combining footage from the shooting of Godard's film and images taken by the passengers during the sinking, this ‘film catastrophe’ doesn't hide the capitalist tragedy or the evidence of a disappearing Europe.

L'INCOMPARABLE DU PAS COMPARABLE

Paul Grivas | FRA | 2019 | 8'

I always find it strange when Jean-Luc Godard is accused of making “films without a script”. Quite the contrary, his scripts are extremely precise, as shown in this short film. The images, very similar as the ones used in a storyboard, come from different scripts JLG made, like an artisan, during the preparation of the shooting of Film Socialisme. For these collages JLG uses every type of fixed photos: locations, actors, costume rehearsals, newspapers, advertising, books, etc., giving details for accessories we’ll need later (books, clothes, etc.) and also giving us an idea of the framing and focus of each shot. JLG uses very rustic material to make these: scissors, markers, pencils, photocopies… Many shots of Film Socialisme ended up very similar to these pre-production collages (Paul Grivas).

FILM ANNONCE DU FILM 'DRÔLES DE GUERRE' (1er TOURNAGE) | TRAILER FOR A FILM THAT WILL NEVER EXIST: PHONY WARS

Jean-Luc Godard | FRA, SUI | 2023 | 20'

The history(s) of cinema are also the histories of films that were never made. It is on the basis of this axiom that Godard goes from the blank page to the sketch and finally to the more concrete footprints of his movie that will never exist. Building on a strategy of collage and quotation, and without neglecting the importance of his own voice, which has become increasingly central since his post-Dziga Vertov work, Godard still uses all the processes of cinematographic language - editing, time, movement, sound - to create the ghost of an incorporeal film.