Jean-Luc Godard: Initiation into the revolutionary film - Movies | Art-kino Croatia

The three rolls of interview with Godard, which was recorded on March 19, 1969, were supposed to be material for the show 'Que'est-ce que la mise en scène?' (What is directing / mise en scene?). Designed and sponsored by Positif magazine critic Jean-Paul Török, the show was part of Cinéma Six produced by School Television, featuring authors such as Jean Eustache and Eric Rohmer (eg, the show Civilization: Man and Pictures of 1967, in which Godard also participated). For "What is Directing?" besides Godard, a question from the title of the show, which has already become the trademark of a group of cinephiles gathered around the MacMahon cinema in Paris, Török also asked Joseph Losey, Louis Malle, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Michel Deville.

At a time when the revolutionary spirit of the fifties in France was dwindling, cameramen unionized in the General Confederation of Labor were called by Godard to sabotage General De Gaulle's television interviews and to steal tapes from the ORTF state radio depot. The supply of "weapons" at the enemy was, at the time, a very common way of obtaining funds for the production of opposition films, as confided by Guy Chalon, founder of the progressive Jean Vigo Group in 1956, and author of several films from the Ciné-Tracts and Opération Jéricho projects which recorded six days of demonstrations against the ORTF in 1968. Jean-Paul Török recalls that the cameraman of the show, a member of the union, was angry and "wanted to break Godard's nose." As Török said, "he was not eligible for broadcasting." Those twenty-five minutes of material, which, because of its radical content and non-broadcasting content, are of double importance, can be viewed at the National Institute for Audiovisual Materials (INA), where it is stored under catalog number CPF06000265.

U vrijeme kad revolucionarni duh pedesetih u Francuskoj posustaje, snimatelje sindikalizirane u Općoj konfederaciji rada Godard poziva na sabotiranje televizijskih intervjua generala De Gaullea i krađu vrpci iz skladišta državne radio-televizije ORTF. Opskrba “oružjem” kod neprijatelja, naime, tada je bila vrlo čest način pribavljanja sredstava za proizvodnju filmova oporbe, kako nam je povjerio Guy Chalon, osnivač progresivne Grupe Jean Vigo 1956. godine i autor nekoliko filmova iz projekata Ciné-Tracts i Opération Jéricho, koji bilježe šest dana demonstracija protiv ORTF-a 1968. godine. Jean-Paul Török prisjeća se kako se snimatelj emisije, inače član sindikata, naljutio i “htio Godardu razbiti nos”.¹ Taj strastven i provokativan razgovor, održan u trenutku kad je agitprop bio takoreći na vrhuncu, nije uvršten u emitirani materijal, tj. kako je rekao Török, “nije bio podoban za emitiranje”. Tih dvadeset i pet minuta materijala, koji zbog toga – zbog radikalnosti sadržaja i činjenice da nije uvršten u emisiju – dobiva dvostruku važnost, može se pogledati u Nacionalnom zavodu za audiovizualnu građu (INA), gdje je pohranjen pod kataloškim brojem CPF06000265.

From the interview on January 28, 2006.

(Nicole Brenez)