Jean-Luc Godard’s light has burnt out.
French outlet La Liberation says it was assisted suicide in Switzerland: "He wasn't sick, he was just exhausted. It was his decision and it was important for him that it be known. This is. practice authorized and supervised in Switzerland.
During an 85-minute conversation last year with the virtual International Film Festival of Kerala (via The Film Stage), Godard said he planned to retire from directing after the completion of his next two films:
“I’m finishing my movie life—yes, my moviemaker’s life—by doing two scripts,” the 90-year-old Godard added about his plan to retire in the near future. “After, I will say, ‘Goodbye, cinema.’”
One of the greatest ever. Thank you to Godard for giving us the most intense of pleasures with your work for almost 60 years. Many landmark films, especially from 1960 to 1967. He was one of the final, if not the final, link to the French New Wave left. Will we get a final film from him? He was working on two movies during the time of his death.
Godard was one the most important artists of the 20th century. Period. A terrible loss.
A God of the medium, having advanced it more than any other person safe for the Lumieres brothers or George Melies. His astounding streak of films in the ’60s is the stuff of legend; “Breathless,” “Band of Outsiders,” “Pierrot Le Fou,” “Contempt,” Vivre Sa Vie,” “Week-End.” “His role in France’s Nouvelle Vague movement helped shape not only his country’s cultural movement but also influenced the way films would be shot and told in the American studio system.
He strayed far away from conventional cinema and instead opted for a requiem-sensed way of telling a story: It’s bold, original, vital filmmaking that still allowed him to win awards at Cannes.
It’d been a long time since traditional or even vaguely conventional “movies” had interested the legendary filmmaker. If anything, the director’s films over the last 20 or so years had been experiential audio/visual collages more interested in pictures, sounds, cuts, and de-saturation, a maddening barrage of dadaist statements.
His last endeavor, “The Image Book,” may have been his most polarizing. A film that perplexed many, but despite its distancing nature, did manage to win a Special Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2018. His last essential movie for movie was 2014’s “Goodbye to Language.”
“Hope,” Na’s first film in ten years — his last one being the exemplary “The Wailing” —is a gloriously messy, blood-soaked sci-fi epic that may become a cult classic despite—or because of—its polarizing nature.