Far from Vietnam

Jean-Luc Godard addresses two filmic letters to young Israeli soldiers who were sentenced after refusing to intervene in the occupied territories.

TV commercial (commissioned by Swiss tobacco company F.J. Burrus S.A.) for Parisienne cigarettes.

Director Jean-Luc Godard reflects in this movie about his place in film history, the interaction of film industry and film as art, as well as the act of creating art.

The title of this twenty-minute video by Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville, “Freedom and Fatherland,” is the official slogan of the Canton de Vaud, in Switzerland, where the filmmakers live and grew up. To fulfill their commission from a Swiss cultural festival, they adapted a great Swiss novel, “Aimé Pache, Painter from the Vaud,” by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, from 1911 (about a local artist who goes to Paris for his education and then returns home) and extruded its autobiographical analogies to Godard’s own life and work. Using a choice set of clips from Godard’s films to coincide with events from the painter’s life, verbal references to modern times and to Godard’s own—Sartre, the late nineteen-sixties, the cinema—and images of the Swiss terrain, which plays a decisive role in the work of Pache, Godard, and Miéville (an important filmmaker in her own right), they produce the effect of mirrors within mirrors.

Jean-Luc Godard's poetic meditation on war, violence and defeat. The film is structured in three parts. The three segments are "Hell", "Purgatory", and "Heaven". The first segment is a montage of war images from documentary and fictional sources. The second concerns two young Jewish women attending a European arts conference in Sarajevo. The final segment concerns the after life.

For Ever Mozart is an episodic film that follows a theater troupe from France attempting to put on a play in Sarajevo. Along their journey they are captured and held in a POW camp, and they call for help from their friends and relations in France. Director Jean-Luc Godard presents stories about this troop to ask how one can make art while slaughters like the one in Bosnia are taking place, and he throws in a strong critique of the European Union. For Ever Mozart is one of Godard's most disjointed and difficult films. Its stories sometimes seem to form a whole and at other times the links among them are unclear. One gets the impression that in each episode Godard attempts to start a film only to come to the conclusion that it is impossible to continue. It features some of the most beautiful shots of tanks in the cinema.

A reworking of extracts from Andre Malraux, Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perennou, and GK Chesterton.

Nothing but silence. Nothing but a revolutionary song. A story in five chapters like the five fingers of a hand.

Jean-Luc Godard, and Anne-Marie Miéville Four Short Films

The official spot of 22nd Jihlava international documentary film festival, directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Agnes Varda's documentary of the celebrations arising from the 25th anniversary of her husband Jacques Demy's film Les demoiselles de Rochefort.

On the occasion of the Henri Langlois Centenary (2014), Agnès Varda recounts a memory.

A documentary film directed by French Agnès Varda as an extension of the exhibition 'L'île et elle'. The installation 'Les veuves de Noirmoutier' (or 'The Widows of Noirmoutier') had various women filmed by Varda, young and old, who spoke about their widowhood and their residence on the island of Noirmoutier. The film is a montage of these meetings, which are both simple and melancholic.

Thirteen filmmakers talk about Henri Langlois and their relationship with him.

A theatrically-released compilation of three Varda shorts: "Salut les Cubains," "Ulysse" and "Ydessa, les ours et etc."

18 years after the making of the film "Vagabond", director Agnès Varda created this documentary which includes interviews with the cast.

Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Her investigation leads from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism.

After a road accident, a writer, Edgar, and his wife, Mylène, take up residence on an island off the coast of France to recuperate. Edgar soon recovers from his injuries and begins writing his next novel, seeking inspiration from the local people. His wife, however, has lost her voice and can only communicate through written notes. The islanders grow suspicious of the reclusive couple, their unease soon turning to aggression. Edgar is equally anxious about his neighbors, particularly a solitary widower, Ducasse, who has taken charge of a large consignment of crates. What secret project is Ducasse engaged in – and can it explain the strange behavior of the islanders?

What does being a woman really mean? How do women live the status society reserves for them? A group of women, beautiful or not, young or not, gifted with motherly instinct or not, answer before Agnès Varda's camera.

A short piece in which Agnes Varda revisits actress Marthe Jarnias, who plays the old aunt in her 1985 film "Vagabond".

Through photos made by the French photographer Denise Bellon, a personnal history of France.

Chris Marker's cat and rat.

Paris 2002. Yellow cats appear on the walls. Chris Marker is looking for these mysterious cats and captures with his camera the political and international events of these last two years (war in Iraq...).

Time travel, still images, a past, present and future and the aftermath of World War III. The tale of a man, a slave, sent back and forth, in and out of time, to find a solution to the world’s fate. To replenish its decreasing stocks of food, medicine and energies, and in doing so, resulting in a perpetual memory of a lone female, life, death and past events that are recreated on an airport’s viewing pier.

A short film that shows Boundless, Surreal objects that are juxtaposed with our present World. Cars, Motorways, noise of our modern society; A giant city in the distance - all that shrouds this lonely and forgotten island of Dreams. Filmed at the Emeryville Mudflats near San Francisco.

On October 21, 1967, over 100,000 protestors gathered in Washington, D.C., for the Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam. It was the largest protest gathering yet, and it brought together a wide cross-section of liberals, radicals, hippies, and Yippies. Che Guevara had been killed in Bolivia only two weeks previously, and, for many, it was the transition from simply marching against the war, to taking direct action to try to stop the 'American war machine.' Norman Mailer wrote about the events in Armies of the Night. French filmmaker Chris Marker, leading a team of filmmakers, was also there.

Berlin 1990 travels the streets and the political landscape of the recently re-unified Berlin. In the tumultuous atmosphere of 1990, we watch Berliners walk through check points manned by soldiers, past street vendors selling sausages and "actual" pieces of the Berlin Wall, and watch as they watch the election results come in for another "new" Germany.

An unexpected response to Pinochet's 1973 coup d'etat in Chile. A Super-8 film apparently found in an embassy -as it's written in the original title-, where political activists had taken refuge after a military coup d'état. But the events -and their setting- are not what they first appear to be.

A film of Chris Marker and the broadcasting(audiovisual) confederate Group - CFDT(FRENCH TRADE UNION)... For the centenarian of the law of 1884, which we agree to take for point of departure of the labor union, CFDT(FRENCH TRADE UNION) confided to Chris Marker the realisation of a film dedicated to hundred years of syndicalism in France. Chris Marker plans the question in the future and imagines a television news of 2084 for the anniversary of the second centenarian and three possible scenarios: the grey hypothesis, that of the "crisis", " a fearful society which hums and gives itself false safeties in the hope of a balance always questioned "; the black hypothesis, " a world where the technique took the place of the ideologies "; the blue hypothesis, finally, that of the dream and the imagination.

In 1973, after the failure of wage negotiations with the management of the Lip watch factories, the workers went on strike.

Documentary about George Gershwin directed by Alain Resnais with various celebrities speaking on their admiration and affection for Gershwin's music.

In Paris, six people all look for love, despite typically having their romantic aspirations dashed at every turn.

Odile is a business executive looking for a new, bigger apartment. Her younger sister Camille has just completed her doctoral thesis in history and is a Paris tour guide. Simon is a regular on Camille's tours because he's attracted to her. Camille has fallen for Marc, and they begin an affair. Nicolas is also looking for an apartment, since he hopes to eventually have his family join him in Paris.

Directed by Alain Resnais

Recovering from an attempted suicide, a man is selected to participate in a time travel experiment that has only been tested on mice. A malfunction in the experiment causes the man to experience moments from his past in a random order.

A chamber drama about a widow and her son who live in an antique shop in Boulogne. The widow invites a man whom she loved twenty-two years earlier to visit. Her son is haunted by Muriel, a young woman whose death he may have caused while serving as a soldier in Algeria. As in Resnais' earlier films, memory is deflected, fragmented, enshrined, and imagined.

In the midst of rehearsals for a new play, amateur dramatics proponents Colin and Kathryn receive the shattering news that their friend George is fatally ill and only has a few months to live.

Contre l'Oubli (Against Oblivion) is a compilation of 30 French filmmakers, Alain Resnais and Jean Luc Godard among them, who use film to make a plea on behalf of a political prisoner. Jean Luc Godard and Anne Marie Mieville's film concerns the plight of Thomas Wanggai, West Papuan activist who has since died in prison. The short films were commissioned by Amnesty International.

Le chant du Styrène is a 1958 French documentary film directed by Alain Resnais. The film was an order by French industrial group Pechiney to highlight the merits of plastics.

Irresistible charm and talent helps Serge Alexandre alias Stavisky, small-time swindler, to make friends with even most influential members of French industrial and political elite during the early 30s. But nothing lasts forever and when his great scam involving hundreds millions of francs gets exposed result is an unprecedented scandal that almost caused a civil war.

A war photographer and absent father, who spends more time taking care of his camera than his four daughters, enjoys a happy life in the Alps with his new girlfriend. But his life is turned upside down the day that his best friend tries to reconcile him with his family by telling them a big lie.

François Toledo, married businessman and father, falls head-over-heels in love with Janine, a work colleague. However, he is soon found out: after three dates, he strangles some prostitutes, when, the victim of blackmail, he becomes dishonored. He is taken to court, and sentenced to be killed by a guillotine.

This film is best understood after watching Albert Lamorisse's Baadeh Sabah, an ostentatious propaganda film of the same commission that was originally rejected for it's inadequate portrayal of Iran's nouveau-modernism (urban youth, industrial marvels) and it's overly-lyrical style. In LeLouche's rendition, there are no such inadequacies. The focus is on culture - heritage, modernity and (what soon would be named) Westernization. Past and present meet - veils and miniskirts, camels and helicopters, remains of ancient Persia, the highlights of Islamic art, caviar and the oil fields and gas pumps.

The movie follows the lives of a woman and a man starting from several generations earlier. The story spans a whole century and several continents.

Françoise has gone into business seducing men whose wives want to divorce them, and who need incriminating evidence against them. In addition, she has a little blackmail operation going on on the side with politicians who can't afford a scandal. She got started on this business after she was raped, and hasn't looked back since. Now the police are on her trail, and she avails herself of the services of a couple who make a profession of hiding wanted criminals. At the hideout, she meets Simon, a second-generation mobster. As the police close in, Françoise and Simon go on the run together, pulling off occasional heists for operating money. Before long, they have also fallen in love.

The film is a road movie that follows a middle aged man who gives a young woman a lift. On the car radio, news bulletins warn the population against a recently escaped sadist who is known to prey on young women and children. Lelouch often cuts away from the main story, if only briefly, to parallel events that are not necessarily crucial to the story but illustrate what is suggested by the radio.

Famous TV newscaster Robert Colomb is married to Catherine, but is continually unfaithful to her. Then he meets, and becomes fascinated with Candice.

Robert #1 is played by Charles Denner, while Robert #2 is played by Jacques Villeret. Beyond their common name, the two Roberts are as different as night and day. Oh, there is one more resemblance: both Roberts are lonely, and both hope to meet suitable mates through a computer dating service. As they await the arrival of their new dates, Robert et Robert become fast friends. Of the three favorite film subjects of writer/director Claude Lelouch--romance, crime, and politics--Robert et Robert falls firmly into the first category.

An essay on what provokes the "object woman".

They knew each other long ago: a man and a woman whose dazzling and unexpected romance captured in the now-iconic film, revolutionized our understanding of love. Today, the former race car driver seems lost in the pathways of his memory. In order to help him, his son seeks out the woman his father wasn’t able to cherish but whom he constantly revisits in his thoughts and dreams. Anne reunites with Jean-Louis and their story picks up where they left it…

For the very first time, a documentary team is allowed to shoot sequences in the backstage of the French Open of tennis of Roland-Garros.

Klein goes on the hunt for Little Richard, the legendary ‘Architect of Rock and Roll’, who quit show business in 1957 at the height of his fame to become an evangelist. Richard was then lured back to secular music in the 1960s and 70s, but the excesses of stardom led him to a second retreat from the stage. For years he struggled to reconcile his religious calling with his flamboyant rock-and-roll persona, and at the time of filming, Klein finds Little Richard selling ‘Black Heritage Bibles’ for a Nashville couple. Sensing that his image is being exploited, Richard quits his sales position and deserts the film. But Klein turns this into an opportunity to reconstruct Richard’s personality through the words of his family and friends in his native Macon, Georgia, and to celebrate his status as a cultural icon by filming scores of Little Richard impersonators and adoring fans in Hollywood.

Part II of a compilation movie featuring European T.V. commercials directed by a variety of well-known directors from across Europe and the U.S. Compiled and produced by Jean-Marie Boursicot.

Highlighting the work of emerging fashion world all-stars like Karl Lagerfeld, Jean-Paul Gaultier and agnès b., Klein surveys the state of women’s fashion in the 1980s with this eccentric hybrid documentary scored by Serge Gainsbourg.

William Klein’s first film is an impressionistic study of late-fifties Broadway, an ominous city-symphony lit by bright flickering light. Orson Welles would delcare it "the first film I've seen in which colour was absolutely necessary".

Filmmaker William Klein documents the Paris student riots that occurred in May of 1968.

The portrait of Eldridge Cleaver, the "Minister of Information" for the Black Panthers movement, in exile in Algiers.

In 1977 France, the Ministry of the Future chooses two “normal,” white, middle-class citizens, Claudine and Jean-Michel, for a national experiment. They will be monitored and displayed on television for six months in a model apartment outfitted with state-of-the-art products and nonstop surveillance—the template for “a new city for the new man.

Universally accepted as a true icon of the 20th century, Muhammad Ali’s phenomenal achievements spanned sport, politics and religion. One man – photographer William Klein had comprehensive access to the events that shaped Ali’s legend. In 1964, the young gregarious Cassius Clay successfully defeated the seemingly invincible Heavyweight Champion of the World Sonny Liston – the manner of Clay’s victory and his amazing persona made him an instant superstar. Through this incredible period, and Clay’s subsequent rematches with Liston, William Klein enjoyed unrivalled access top Clay’s camp – witnessing at first hand Cassius Clay becoming Muhammad Ali and angering the American people with his allegiance to Islam. Forward to Zaire 1974, and the return of Muhammad Ali to the world stage to face another invincible champion George Foreman. As Ali reclaimed the crown for a second time, Klein was ever present, capturing the full story at close quarter.

Festival panafricain d'Alger is a documentary by William Klein of the music and dance festival held 40 years ago in the streets and in venues all across Algiers. Klein follows the preparations, the rehearsals, the concerts… He blends images of interviews made to writers and advocates of the freedom movements with stock images, thus allowing him to touch on such matters as colonialism, neocolonialism, colonial exploitation, the struggles and battles of the revolutionary movements for Independence.

The film is a documentary portraying a struggle as man tries to subdue nature. To prevent flooding and for purposes of land reclamation, the people of the Netherlands struggle and succeed in building a breaker, thereby eliminating the wild inland body of water once known as the Zuider Zee (now called Ijsselmeer).

This movie follows the river Seine from the countryside to the heart of Paris.

A propaganda film made during the Spanish Civil War in support of the Republican government against the rebellion by Gen. Francisco Franco's forces who were backed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The film would have been seen by those making it as a documentary.

Instructional film about the (former) biggest harbour in the world, with a hybrid format. Well known Ivens themes are revisited, like The Flying Dutchman in the fiction part of the film, who returns to the modern day Rotterdam, that has recovered very well after the devastating bombardments in the second world war.

Soviet solidarity is strong in Germany where the Communist Party (KPD) marches under the clenched fist in spite of police harassment... Radio broadcasts reach all parts of the Soviet Union, including Magnitogorsk. On the steppe near the city, a family of nomads lives in their yurt. The father hears blasting: iron ore for the steelworks. Crushed ore and coke yield molten steel for the ladle. Stop-motion animation shows the bountiful tractor and freight car output of the future... A new blast-furnace is under construction. Accepting jobs at the site are women, ethnic minorities, and the nomad. An English-speaking engineer supervises; a young riveter learns his trade from an old hand... In the Kubass region, miners labour to produce the coal which becomes coke in Magnitogorsk... At last the blast-furnace is complete. Workers celebrate. A cheerful patriotic song is sung. Steel pours forth. The new day reveals a finished plant.

Documentary about a miner's strike in Borinage.

This short documentary examines the role of convoy ships during World War II, focusing on the Corvette Port Arthur. The corvette, a highly mobile weapon of destruction, is used to combat German U-boats and escort convoys through the Atlantic Ocean. Following the corvette through an encounter with an enemy submarine, the film offers a glimpse into a day in the life of the Royal Canadian Navy.

At the age of 13, Joris Ivens was fond of stories about cowboys and Indians, so he decided to invent one himself. He made a script and used a camera from his father’s shop. This became his first film, Wigwam, with his own family as the cast. Black Eagle, a bad Indian, kidnaps the daughter of a farmer’s family. Flaming Arrow, played by the young Joris Ivens, saves the child from the kidnapper and brings it back to her family. No better conclusion than smoking a peace pipe.

About the way of life in the East, in China, during the months before spring. An early spring.

This film describes the Second World Congress of Peace Defenders, held in Warsaw on November 16-22, 1950. Sheffield, an industrial city in England, was the initial location of the event, however, it was transferred to the capital of Poland at the very last moment.