News	News category

Acclaimed filmmaker Godard pinched money to watch, make films

29.11.2007 22:02 Arts - Source: cbc.ca

Jean-Luc Godard, renowned worldwide as a pioneer of the French New Wave film genre, has admitted that in the past, he stole money in order to watch and make movies.

Jean-Luc Godard, seen here at the 2001 Cannes International Film Festival, will receive a lifetime achievement honour at the European Film Awards in Berlin on Saturday.
(Laurent Rebours/Associated Press)

Godard said he felt he "had no choice."

"Or at least it seemed that way to me," he said in an interview with German weekly Die Zeit, according to Agence-France Presse.

The 76-year-old French filmmaker added that his pilfering extended to his own relatives.

"I even stole money from my family to give to [French director colleague Jacques] Rivette for his first film. I pinched money to be able to see films and to make films."

Godard is scheduled to receive a lifetime achievement award for the European Film Academy at the European Film Awards in Berlin on Saturday.

In the Die Zeit interview, scheduled for publication Thursday, Godard also expressed criticism of contemporary filmmakers.

"Most directors, and three-quarters of the people who will receive prizes in Berlin, only pick up the camera to feel alive. They do not use it to see things that you cannot see without a camera."

Godard's film career got started with a bang with the release of his first feature film, 1960's Breathless, which shocked audiences with its jarring new visual style, including jump editing cuts and use of a hand-held cameras.

He continued to win further acclaim with such films as Vivre sa vie, Contempt, Two or Three Things I Know About Her, Pierrot le Fou, Masculine-Feminine and Week End.

Along with colleagues such as Rivette, Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol, Godard is considered one of the groundbreaking filmmakers who pioneered the French New Wave, which rejected elements of classic cinema and adopted a more experimental approach with visual style, editing techniques and narrative.