THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART HONORS JEAN-LUC GODARD WITH A PAIR OF SCREENINGS
Museum Screens Two Films by a Pioneer of Cinema's Nouvelle Vague to Coincide
with New Biography of the Filmmaker
Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at 70
February 20, 2004
MoMA Film at The Gramercy Theatre
NEW YORK, February 13, 2004-The Museum of Modern Art presents two films by
French auteur Jean-Luc Godard to mark the publication of a recent biography
of the director. The works Sauve qui peut (la vie) (Every Man for Himself,
1980) and The Old Place: Small Notes Regarding the Arts at Fall of 20th
Century (1998) make up the exhibition Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at
70. Both films will be presented at MoMA Film at The Gramercy Theatre on
February 20, 2004, and will be introduced by scholar and producer Colin
MacCabe. The screenings coincide with the publication of MacCabe's
well-received Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at Seventy (Farrar, Straus
and Giroux, 2004), which the author will discuss and sign. The exhibition is
organized by Mary Lea Bandy, Chief Curator, Department of Film and Media.
Closer to a visual essay than a fiction film, Sauve qui peut (la
vie) is a poignant portrayal of a few days in the lives of three people:
Paul (Jacques Dutronc), a television producer; Denise (Nathalie Baye), his
co-worker and ex-girlfriend; and Isabelle (Isabelle Huppert), a prostitute
whom Paul has visited. Denise wants to break up with Paul and move to the
country; Isabelle wants to work for herself instead of her pimp; Paul just
wants to survive. Their stories intersect when Paul brings Denise to the
country cottage he is trying to rent and Isabelle shows up without knowing
that the landlord has been her client. In The Old Place, a film commissioned
by MoMA and coproduced by Bandy and MacCabe, directors Godard and frequent
collaborator Anne-Marie MiÈville examine the place of art in the world
outside of museums, galleries, and institutional settings.
Born in 1930, Godard studied ethnology at the Sorbonne, where he
first encountered fellow cinephiles Claude Chabrol, FranÁois Truffaut, Eric
Rohmer, and Jacques Rivette. All went on with Godard to write for Cahiers du
CinÈma before becoming filmmakers themselves. Godard emerged in the late
1950s as a leading light of the nouvelle vague-the French new wave-with his
debut feature ¿ Bout de Souffle (Breathless, 1959). Throughout much of the
following decade, Godard directed many landmark films of the nouvelle vague.
These subsequent films, such as Le Petit Soldat (The Little Soldier, 1961),
Vivre sa vie (It's My Life, 1962), Le MÈpris (Contempt, 1963), Bande ý part
(The Outsiders, 1964), Alphaville and Pierrot le Fou (both 1965),
Masculin-FÈminin (1966), and Week-end (1967), established him as a filmmaker
for a generation of increasingly politicized youth. Towards the end of the
1960s, Godard increasingly turned to more overtly political filmmaking and
aligned himself with Marxism. More recently, Godard has directed an
acclaimed eight-hour history of cinema and has shot commercial projects, for
which he has experimented with new camera technologies.
"Jean-Luc Godard's films and videos have revolutionized the language of the
moving image, and he remains today among the most influential of artists,"
says Ms. Bandy. "Drawing on his experiences working with Godard, Colin
MacCabe has written the first biography of the reclusive director, a
portrait of a man determined to make cinema the greatest of the arts."
Book details: Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at Seventy, published January
2004 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Hardcover, $25.00, 456 pages.
No. 10
Press Contact: Paul Power, (212) 708-9847, or [log in to unmask]
MoMA Film at The Gramercy Theatre, 127 East 23 Street, between Lexington and
Park Avenues, closer to Lexington.
PLEASE NOTE THAT MoMA GRAMERCY WILL CONCLUDE ITS FILM EXHIBITIONS ON APRIL
7.
Box Office: Monday and Thursday, 1:30-8:30 p.m.; Friday, 1:30-9:30 p.m.;
Saturday, 12:30-9:30 p.m.; Sunday, 12:30-7:30 p.m.; closed Tuesday and
Wednesday.
Admission: $6 seniors and students with valid I.D. Members, free.
Children under 16 (with adult) On Fridays, screenings after 4:00 p.m. are
pay-what-you-wish. For up to 30 days from the date on the ticket, a MoMA
Gramercy ticket stub may be applied toward one admission to MoMA QNS when a
visitor pays the balance of Museum admission-$6 for adults and $2.50 for
students (with current I.D.) and seniors (65 and over), and a MoMA QNS
ticket stub may be used for one day of films at the Gramercy. A
pay-what-you-wish Gramercy ticket stub may be used at MoMA QNS for up to
thirty days at no extra charge.
Ticketing: MoMA film tickets will be available only at The Gramercy
Theatre box office during box office hours. Film tickets will not be
distributed at MoMA QNS. A limited number of advance tickets for each film
will be available to all MoMA members one week in advance for a 50 cent
service charge. For information on ticket availability, call The Gramercy
Theatre box office during box office hours at (212) 777-4900.
Subway: ? 6 Local train to 23 St station; N or R train to 23 St station.
Walk east on 23 St for MoMA Gramercy.
Bus: ? M23 to Lexington Avenue; M1 to Park Avenue and 23 St.; M101,
M102, or M103 to Third Avenue and 23 St.
The public may call the box office at (212) 777-4900 for detailed program
information. Visit us on the Web at www.moma.org <http://www.moma.org>
Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at 70
SCREENING SCHEDULE
Friday, February 20
6:30 p.m. Sauve qui peut (la vie) (Every Man for Himself). 1980.
France. Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Screenplay by Anne-Marie MiÈville,
Jean-Claude CarriËre. With Isabelle Huppert, Nathalie Baye, Jacques Dutronc.
"The film is an extraordinary mix of
exhilaration and despair," writes MacCabe, "the exhilaration coming from the
beauty and force of the images, the despair from a society in which no one
is free, except the banks, and from a vision of male sexuality as inevitably
damaged and damaging." In French, English subtitles. 87 min.
8:30 p.m. The Old Place: Small Notes Regarding the Arts at Fall of
20th Century. 1998. France. Written and directed by Anne-Marie MiÈville,
Jean-Luc Godard.
On behalf of The Museum of Modern Art, Mary
Lea Bandy and Colin MacCabe commissioned a moving-image essay from MiÈville
and Godard of their reflections on the state of the arts at the end of the
twentieth century. In French, English subtitles. 50 min.
Both films introduced by Colin MacCabe
Paul Power, Senior Film and Media Publicist
MoMA Film at The Gramercy Theatre
Mailing Address: 11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019
Tel: 212-708-9847 Fax: 212-708-9691
[log in to unmask]
www.moma.org
MoMA Film at The Gramercy Theatre is located at 127 East 23 Street (at
Lexington Avenue), New York. Box office: (212) 777-4900
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