Two bicycles the work of Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville

215 Pages·2013·1.302 MB·English

by  Godard, Jean-Luc;Miéville, Anne-Marie;White, Jerry

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T W O B I C Y C L E S

The Work of Jean-Luc Godard
and Anne-Marie Miéville
JERRY WHITE
Wilfrid Laurier University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
for our publishing program We acknolwedge the financial support of the Government of Canada
through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
White, Jerry, 1971–, author
Two bicycles : the work of Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville / Jerry White.
(Film and media studies series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-55458-935-7 (pbk.).—ISBN 978-1-55458-936-4 (pdf).—ISBN 978-1-55458-937-1
(epub)
1. Godard, Jean Luc, 1930– —Criticism and interpretation. 2. Miéville, Anne-Marie—Criticism
and interpretation. I. Title. II. Series: Film and media studies series
PN1998.3.G63W45 2013 791.4302'330922 C2013-903427-7 C2013-903428-5
Cover design by Heng Wee Tan. Front-cover image from New Yorker Films/Photofest, © New
Yorker Films. Image from Jean-Luc Godard’s Sauve qui-peut (la vie) (1980). Text design by Janette
Thompson.
© 2013 Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
www.wlupress.wlu.ca
This book is printed on FSC recycled paper and is certified Ecologo. It is made from 100%
post-consumer fibre, processed chlorine free, and manufactured using biogas energy.
Printed in Canada
Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this
text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the
publisher’s attention will be corrected in future printings.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from the
Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit
http://www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
For Jim Bedford and Kate Sibley:
Toujours mon chef, toujours ma doyenne
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C O N T E N T S
Acknowledgements ix
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 Abandonments 37
Chapter 3 Communication 59
Chapter 4 Realization 95
Chapter 5 Reconsideration 137
Chapter 6 Conclusion 159
Appendix 1 Cinéma Pratique’s Interview with Jean-Luc Godard 165
Appendix 2 Interviews with Anne-Marie Miéville 173
Notes 183
Bibliography 189
Index 197
vii
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A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
Writing this book has been a very long road. I began it as a childless Albertan;
I finish it as a Nova Scotian father of two school-age boys. It began with the
support of James Naremore and Joan Catapano, and I have remained grateful
for that throughout this process. It was brought to fruition by Lisa Quinn,
WLU’s indomitable editor, and I am also grateful for the faith and confidence
she has always shown.
That process unfolded in the context of very supportive colleagues at sev-
eral institutions. At the University of Alberta, I am especially grateful to my
compadres in Film Studies: Bill Beard, Liz Czach, and Elena del Río. In Halifax,
I am in the perpetual debt of Sol Nagler and Darrell Varga (both of NSCAD
University) and Jen VanderBurgh (Saint Mary’s University), and I am proud of
the little cine-critical fleet that we are assembling together. At Dalhousie, I have
been supported by the Canada Research Chairs program, and I am very happy
to acknowledge their role in this.
A number of undergraduates have helped here, and I thank them. When
I was at the University of Alberta, I drew on the support of David Burke,
Olivier Creurer, Conor Morris, Celia Nicholls (now studying at the University
of Warwick), and Kate Rennebohm (now studying at Harvard University).
At Dalhousie University, I am grateful to Emily Macrae (a student at the
University of King’s College). All of them, it is worth noting, are also alumni
of the Telluride Film Festival’s Student Symposium.
Marcy Goldberg (Universität Zürich) was very supportive of this project
early on, and I always think of her as my most trusted “Swiss connection.” I am
certainly grateful to her for giving me permission to reprint her translation of
an interview with Anne-Marie Miéville. On that front, thanks also to Danièle
Hibon (Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume) and Janine Euvrard (24 Images’s
Paris correspondent) for permissions to reprint.
D. B. Jones (Drexel University) and Marsh Murphy (Metro Cinema
Society) were the first colleagues to read bits of this, and they gave me good
support and, just as important, skeptical criticism. I am also grateful for feed-
back and advice from Jonathan Rosenbaum.
ix