Jean-Luc Godard – Quote Investigator®

All You Need To Make a Movie Is a Girl and a Gun

Jean-Luc Godard? D. W. Griffith? Evelyn D. Miller? Frederick James Smith? George W. Sears? John Philip Sousa? Abel Gance? Fredric Wertham? Charlie Chaplin? John Boorman? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: A powerful and jaded film director once listed the two crucial ingredients to achieve success:

All you need for a movie is a girl and a gun.

This adage has been attributed to French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard and influential early filmmaker D. W. Griffith (David Wark Griffith). Would you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: In May 1922 the periodical “Shadowland” published an interview with D. W. Griffith conducted by Frederick James Smith. Griffith complained that audiences wanted unrealistic films with romanticized characters and broad humor. Boldface added to excepts by QI:^[1]1922 May, Shadowland: The Magazine of Magazines, The Public and the Photoplay by Frederick James Smith, Start Page 47, Quote Page 47, Brewster Publications, Jamaica, New York. (Verified with scans; … Continue reading

“I fear that we must go on sugar-coating life, idealizing our celluloid characters and falling back upon the absurdly palpable demand for crêpe-paper comedy, such as you find in ‘Way Down East’ and ‘Orphans of the Storm.’” And Mr. Griffith smiled.

We once heard an interesting tale of Mr. Griffith’s formula for screen success, a rather striking sidelight upon his view of what the public wants. “A gun and a girl,” ran his reported recipe for film popularity. And, when one comes to consider the matter, probably the director is right.

Thus, Smith credited Griffith with the remark about “a gun and a girl”, but Smith did not claim that Griffith spoke the phrase during the 1922 interview. Instead, the quotation was second-hand, and it was from Smith’s memory.

Jean Luc-Godard received credit for presenting this formula by 1992, but it was already in circulation. See details below.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading All You Need To Make a Movie Is a Girl and a Gun

References

References
↑1	1922 May, Shadowland: The Magazine of Magazines, The Public and the Photoplay by Frederick James Smith, Start Page 47, Quote Page 47, Brewster Publications, Jamaica, New York. (Verified with scans; Internet Archive at archive.org) link

Instead of Writing Criticism, I Make a Film

Jean-Luc Godard? Roger Ebert? Gene Siskel? Nancy O’Higgins? Apocryphal

Dear Quote Investigator: An influential film critic decided to become a filmmaker. Here are four versions of the explanation provided by the critic for this notable transformation:

(1) Instead of writing criticism, I make a film.

(2) The only way to criticize a movie is to make another movie.

(3) The best way to criticize a movie is to make another movie.

(4) If you mean to criticize a movie, make another movie.

These statements have all been attributed to French auteur Jean-Luc Godard. Did he deliver any of these remarks? Would you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: During the 1950s Jean-Luc Godard penned critiques of films. In 1960 he released his first feature-length film titled “À bout de souffle” (“Breathless”). The journal “Cahiers du Cinéma” (“Cinema Notebooks”) published an issue dedicated to “Nouvelle Vague” (“New Wave“) cinema in 1962 which included an interview with Godard. Here is an excerpt in French followed by an English rendition. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:^[1]1962 Décembre, Cahiers du Cinéma (Cinema Notebooks), Issue Theme: « Nouvelle Vague » (« New Wave »), Volume 23, Number 138, Jean-Luc Godard Interview, Start Page 20, Quote Page 21, Paris, … Continue reading

En tant que critique, je me considérais déjà comme cinéaste. Aujourd’hui je me considère toujours comme critique, et, en un sens, je le suis plus encore qu’avant. Au lieu de faire une critique, je fais un film, quitte à y introduire la dimension critique. Je me considère comme un essayiste, je fais des essais en forme de romans ou des romans en forme d’essais : simplement, je les filme au lieu de les écrire. Si le cinéma devait disparaître, je me ferais une raison : je passerais à la télévision, et si la télévision devait disparaître, je reviendrais au papier et au crayon.

As a critic, I already considered myself a filmmaker. Today I still consider myself a critic, and in a way I am even more so than before. Instead of writing criticism, I make a film, even if it means introducing the critical dimension into it. I consider myself an essayist, I do essays in the form of novels or novels in the form of essays: I simply film them instead of writing them. If the cinema were to disappear, I would accept the change and switch to television, and if television were to disappear, I would return to paper and pencil.

Thus, the first statement mentioned within the inquiry above was employed by Jean-Luc Godard in French in 1962. The other three statements have each been attributed to Godard by Chicago film critic Roger Ebert starting in the 1970s. See the detailed citations presented further below.

QI conjectures that Ebert’s versions of Godard’s remark were derived directly or indirectly from the 1962 interview. Yet, it remains possible that Godard made a remark in French that closely matched one of Ebert’s instances which QI has not yet discovered. Future researchers may clarify the situation.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading Instead of Writing Criticism, I Make a Film

References

References
↑1	1962 Décembre, Cahiers du Cinéma (Cinema Notebooks), Issue Theme: « Nouvelle Vague » (« New Wave »), Volume 23, Number 138, Jean-Luc Godard Interview, Start Page 20, Quote Page 21, Paris, France. (Verified with scans; accessed via the Internet Archive)

“Films Should Have a Beginning, a Middle, and an End” “Yes, But Not Necessarily in That Order”

Jean-Luc Godard? Aristotle? Peter Dickinson? George W. Feinstein? Eugenia Thornton? Chris Haws? David Mamet?

Dear Quote Investigator: An iconoclastic French film director once commented on the narrative structure of a story. The auteur believed that it was not necessary for a tale to be recounted using the conventional ordering for the beginning, the middle, and the end. Would you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: In 1966 English critic Kenneth Tynan attended the Cannes film festival for “The Observer” newspaper, and he described a discussion between cinema artists. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:^[1] 1966 May 22, The Observer, Section: Weekend Review, Films: Verdict on Cannes by Kenneth Tynan, Quote Page 24, Column 8, London, England. (Newspapers_com)

A public debate between writers and directors was held last week to discuss whether plot was essential to motion pictures. Godard was the main heretic, and Clouzot, Delbert Mann and Paddy Chayefsky were among those who cross-examined him. This confrontation produced the best remark of the Festival :—

Clouzot: But surely you agree, M. Godard, that films should have a beginning, a middle part and an end?

Godard: Yes, but not necessarily in that order.

Jean-Luc Godard is a well-known French director who was part of La Nouvelle Vague (The New Wave). His films include “À bout de souffle” (“Breathless”), “Alphaville”, and “Vivre sa vie” (“My Life to Live”). Godard’s remark was not completely novel. Similar comments about re-ordering narrative elements appeared earlier. Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading “Films Should Have a Beginning, a Middle, and an End” “Yes, But Not Necessarily in That Order”

References

References
↑1	1966 May 22, The Observer, Section: Weekend Review, Films: Verdict on Cannes by Kenneth Tynan, Quote Page 24, Column 8, London, England. (Newspapers_com)