The Jean-Luc Godard Collection : Volume 1, UK DVD (2007) Michel Delahaye

Quartet of films from the enfant terrible of modern French cinema, Jean Luc Godard. 'A Bout De Souffle' (1959) was a revelation on its release and remains a film that has had a lasting effect on cinematic direction over the years. The story of a young Jean Paul Belmondo on the run in Paris, it heralded a new fascination with stylish cool. 'Alphaville' (1965) is the story of a private eye transported to a planet where logic rules over human emotion and explores the confrontation between individual freedoms and the state. Written and directed by Godard, it won the Golden Bear award at Berlin in 1965. 'Made in the USA' (1966) was Godard's homage to the noir thrillers of the past, and saw Anna Karina track down the killer of her lover. As ever, Godard brings his unique style to bear with a new wave take on an old story. 'Passion' (1982), set closer to home, explores the tangled relationships that exist between art, life and love. While attempting to make a film at a hotel, Polish film director Jerzy becomes involved with both the owner and a local factory worker. Having no script to speak of, Jerzy must quickly decide upon a solution, as the boundaries between reality and art blur.

Cinema’s original enfant terrible, one of the leaders of the French New Wave, a key influence on the American cinema of the 1970s and one of the few true auteurs still making movies: Jean-Luc Godard is all of these and more. A maverick force from the beginning, when his debut film A Bout de Souffle (1959) tore up the cinematic rulebook, Godard has continued to inspire and challenge moviegoers throughout a career that spans more than four decades.

Born in Paris in 1930, Godard came from a bourgeois Franco-Swiss family, where he attended school until his parents divorced in 1948 and he moved to Paris. A contemporary of Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette, Godard first became involved in cinema through literary criticism, writing several articles under the pseudonym Hans Lucas. After supplying funding to films by Rivette and Rohmer, with whom he had also founded a ‘Gazette du Cinema’ for their writing, Godard’s family withdrew their financial support, and he took to living a Bohemian lifestyle, often stealing food and money when necessary. After becoming a scriptwriter and having made several short films, Godard made his memorable directorial debut in 1959 with A Bout de Souffle, cementing his reputation (earned from his articles and screenplays) as being at the forefront of La Nouvelle Vague.

The most influential of French directors, Godard was a key figure of New Wave cinema. From his 1959 debut feature A Bout De Souffle, “the film which epitomised the iconoclasm of the early Nouvelle Vague” (Time Out) Godard has remained controversial and intriguing throughout his lengthy film career. This collection also contains Passion, Alphaville and Made in the USA, as well as a comprehensive bonus disc of special features. All the extras in this set are new to UK DVD.