Jean-Luc Godard’s Unmade and Abandoned Projects

Michael Witt is Professor of Cinema at the University of Roehampton, UK. He is the author of Jean-Luc Godard, Cinema Historian (2013) and the co-editor of For Ever Godard (2004), The French Cinema Book (2nd edition, BFI/Bloomsbury, 2018), and Jean-Luc Godard: Documents (2006).

• List of PlatesAcknowledgementsIntroductionTowards a negative history of cinemaGodard on unmade, unfinished and abandoned filmsThe Godardian non-corpusAims and organisation of this bookChapter 1: LiteratureGodard’s earliest unmade literary adaptationsOdileOther unmade or abandoned adaptations of the late 1950sThe early 1960sFrom Éva to L’Écrivain (‘The writer’)Popular genre literatureClassicsFrom Guy de Maupassant and the Marquis de Sade to Masculin fémininUnmade adaptations of the 1970s and 1980sAnimal filmsThe 1990s and beyondRamuz again: Les Signes parmi nous (fable) (‘The signs among us (fable)’)ConclusionChapter 2: CinemaRemakesUn simple filmFilm criticism and the desire for a new type of film journalJean-Pierre Beauviala, the Paluche, and the dream of a new 35mm cameraCollaborations with Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope StudiosVoyons ce dont on parle (‘Let’s see what we’re talking about’)Films on cinema historyCollages de France, Collèges de France, J-L Godard légende 2006, Never Godard…Self-reflective projectsConclusionChapter 3: TheatreGodard’s theatrical projects of the 1960sAntoine Bourseiller and the theatrical adaptation of La Religieuse (Memoirs of a Nun)Pour Lucrèce and Une répétition de Pour Lucrèce (‘A rehearsal of Pour Lucrèce’)Theatre in La ChinoiseApproaches to King LearBérénice revisitedThe 1990s and 2000sConclusionChapter 4: TelevisionThe 1960sTelevised sportAdventures in television in Rouyn-Noranda‘Dreaming on paper’: Moi JeBirth (of the image) of a nationConclusionChapter 5: PoliticsFrom France la douce (‘Sweet France’) to Masculin féminin and La ChinoiseThe Vietnam WarThe USA, Cuba and Cub(us)aOne American MovieCommunications and Un film français (‘A French film’)Down with cinema!Jusqu’à la victoire (‘Until victory’)1970–1: Other projectsLa Jeune Taupe (‘The young mole’)ConclusionChapter 6: HistoryAdaptations of books by professional historiansThe Ninth SymphonyImagining France under Russian occupationWorld War II: The White Rose and the killing of Anton WebernA film about the Holocaust in the early 1960sJean-François Steiner and TreblinkaLe TunnelPas un dîner de gala (‘Not a gala dinner’)Le Silence de la terre (‘The silence of the earth’)Projects with Marcel OphulsA further proposed collaboration with Bernard-Henri LévyThe Kindly Ones and The Lost: A Search for Six of Six MillionConclusionGodard’s Unmade and Abandoned ProjectsGodard’s Principal Completed WorksNotesFilmographySelect BibliographyIndex

A dazzling array of Godardian might-have-beens from the most meticulous and thoughtful of Godard scholars.