GALLIC FLAIR
REDOUBTABLE I Michel Hazanavicius’ portrait of Jean-Luc Godard will leave you breathless…
Michel Hazanavicius ponders Teasers’ poser: just how good is Jean-Luc Godard? “I wouldn’t say he’s one of our best directors. He’s one of the most free. But I do not consider him as one of the best. One of the most important, for sure.” Sacré bleu, as the French might say. Still, Hazanavicius’ lack of reverence meant that he was an ideal candidate to make Redoubtable, a playful look at Godard when he was considered one of Europe’s most influential auteurs.
The story is adapted from the 2015 book Un An Après by Anne Wiazemsky – Godard’s go-to actress (and wife) in the late ’60s. “I discovered the book by chance,” says Hazanavicius (The Artist). When he approached Wiazemsky for the rights, she initially declined. “Just before I hung up, I said, ‘It’s too bad, it would’ve been a really funny movie.’” It was enough to pique her interest, as she’d always believed the story deserved to be treated with a smile.
Casting the film, Hazanavicius chose Louis Garrel to play Godard and the English French Nymphomaniac star Stacy Martin as Wiazemsky, seen just at the point she stars in the director’s La Chinoise, his 1967 tale of Maoist students who look to incite revolution through terrorism. With the May ’68 demos in France just around the corner, it was a time when artists were at the centre of
the cultural and political conversation. “Nowadays, I don’t think we’re as important,” shrugs Hazanavicius. “There are so many movies… nobody really cares about a director or an idea.”
As amusingly comic as Redoubtable is, it does have an underlying sadness, as Godard’s desire to reinvent himself causes a fissure in his relationship with Wiazemsky (they separated soon after, though didn’t divorce until 1979). “He wants to change and in doing this he kills everything that was behind him,” says the director. “At the end, he destroys himself. So she can do nothing, but looking at him [like this]… she can’t love him. I think this love story touched me. It’s a universal parable of why people split.”
ETA | 11 MAY / REDOUBTABLE OPENS NEXT MONTH.