The fourth and final program in the series, CAMERO-STYLO, looks at the essay film-as-documentary. Raynal was the editor of this early masterpiece by Jean-Daniel Pollet, a filmmaker mostly unknown in the United States (barring last fall’s retrospective at Anthology Film Archives, organized by Raynal). Pollet’s non-fiction work is unlike any other film we’ve seen, its images, repetition, and construction still haunt us a year later (text by Philippe Sollers (1936-)). This film by Godard is an important transitional work, ending a series of collaborations with Jean-Pierre Gorin (1943-), and beginning a series of collaborations with Anne-Marie Mieville (1945-). It carries traces of both, Godard caught in the middle, making it all the more exciting and powerful. It was released at a time when Godard was, believe it or not, considered something like “box office poison” here in the US, and was thus unable to find either distribution or theatrical release. It was the beginning of the trilogy of Godard’s works distributed and premiered by Raynal, including Numéro deux (1975) and Comment ça va? (1976).
—Mediterranee – Jean-Daniel Pollet with Volker Schlondorff, 1963, 45 minutes
—Ici et Ailleurs (Here and There) – Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Anne-Marie Mieville, 1974/6, 55 minutes
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes | Digital Projection
Discussion with:
—Michael Chaiken – curator, archivist, critic; editor of Arthur Penn: Interviews and A Maysles Scrapbook
—Benj Gerdes – curator, filmmaker, professor
—Jackie Raynal
Co-sponsored by French Institute Alliance Française
Jackie Raynal
UnionDocs
(The Pollet film was released on DVD (2006) by POM Films in France.)