Godard/Rohmer

I'm not sure if these two film makers really have that much in common, though I found in the relatively few movies I've seen by them, there was a lot of philosophizing and both were very much aimed at intellectuals, even moreso than other French directors like Demy or Truffaut.  I know for certain that Godard moved even further into this space, mostly working on documentaries of the cinema and away from pure entertainment.  I'm less sure that's the case for Rohmer.  It might be that My Night at Maud's was actually the high-point of his intellectualism.  I am fairly certain, however, that Rohmer ultimately believed entertaining the audience (unlike Godard who frankly had contempt for the audience and his fellow directors by the end).

Anyway, I have an awful lot of these films, and I should just try to track which I have actually watched.

I bought the ultimate Godard box set years and years ago.  So long ago I can't find the invoice, but I recall it was a pretty good deal at that time.

I keep forgetting that it does have A Bout de Souffle (Breathless) (1960) in it.  I actually just requested a copy of Breathless from the library, but this is the Criterion with better special features, so I'll watch that version when it arrives.

The rest of the set is comprised of:
Une Femme Est Une Femme (1961)
Le Petit Soldat (1963)
Le Mepris (1963)
X Alphaville (1965)
Pierrot Le Fou (1965)
Made In USA (1966)
La Chinoise (1967)
Passion (1982)
Detective (1985)
Helas Pour Moi (Oh Woe is Me) (1993)
Eloge De L’amour (In Praise of Love) (2001)
Notre Musique (2004)

I then picked up separately:
X Vivre Sa Vie (1962)
Une Femme Mariée (1964)
Band à Part (Band of Outsiders) (1964)
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967)
Tout Va Bien (1972)
Slow Motion/Every Man for Himself (Sauve qui peut (la vie)) (1980)

So this is fairly comprehensive coverage of his oeuvre, though I don't have Weekend (1967) (which I watched recently and didn't care much for) nor Masculin Féminin (1966), which I have just requested from the library.  I think I decided not to buy these, as they are pretty easy to grab from the library.  Depending on how I feel after getting through all of these, I might add Prenom: Carmen (1983) and Hail Mary (1985).  How's It Going (Comment ça va) (1976) sounds pretty dire honestly, as does Keep Your Right Up (Soigne ta droite) (1987).  I'm pretty sure my enjoyment of Godard films will drop off radically by his mid 1970s work, but I guess I'll find out.

As far as Rohmer goes, I mostly picked up a number of box sets:

Six Moral Tales (Criterion):
The Bakery Girl of Monceau (1963)
Suzanne's Career (1963)
La Collectionneuse (The Female Collector) (1967)
X My Night at Maud's  (1969)
Claire's Knee (1970)
Love in the Afternoon (1972)

This first set I actually found used in Chicago, but the rest were ordered, mostly through Amazon.co.uk.

The Essential Eric Rohmer (either very early or very late films):
The Sign of Leo (1962)
Rendez-vous in Paris (1995)
Triple Agent (2004)
The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (2007)

Eric Rohmer Collection (Arrow), which contains his Comedies and Proverbs and two "bonus" films:
Love in the Afternoon (1972) (duplicate)
The Marquise of O (1976)
The Aviator's Wife (1981)
A Good Marriage (1982)
Pauline at the Beach (1983) 
Full Moon in Paris (1984) 
The Green Ray (1986) 
My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (1987) 

Eric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons (Criterion Blu-ray):
A Tale of Springtime (1990)
A Tale of Winter (1992)
A Tale of Summer (1996)
A Tale of Autumn (1998)

Between all these sets, I really have all but maybe 3 or 4 mid-career movies, so I just need to work my way through this.

I have no idea how long it would take to watch the Godard and Rohmer listed above.  Only a couple of months if I was diligent and didn't do anything else, but that isn't likely to happen.  I think the next post like this, I will focus on Fellini (relatively straight-forward, though I don't own that much) and Bergman, which is completely tangled, though I think I do have almost all his work one way or another.  Watching this sounds like a project for 2027, however! 

And despite my best intentions, as I was researching this, I was also researching Claude Chabrol (sometimes called the Hitchcock of French cinema).  I own a decent box set of his films from the late 1960s and early 70s, though I haven't watched any of them!  I then came across a good-looking box set of his later films, only to find out it doesn't have any English subtitles!  Fortunately, I hadn't pulled the trigger.  Of his later films, the ones that were of the most interest to me were L'Enfer (Torment) and La Fleur du Mal.  I found a reasonable stand-alone of L'Enfer (where my plan is to watch it and then donate it to Robarts) and La Fleur du Mal.  I almost bought the second one, but found that TPL actually has a couple of copies, so I reserved one.  (I had done a search previously, but somehow it slipped through and fortunately I hadn't pulled the trigger on it, as I was trying to figure out a way to get free shipping!  So I guess my avarice saved me...)