When the name Jean Luc Godard is uttered, this never goes without praise. He played an important part in the emerging of the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague) and therefore his name is among the list of directors that you need to have seen one or two films of if you want to count in film discourse. My first Godard was Le Mépris (3,5*) followed by Vivre sa vie (4*). Today I want to write about arguably his most important film, À bout de souffle.
As someone who constantly talks, dreams and thinks about movies it should come as no surprise that I’d be engaged in film discourse. From finding deeper philosophical meanings in absurd films to ranking movies based on year, director, genre. I’m into it all. I come across a lot of strange things in the world of film enthousiasts. From men having banners with Polanski’s face on them to men who will vilify you if you call movies or directors they love ‘immoral.’ It should then come as no surprise that these same men will attack you for opening the discourse on female film directors. And precisely this question is one I want to tackle. These seemingly liberal men ‘we should not pick our movies based on the sex of the director’ are precisely the problem which will haunt female directors for a lifetime to come. If we do not differentiate based on sex, we cannot address the inequality within the film industry. So yes, I will argue that prior to anything we should differentiate based on sex.
Lost In Arthouses 