Continuing in its restoration of the work of Jacques Rozier (see my story for Airmail on his Bardot film), the @CinemathequeFr has just loaded a charming early Jacques Rozier short, Blue Jeans, made when he was just 30, which showcases this early member of the Nouvelle Vague's insouciant take on life, love, and the Cote d’Azur. It's available for free on their Henri (named after the founder, Henri Langlois) channel, with English titles along with many other jewels.
This time we find ourselves with two young, gorgeous, hotshot drageurs (the French word for pickup artists is just so much more efficient) who wear tucked in white shirts and blue jeans (no longer called blue, but then, only blue, appropriated from the farm) who don't consider a day's work done until they have found some lovelies to share the night with. Hunting for prey on their Vespas in and around Cannes, they happen upon two wasp-waisted, short shorted, high heeled wearing beauties who fit the bill and after some to and fro, hop aboard to trip the life fantastic. The beach is the scene of their making out, their dancing (the chacha!) and eventually their come-uppance. Actual work plays no role, being on the make, without money, turns out to be a full-time pursuit. All this to a Cuban soundtrack that lifts the spirits. Jean Luc Godard wrote, " A buoyant short, young and beautiful like the body of a 20 year old as Arthur Rimbaud has described it."
More Rozier at the Cinematheque
Continuing in its restoration of the work of Jacques Rozier (see my story for Air Mail on his Bardot film), the Cinematheque Française has just loaded a charming early Jacques Rozier short, Blue Jeans, made when he was just 30, which showcases this early member of the Nouvelle Vague's insouciant take on life, love, and the Cote d’Azur. It's available for free on their Henri (named after the founder, Henri Langlois) channel, with English titles along with many other jewels.
This time we find ourselves with two young, gorgeous, hotshot drageurs (the French word for pick up artists is just so much more efficient) who wear tucked in white shirts and blue jeans (no longer called blue, but then, only blue, appropriated from the farm) who don't consider a day's work done until they have found some lovelies to share the night with. Hunting for prey on their Vespas in and around Cannes, they happen upon two wasp-waisted, short shorted, high heeled wearing beauties who fit the bill and after some to and fro, hop aboard to trip the life fantastic. The beach is the scene of their making out, their dancing (the chacha!) and eventually their come-uppance. Actual work plays no role, being on the make, without money, turns out to be a full-time pursuit. All this to a Cuban soundtrack that lifts the spirits. Jean Luc Godard wrote, " A buoyant short, young and beautiful like the body of a 20 year old as Arthur Rimbaud has described it."
Paparazzi Fever: my story for Air Mail News
Jean-Luc Godard’s classic 1963 film Contempt— his most commercially successful feature— is best known for its leading lady, ‘sex kitten’ Brigitte Bardot, the main event in an all-star cast that included Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance, and the legendary director Fritz Lang. It also has the pedigree of its source material: a novel by Alberto Moravia; the sun, sand, and sea of the dazzling Isle of Capri; the modernist Casa Malaparte as its indelible final location; and Godard himself, the foremost exponent of the New Wave, here deconstructing a marriage, a myth, the act of selling out, and cinema itself. But the lavish production of Contempt also served as a springboard for a pair of illuminating short black-and-white films by Jacques Rozier, capturing the zeitgeist of that singular moment now available on Criterion Channel.
Godard and Rozier had become friendly in the late 1950’s (see them in the back row in this historic image above of the New Wave directors after the Cannes Film Festival of 1959) and Godard accepted Rozier’s proposal to film a behind-the-scenes record of Contempt. But once on set Rozier had another idea. Learn what happened in my story this week for Air Mail.