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Professor James Williams on the life and work of Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022)

Professor James Williams reflects on Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022)

  • Date23 September 2022

On 13 September 2022 the French film director Jean-Luc Godard died. Professor James Williams is a leading expert on the work of Godard and has been in demand to reflect on his work and his legacy in the media.

Godard.jpg

A black and white photograph of Jean-Luc Godard.

Professor Williams is the author of Encounters with Godard: Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics (2016) and co-edited The Cinema Alone: essays on the work of Jean-Luc Godard 1985-2000 (Amsterdam UP, 2000), FOR EVER GODARD (Black Dog Press, 2004), and Jean-Luc Godard. Documents (2006) (catalogue of the Godard exhibition held in 2006 at the Centre Pompidou, Paris).

This month he wrote an obituary of Godard for The Guardian, and on Friday 23 September, at 4pm, he will appear on BBC Radio 4's 'Last Word' programme to discuss Godard's life. The show will be available on demand via BBC Sounds.

Jean-Luc Godard was the director of numerous seminal French films of the Nouvelle Vague, including À bout de souffle / Breathless (1960), Le Mépris / Contempt (1963) and Week-End (1967), and is one of the major names of postwar global cinema. His work is frequently studied by our students of French and Film Studies.

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