Jean-Luc Godard thought Steven Spielberg was “not capable” of making ‘Schindler’s List’
Often, the filmmakers held in the highest esteem are controversial figures. Whether their boundary-pushing innovations to the cinematic medium have left people feeling uncomfortable or they have criticised beloved Hollywood traditions, many directors have caused uproar in their attempts to progress the art form.
Jean-Luc Godard has often ruffled feathers, but he is equally celebrated as one of the most pioneering filmmakers of his generation. He began his career as a film critic, writing for Cahiers du cinema. Disillusioned with a lot of modern French cinema, he decided to do something about it.
Alongside other writers at the paper, like François Truffaut and Eric Rohmer, he began writing and making films, collaborating with each other to create a new style of cinema. The French New Wave subsequently transformed the way we approach cinema, with Godard experimenting with many techniques that have since become widely used by others.
Techniques like quick cuts, fourth wall breaks, choppy editing, on-location shooting, handheld cameras, mixing of mediums (like inserting title cards featuring phrases and poetry) and the use of bright colours define much of his work. As a result, everyone from Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson to Martin Scorsese and Claire Denis have cited him as a vital influence over their work.
Steven Spielberg has also called Godard an inspiration, but Godard doesn’t feel the same about the Hollywood director. The man behind blockbusters like Jaws and Jurassic Park has consistently made films that have grossed insane amounts of money, becoming some of the most popular and well-loved movies of all time. His work epitomises Hollywood – he basically invented the concept of the blockbuster with Jaws.
Godard was very critical of Spielberg’s acclaimed Schindler’s List, believing it to be a glossy, Hollywood-ized version of a great tragedy. The Holocaust drama did not impress Godard in the slightest, and he even criticised the fact that Spielberg used colour stock and then edited it to be black-and-white in post-production.
Talking to Film Comment, he made a sly remark, “Spielberg thinks black and white is more serious than colour.”
He even labelled the filmmaker “not very intelligent,” adding, “I saw a documentary, not a good one, but at least you get the real facts about Schindler. [Spielberg] used this man and this story and all the Jewish tragedy as if it were a big orchestra, to make a stereophonic sound from a simple story.”
Godard then compared Spielberg to William Wyler, stating that the latter had a better grasp of how to make a film about the war shortly after it ended. “Spielberg is not capable of doing Schindler’s List the way a regular director, not a genius but a director like William Wyler — who was able, just after the war, to make The Best Years of Our Lives, which today, when you see it, you’re amazed by the fact that in Hollywood some honest people and good craftsmen were able to reach someone.”
The French New Wave icon wasn’t the only filmmaker critical of Spielberg’s work. Michael Haneke, the Austrian director known for movies like Funny Games and The Piano Teacher, called the movie’s shower scene, where audiences are left waiting to discover if the characters are about to be rained with water or gas, “absolutely disgusting”.
