Why Jane Fonda doesn’t like Jean Luc Godard
Fed up with French cinema that used rather traditional narrative and formal techniques, a group of cinephiles and budding filmmakers who wrote for the publication Cahiers du cinema came together to kickstart a new mode of cinema into action. Among these names were François Truffaut, Eric Rohmer and Jean-Luc Godard.
The latter made one of the French New Wave’s most iconic films, Breathless, which helped to pioneer techniques like jump-cut editing and on-location shooting. Championing experimentalism and playfulness while simultaneously exploring themes of betrayal, crime and, inevitably, death, the film was a huge success. It is rare to find a Godard film that doesn’t end with one of the main characters dying, but that doesn’t mean that his work, particularly during the ‘60s, wasn’t fun.
Movies like Pierrot Le Fou and Une femme est une femme were loaded with humour, signalling a new, fresh era for French cinema. Godard was also staunchly political, infusing all of his work with statements, no matter how small, about the cultural and political climate of the time. War, female oppression, capitalism and consumerism were often explored alongside bright colours, fourth wall breaks and unusual editing. In Masculin Feminin, a title card reads, ‘THE CHILDREN OF MARX AND COCA-COLA’.
As the ‘60s progressed, Godard’s politics became more and more prominent in his films, and he started to make movies with more overtly Marxist themes. In 1969, he and Jean-Pierre Gorin formed the Dziga Vertov Group, making several radical films together, including Wind From the East and Vladimir and Rosa.
Shortly after, Godard and Gorin also collaborated on Tout Va Bien, which starred Jane Fonda, a ‘60s icon known for starring in both acclaimed Hollywood productions and boundary-pushing French films. Drawing specific attention to its use of form, Tout Va Bien dissects capitalism with much of the film revolving around a factory strike.
While Fonda admired Godard’s filmmaking skills, she, like many others, found him a less admirable person. Speaking at Cannes Film Festival, Fonda once said, “He was a great filmmaker. I take my hat off. A great filmmaker. But as a man? I’m sorry. No, no.”
Godard angered many of his collaborators and friends, from Truffaut to Agnes Varda (which you can witness in her 2017 film Faces Places) and his ex-partner, Anna Karina. The filmmaker, who passed away in 2022, had quite the reputation as less than pleasant, and his Tout Va Bien follow-up, Letter to Jane, said it all.
Released as a postscript, the movie saw Godard and Gorin examine a photograph of Fonda in Vietnam that was widely publicised. The pair weren’t so kind to Fonda, and their commentary is essentially marred with sexism. During the same Cannes speech, Fonda referred to the film as “a big pile of bullshit,” adding, “It was narcissistic. He’s a good example, Godard: We always ask ourselves, ‘How much does who someone is in their private life affect their art?’”
