"For Ever Godard"

The Brattle Theatre is getting ready for the arrival of Jean-Luc Godard's latest, For Ever Mozart (it opens at the Coolidge Corner October 31), with a Thursday series that surveys some of JLG's greatest work. The '60s classics include Breathless and Vivre sa vie (My Life To Live) (September 18), Alphaville and Bande à part (September 25), Masculin-féminin (October 2), Pierrot le fou and Une femme est une femme (October 9), and Weekend (October 16). Rounding out the bill are JLG by JLG, from 1994 (October 16); Sauve qui peut (Every Man for Himself), from 1980 (October 23); and the still controversial 1985 effort Hail Mary (October 30).

If you caught Godard's Contempt during its recent run at the Brattle and the Coolidge Corner, you know that the French avant-garde writer/director's films aren't difficult so much as demanding. Godard doesn't even demand that much: he simply wants you to pay attention. Few Hollywood movies are more than illustrated novels (and we're talking Robert James Waller, not Jane Austen). If you shut your eyes and just listen, you'll get the whole story. Or if the sound gives out, you can still follow the plot (think of those in-flight airline movies you've watched without the headphones).

Godard wants you to be more than a mindless consumer of Hollywood fantasies. That's why, instead of dictating to you, the way other directors do, he asks questions. He wants you to ask questions; he also (being as vain as any artist) wants you to see his films many times, the way you'd re-read Pride and Prejudice or listen to Blonde on Blonde over and over. You could think of him as the first interactive film director -- in that sense his work is just now finding its audience. If you like to argue about art, or politics, or love, or the nature of existence, this is the series for you. "For Ever Godard" plays Thursdays at the Brattle Theatre from September 18 through October 30. See this week's "Film Strips" for our capsule reviews of Breathless and Vivre sa vie (My Life To Live).

-- Jeffrey Gantz