Jean-Luc Godard has “really revolutionized something in cinema”estimated this Tuesday on franceinfo the director Romain Goupil, who assisted him on Save who can (life)released in 1980. The filmmaker, herald of the New Wave, died Tuesday, September 13 at the age of 91.
>> Filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, monument of the New Wave, died at the age of 91
“You have to imagine how the films were” before Jean-Luc Godard, recalled Romain Goupil. “They were films in sets, in costumes, what we called the ‘French quality’, extremely installed films.” “All of a sudden, continues Romain Goupil, he, through his virulence, through his brilliance, through his mad love of cinema, will offer things that we had never seen before. He’s really going to revolutionize something in cinema.”
For him, the work of the Franco-Swiss director does not stop at a handful of feature films like Breathless, Contempt or Pierrot le fou.
“The way he worked on his films, how he questioned the history of cinema, and he explains this in his ‘Histoire(s) du cinema’ [une série de films]is completely unique, absolutely unique.”
Romain Goupilat franceinfo
Romain Goupil remained marked by the filming of Save who can (life). “Assistant, in general, is to make available all your energy so that the director does what he wants to do. There, the idea emerged at the same time as we were discussing, so you had to do everything the opposite of assistant. Above all, do not plan. If you did, you were sure it was not going to happen”he said.
Thereby, “you had to remain incredibly flexible with the team, with the people who worked with him, with the people he knew, to try to achieve, even if it meant making mistakes together. I remember the projections on ‘Save who can (life)’ where he looked at the plan he had made and said ‘It’s shit'”. We tried to analyze, and said to him: ‘You are smart, try to do better’.” “Suddenly, we could re-propose a plan that he still criticized, and so on. We were moving forward together on something completely different from anything we know about the work habits of filmmakers.”he insisted.