Jean-Luc Godard and Woody Allen. Just by those two names you will know if this short interview-film, which has been seen by likely less than a hundred people since it was filmed almost twenty years ago, will be worth to see (and 80's era Godard and Woody no less). Basically, you get Godard's madman sensibilities as a filmmaker, playing around with the structure of a director interview, and you get Woody Allen's insights. Ironically, I think this was made for video, or at least shot on it (maybe it was shot on film, I'd have to look it up), and more than half of the interview is based around the idea (that Godard proposes and Allen agrees with when understanding) that television is a corrupter of the audience.
But along with questions, and even more interesting answers, about television, there are also questions and answers about the film-making process, and how Allen feels about it. While at times Godard tries to back up to TV again, one does get of course what Allen is like- immensely underrating his films once finished, and at times finding the film-making process to be more of a distraction from the other horrors of the world. Godard does (and sometimes doesn't) succeed in adding to these words of Allen's with spliced in images from his films, other filmmakers (Orson Welles), and New York city buildings, among other swell oddities.
Really, it isn't the most intriguing interview with Woody to date, but to see what his take on film-making, TV, Hannah and Her Sisters, and other things was like then in 86 is worth a peek. That it IS Godard at least brings some initial fascination, then some frustration, then, well, acceptance. This is a fairly courageous way of presenting what could be standard, pat-on-the-back interview fare (Godard does pay a compliment once or twice 'Hannah', though that's it, in his old-school Cashiers du Cinema ways). How Allen feels about his films won't be news to those who saw Richard Shickel's documentary on him.
But just to have this film in your possession- if you would feel as strong a compulsion to see it based on the two names of the directors (known in their countries as the most intellectual, stimulating, &/or pretentious filmmakers around)- is a temptation that somehow lured me in. However, if you do seek it out, know well that the copy of the video will more likely than not be watchable only up to a point. It's literally one of those (perhaps minor) works by a director that end up on lists of all-time rarities, for better or worse.
AMENDMENT: This interview is now available on certain sites online.
But along with questions, and even more interesting answers, about television, there are also questions and answers about the film-making process, and how Allen feels about it. While at times Godard tries to back up to TV again, one does get of course what Allen is like- immensely underrating his films once finished, and at times finding the film-making process to be more of a distraction from the other horrors of the world. Godard does (and sometimes doesn't) succeed in adding to these words of Allen's with spliced in images from his films, other filmmakers (Orson Welles), and New York city buildings, among other swell oddities.
Really, it isn't the most intriguing interview with Woody to date, but to see what his take on film-making, TV, Hannah and Her Sisters, and other things was like then in 86 is worth a peek. That it IS Godard at least brings some initial fascination, then some frustration, then, well, acceptance. This is a fairly courageous way of presenting what could be standard, pat-on-the-back interview fare (Godard does pay a compliment once or twice 'Hannah', though that's it, in his old-school Cashiers du Cinema ways). How Allen feels about his films won't be news to those who saw Richard Shickel's documentary on him.
But just to have this film in your possession- if you would feel as strong a compulsion to see it based on the two names of the directors (known in their countries as the most intellectual, stimulating, &/or pretentious filmmakers around)- is a temptation that somehow lured me in. However, if you do seek it out, know well that the copy of the video will more likely than not be watchable only up to a point. It's literally one of those (perhaps minor) works by a director that end up on lists of all-time rarities, for better or worse.
AMENDMENT: This interview is now available on certain sites online.