Swiss Embassy to host tribute to film director Jean-Luc Godard

AMMAN — The Embassy of Switzerland in Jordan, in collaboration with the Embassy of France in Jordan, the Royal Film Commission - Jordan and the Institut français de Jordanie, is screening the film “Pierrot le fou” by Swiss-French director Jean-Luc Godard at the Rainbow theatre on Monday at 7pm in tribute to his cinematic work. 

"Pierrot le fou" is a 1965 French New Wave film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina. The film is based on the 1962 novel "Obsession" by Lionel White. The plot follows Ferdinand, an unhappily married man, as he escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by OAS hitmen (far-right French dissident paramilitary organisation during the Algerian War), according to a statement from the Swiss Embassy.

Godard’s creative freedom, characterised by iconoclasm, new approaches to editing, visual style and narrative and portrayal of social and political upheavals, guided the French New Wave. He helped revolutionise popular cinema in the 1960s, and spent the rest of his career pushing boundaries and reinventing cinematic form. His film "Pierrot le Fou" triggered a renaissance in Hollywood in the seventies in the form of movies like Bonnie and Clyde, the statement said. 

The icon of French New Wave, who had revolutionised filmmaking and influenced a generation of Hollywood directors, died peacefully at ninety-one on  September 13 of this year in Switzerland. Over a prolific career, Godard shot around 150 films and videos, and remained active up until his death.

The film is in French with English subtitles, and will be held free of charge and is open to the public, according to the statement.