I Meet Godard, I Piss Godard Off...

[SoNowThen]

Well, it had to happen eventually...


Excited by Cronopio's adventures last year, and aided by exact addresses in the Colin McCabe book, I was able to secure holidays to go down to Rolle, Switzerland, and try to have a conversation with Godard. I speak next to no French, but I've seen him in interviews (and in his own movie King Lear) speaking in English, so I figure it will be no problem.

Rolle is a small little town on the edge of Lake Geneva, and it took little time to find Rue du Nord, where his office is said to be located. After inquiring around, I was directed to a small green facade, but it led to nothing more than a few apartments (none of which had his name on them). Stopping off at the tourist center to get some other info, a quick phone-book recon showed his and his common-law wife's company Sonimage, in the building just one street up from where I had been looking. So I tooled over there, found the door open (like every place in Rolle), and walked in. Very clean, small, with lots of film equipment and books on the shelf. A woman comes out of a doorway, and I recognize Ann-Marie Mielville. Upon my asking if she speaks Enlgish (in my shitty French), she says 'very little', and scowls at me. I tell her I've come to meet Godard, but she says he's not there, and I'd have to come back another time.

So next day, I head down early afternoon, again knock on the door, no answer, again walk in, and keep calling out both 'hello' and 'bonjour' (figuring I'll cover all my bases). Then, from the back room, a little man in a suit comes out, cigar in hand, whisks his jacket from off the table, pushes me outside, and locks the door. It's JLG. I ask him if he speaks English -- a formality, out of politeness, I thought -- but he waves me off with a 'non'. I try to sputter out that I'd like to speak to him about cinema and his production methods, if he has the time. He turns away from me and speaks some rapid French, then finally 'no time, no time', and puts his head down and walks quickly away, not very happy.

I knew there'd be a chance he'd get choked, so I went back to my lodging to ponder over it. Maybe it was my barging in there, in English, uninvited, and he misunderstood that I would be there the whole next week, if only for a moment to chat with him. So I worked out a plan with the kindly old landlady who was renting me the room, and she agreed to phone Godard and tell him, in French, what I meant by it all. But he got her off the phone quickly by saying that he didn't have time to meet all the people who came to call on him, and that he wasn't fluent in English, and that was that. I was a little disappointed, but again, knew this would be a possibility. Oddly enough, the landlady took it harshly, stamping her foot afterwards and saying 'it's not fair!!'. She was nice.

Anyway, Rolle is a quaint little town with a nice shore, good food, and some scattered beautiful Swiss women. I can't wait 'til I have a movie in the same festival as JLG, and then I can go up to him and say 'remember me? I'm the guy who stalked you... sort of'.

[Alethia]

haha that's awesome.  i never would even have the balls to approach him at a festival, let alone seek him out.  he's too enigmatic, and seems to grumpy to me.

[SHAFTR]

What if Alpha 60 yelled at you?

[Ghostboy]

This is the best thing I've read here all week.

[Alethia]

the title of this thread should go on the marquee.

[cowboykurtis]

if this is actually true, you're no better than an obsessive stalker -- why would you even attempt this - did you think he'd sit down and be your friend? or did you just think it would be fun to bother him and waste his time with imature harrassments like a child at the zoo continously throwing food at the angry gorillas?

[pete]

angry gorillas.

[©brad]

if this is actually true, you're no better than an obsessive stalker -- why would you even attempt this - did you think he'd sit down and be your friend? or did you just think it would be fun to bother him and waste his time with imature harrassments like a child at the zoo continously throwing food at the angry gorillas?

oh lighten up.

[cowboykurtis]

stalkers should not be taken lightly -- i just htink its fucked up that one would treck across a country to track down a stranger and continually show up at his office and call him and  follow him -- pretty much stalker territory - but thats ok i guess, as long as hes not hanging around my neck of the woods.

[Ravi]

stalkers should not be taken lightly -- i just htink its fucked up that one would treck across a country to track down a stranger and continually show up at his office and call him and  follow him -- pretty much stalker territory - but thats ok i guess, as long as hes not hanging around my neck of the woods.

Who here hasn't done this to PTA?

::raises hand::

[Alethia]

i don't think it's very stalkeresque, he simply wanted to interview his hero.  he wasn't hoping the encounter would lead to sex or anything.  harmless.

[Just Withnail]

he wasn't hoping the encounter would lead to sex or anything.

That part is still up in the air if you ask me.

[©brad]

stalkers should not be taken lightly -- i just htink its fucked up that one would treck across a country to track down a stranger and continually show up at his office and call him and  follow him -- pretty much stalker territory - but thats ok i guess, as long as hes not hanging around my neck of the woods.

actually i think it has been and continues to be a great premise for a novel or a film.

go make a movie about this sonowthen. now.

[pete]

stalkers should not be taken lightly -- i just htink its fucked up that one would treck across a country to track down a stranger and continually show up at his office and call him and  follow him -- pretty much stalker territory - but thats ok i guess, as long as hes not hanging around my neck of the woods.

take life seriously now, won't ya?

[Gamblour.]

cowboykurtis, that's hilarious. I mean, I know where you're coming from, when I read this I thought how I would never do it because it would probably be annoying as fuck from Godard's point of view. I'll give sonowthen points for balls, but as for judgment, well...