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'.
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.
What if Alpha 60 yelled at you?
This is the best thing I've read here all week.
the title of this thread should go on the marquee.
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?
angry gorillas.
Quote from: cowboykurtisif 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.
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.
Quote from: cowboykurtisstalkers 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::
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.
Quote from: ewardhe wasn't hoping the encounter would lead to sex or anything.
That part is still up in the air if you ask me.
Quote from: cowboykurtisstalkers 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.
Quote from: cowboykurtisstalkers 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?
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...
You could have at least pretended you were from the press.
Quote from: GhostboyThis is the best thing I've read here all week.
Quote from: ewardthe title of this thread should go on the marquee.
yeah, great story snt. i'm glad PT isnt an old french dude.
Quote from: Jeremy BlackmanYou could have at least pretended you were from the press.
If he'd done that, he'd be dead right now. Godard despises the press.
interestingly enough i have a friend that did this same sort of thing with stan brackhage - he was driving out to cali and stopped in boulder to pay him a visit -- stan opened the door and said soemthing to the tune of "what the fuck do you want"... my friend probably had a stupid grin on his face remeniscent of a sedated animal - that was the last thing ole' stan needed, so the door slammed shut soon after -- the next day stan sadly passed away -- this concludes one to think that my friend was the last person to see stan brackhage alive -- and that is a true story -- i dissaproved of this as well -- he is a stalker as well as you -- and both of you are sick fucks -- but i still appreciate the dillagence.
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think it's awesome that:
a) You were in Europe
b) You met Godard, no matter the outcome, that's fucking awesome.
However, I also have the same sentiments as cowboykurtis. How open and friendly do you think he would've been towards you? Did you want his picture or an autograph?
I, personally, would find it rather frightening if I thought someone had flown half-way around the world and tracked me down in my quaint little village for whatever reason.
I'm not......"scolding" you or anything, because you must have some admirablely sized balls to do this, just noting how strange I found it.
And Crono did something like this, too? I should probably search for it, shouldn't I?
(Or does anyone want to save me the time and energy :-D )
Quote from: The Silver BulletQuote from: Jeremy BlackmanYou could have at least pretended you were from the press.
If he'd done that, he'd be dead right now. Godard despises the press.
At least we'd have the wholesome image of Jean-Luc Godard standing over SoNowThen with a big knife in his hands.
No I am kidding. You have many guts, my friend.
Overrated.
[quote="©brad]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.[/quote]
something tells me Godard would have made a film like this had a hero of his done it to him. well, maybe a short. i'm not sure how you could sustain 90 minutes unless the entire film is build up to this moment.
nah, wouldn't work.
Ah, well... I knew you guys would get a kick out of it.
No, to tell the truth I actually did want to sorta 'interview' him. No picture, no autograph, and no sex (he's not busty enough for me). I just figured if I had a long enough span of time there, and he had literally 15 - 30 minutes free at a lunch time or something, I could just talk about cinema with him -- namely how he manages a production company that allows him to continually make films that never ever seem to make any money. I just wanted some tips on how he runs a schedule and budget and things, because his advice would be more favorable to me than those Joe Hollywood books that are available. 'Tis all. I knew there was the possibility he'd be pissed with me just showing up. That's why I tried to write a letter beforehand. But when I got no reply, I figured fuck it, I gotta just get out there.
But yeah, JB, I see now that you are right. I figured I either should have pretended I was from some obscure movie mag writing an article OR that I was some American rich kid with money to invest in an art film. Then I could have quizzed him on all the stuff I wanted to know... maybe...
Maybe he coulda camped outside Godard's house "Fight Club" style. The old man can't deny him some time forever. Bring some water. Wait the old bastard out!
You should've said "What the hell was up with Weekend, man? I was TOTALLY lost!"
darn, i i wasn't aware of this thread.
sonowthen, i'm so proud of you,
you got to see how crappy sonimage is, eh?
i was wiser though, i stole his correspondence.
alright what the hell is your godard story dude?
Quote from: ewardalright what the hell is your godard story dude?
tsk tsk (http://www.xixax.com/viewtopic.php?p=127530#127530)
oh yeah, i remember that story now.
Quote from: cronopioyou got to see how crappy sonimage is, eh?
Both the brilliance and idiocy of Sonimage is the fact that it's basically a glorified hallway, with one side all books, and the other side all film equipment, and at any given moment I could have just came in and taken whatever I wanted...