Godard | 1960 | France

3rd watch; first in cinema.

And what a delight to see the recent 4K remaster on the Ritz’s biggest screen in the dark of the matinee. Godard’s manner of punctuating nods to his influences with idiosyncratic formal touches is what makes him inimitable. This is my favourite of his films that doesn’t feature Anna Karina. The vibes are immaculate.

When I was in Paris last year, I went out of my way to find the street, Rue Campagne-Première in Montparnasse, where the final scene was filmed. Surprisingly little had changed in 64 years, in particular the door of the apartment where Patricia (Seberg) and Michel (Belmondo) are hiding before the final shootout unfolds.

This is the only of the several film locations I visited in Paris that was formally marked as such. This sign had been erected to mark the significance of the street:

I was particularly touched that somebody had — unofficially, I imagine — traced a chalk outline in honour of Michel/Belmondo:

This is the first time I’d seen the movie since that visit, so it was very fun to meld those memories with a film I adore.