Also Has Some Stuff To Say About Blacks & Jews Too
Now that the honorary Oscars have been given out and Jean-Luc Godard doesn’t have to be Mister Public Relations nice guy about the whole thing (not that ever was or needed to be) the director has revealed what his next project might be, what he really thinks of his Oscar and yeah, he says some stuff about blacks and Jews that would make Mel Gibson blush.
First up, in an interview with the Zurich newspaper Die SonntagsZeitung (via The New Yorker), Godard reveals his next film will finally find him dipping his toes into the waters of talking animals. He describes the film thusly: “It’s about a man and his wife who no longer speak the same language. The dog they take on walks then intervenes and speaks. How I’ll do it, I don’t yet know. The rest is simple.” He goes on to say that he is interested in 3D because he likes “when new techniques are introduced. Because it doesn’t have any rules yet.” He might cast his own dog and if he had it his way, he would get Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner to star in the film (but not, as the interviewer suggested, Scarlett Johansson).
As for that pesky honorary Oscar, Godard sticks his middle finger up at the Academy telling NZZ (via Vulture) what his true thoughts are on the award. “Nothing. If the Academy likes to do it, let them do it. But I think it’s strange. I asked myself: Which of my films have they seen? Do they actually know my films? The award is called The Governor’s Award. Does this mean that Schwarzenegger gives me the award?” As for why he didn’t go? “I don’t have a visa for the US and I don’t want to apply for one. And I don’t want to fly for that long.”
Ok then. Fine. Cranky Mr. New Wave doesn’t want to go Hollywood. But the interviewer then gets him going on anti-Semitism and everything kind of goes downhill there.
First, Godard claims that the very notion of the word “anti-Semite” is ridiculous saying, “That’s nonsense! What does ‘anti-Semite’ mean? All peoples of the Mediterranean were Semites. So anti-Semite means anti-Mediterranean. The expression was only applied to Jews after the Holocaust and WWII. It is inexact and means nothing.”
He continues adding that he was sort of an idiot between the ages of 15 and 25 and regrets not standing up for the Jews during the Holocaust, but then says, “Today, in my own thoughts, I would like to have a critical look at them. I am generally interested in the ‘other’. It’s the same thing with blacks. First, they were colonised, and later everyone acted as if they were just as we are. Of course, a black person can wear glasses and a watch, but this doesn’t make us the same.” Oooh, boy.
He saves his final bit of ammunition once again for the Jews saying that they are, “For commerce. The big studios were founded by Jews from central Europe, especially from Germany. Why did they go to Hollywood? Because they could get access to the American financial sector. The Jews were neither authorized to be bankers or doctors, nor lawyers or professors. That’s why they concentrated on something new: cinema. The Jews also came to an arrangement with the mafia quite quickly. But if you say this, immediately you are accused of being an anti-Semite, even though this is not true. People don’t see the images — one should have a closer look at the people who founded Las Vegas.”
That’s it folks! Good night! Godard will be here all week.