A REAL treat for Godard lovers

Ok -- this might not be around for long, but Filmbrain felt he simply had to share this with fellow JLG fans. One of Godard's greatest achievements is his multi-part Histoire(s) du cinéma. Originally made for French television, the eight-part series (more are rumored to come) began in 1989, with the most recent chapters arriving in 1998. Though English subtitles exist for the work, they have never been shown (to the best of Filmbrain's knowledge) on American television. (Hardly surprising!) Filmbrain considers himself fortunate to have seen most of the series at the Museum of Modern Art over the past twelve years. He's prayed often for a DVD release, but so far they have yet to materialize. (Well, they have been released on videotape in France, albeit without subtitles.) The closest we got was the ECM 5CD release that contained the complete audio from the series, along with four hardcover books containing all of the spoken text and images from the series. This in itself is a wonderful thing to own, as the work really does stand on its own as an audio artifact -- the music used runs the gamut from Meredith Monk to Keith Jarrett to Bernard Herrmann to Arvo Pärt. Filmbrain thinks it is still in print, and is really worth seeking out. Here is a wonderful review of the CD from Senses of Cinema. For those unfamiliar with the series, it is not a straightforward history of cinema but rather, as Adrian Martin explains in Senses of Cinema, "a fully-grown thesis about the intimate interrelationship of cinema and history." It contains images from many well-known films, though they are often superimposed over images of Godard at his typewriter, his editing machine, etc. You can view some screenshots here. It's endlessly brilliant, and is a must-see for all lovers of cinema. Now for the treat -- some wonderful soul has made the first part of the series, Part 1A: Toutes les Histoires, available (with subtitles!) for download. The quality is far from perfect, but at least it's a chance to have all fifty glorious minutes for your very own. A few requests: Don't stream it online. Rather, right-click and do a "Save Target As" (It's a 174 Meg .wmv file) The site is often down due to bandwidth limitations. If that happens, try again, preferably late at night Try and keep it on the q.t. Filmbrain doesn't wish to get anybody in trouble Take heed of Godard's advice: "I think the best way to look at these programs is to enter into the image without a single name or reference in your head. The less you know, the better." Enjoy. [UPDATE: Seems that part 1A is no longer available. However, the new link below will allow you to view part 2A.] Right-click the following link to save: Histoire(s) du cinéma Part 2A: Seul le cinéma

Comments

[Rashomon]

Hmmmm this link doesn't seem to be working. I tried to open it and then tried to save it but nothing seemed to work. Maybe it's my computer. Anybody else having luck with this link?

[Matt]

Not for me, either, Matt.

[Filmbrain]

The link has been updated. Try again, it should work now.

[Matt]

HTTP 403 (Forbidden)

'Tis a shame, to be sure.

[Filmbrain]

Blast! Filmbrain will look into it.

[Sean]

Just my shitty luck! I'm gone for a week, separated from my computer, and come back to barely miss the first part of Histoire(s) du Cinema, something I've only been wanting to see for a decade or so. I've downloaded the 2nd part, so I'll at least be able to see that. Will the rest of the parts be available? In any case, a fantastic fantastic find!!!

[Sean]

Addendum: Looking over that site's directory, there's a wealth of stuff, like Gainsbourg and Bardot's Bonnie and Clyde video, Godard's British Sounds. I would describe more but then mum's the word. I know what I'll be doing for the rest of the evening!!

[FIlmbrain]

Not everything's available, or so it seems.

Didn't want to reveal the contents of the whole directory for fear of it disappearing forever. Grab what you can now, I guess.

[Glenn]

Wow! Suddenly finding the - or one of the very few - 20th century (cinematic/more than cinematic) holy grail(s)... Yummm... And thank you.

I, too, missed out on "Part 1A: Toutes les Histoires".

I promise not to beg or whine ... but I feel it my selfish if cinematico-aesthetic duty to cajole, to serenade, to do anything I can to persuade whoever this cine-saint supplier may be to offer "1A" once more.

I will weed your back yard, sweep and sand and paint your porch, share crucial information on a fairly wide variety of recondite and pop subjects, cook and ship a cake vastly superior to your last 4 years of cakes, swap a 10 cent comic, compose a Rimbaud-beautiful prose poem and post it here, tote fudge sundaes to an anti-war soireé celebrating those innocent days of presidential sluttiness... - You name it!

Please (alright this sounds a lot like begging)please please repost "1A".

- Glenn

[FIlmbrain]

If Filmbrain had a porch or backyard he would take you up on your offer.

The promise of a Rimbaud-like poem sounds intriguing.

Filmbrain has the file locally, and if you can provide him with a place to upload it (too big to email), he would be more than happy to share.

[Glenn]

A bit of a novice at this,Filmbrain, but expert friend has set this up for me.

You can:

1) "anonymous FTP" to ftp.galiel.com
(standard of user name "anonymous", password your email address);

2) open the "incoming" directory (aka folder); and

3) upload the file to that directory, (ftp.galiel.com/incoming/).

If this is awkward and you wouldn't mind/easier for you to burn a CD let me know how best to make those arrangements at gdbarnes@comcast.net

Thanks.

Poem or cake available on notice...

[FIlmbrain]

Done.

Enjoy!

[Glenn]

Filmbrain,

I just received the following e-mail:

"Glenn,

The file did arrive, but it has been lost. When I was transferring
it to my web server, so that you could retrieve it right from a web page
(rather than having to figure out how to use FTP), the ftp server
crashed, and the file somehow disappeared into the ether. I am so
sorry, in all my years online this particular disaster never happened.
I'm sure it took this guy a long time to upload it, but if there is any
way you could ask him to do so again, I will take precautions so that
this doesn't happen again (I should have copied the file and then
deleted the old one, rather then move it).

Again, I apologize, and I hope your benefactor won't lose patience with
you and will agree to send it again. Blame your idiot friend!

- galiel"

Any chance of a generous reprise?

Thanks. Glenn

[Filmbrain]

Sure thing.

The transfer didn't even take that long actually.

Will do it tonight from home.

[Glenn]

Thank you ... again.

[Glenn]

All set. Thanks so much.

[Paul]

I put some Godard related material on my web site. This is computer at home, so it will be slow to download, since it's limited by the speed of my cable modem.

http://66.108.51.239/
http://66.108.51.239/Godard-videos

Paul