Rights sold to: China (Jilin Publishing Group)
Jean-Luc Godard, Dictionary of Passions aims to tackle the film-maker’s world in an original way: playful, intriguing and unusual. Jean-Luc Douin works through Godard’s life and work, the significant episodes in his biography, his familiar themes and the hidden connections that link them all together, over the course of 250 entries that include films (long or short), collaborators, literary and cinematographic influences, actors and actresses. But also his obsessions, political leanings, artistic beliefs and places and personalities. How Godard always stands apart, how he talks about love, sex, war and death. How he sees life in black, or in colour. How he dresses and how he undresses. What Mozart or the Rolling Stones mean to him, and why the recurring images of an angel, a gardener or American cars. Why he loves Germany and the Indians. Where he draws his quotes from. What he does with words, voices, accents and insults. Godard and tennis… or bicycling, Godard and censorship. Godard and heaven, Godard and factories, Godard’s handling of History, of television, of women. His towns, and bathrooms. Godard as a mosaic, his friendships, his black moods, his references. Godard in an easily consulted and readily deciphered kaleidoscope. A bible for Godardophiles. Everything you’ve ever wanted to know, without managing to know everything.
Jean-Luc Douin is a journalist for Le Monde. He is the author of books about film, and of an enquiry into the assassination of Gérarad Lebovici, Les jours obscurs de Gérard Lebovici (Stock, 2004). Stock published his first novel, Le premier sommeil in 2007. Jean-Luc Godard will be 80 in December.