Saint Laurent Produced a Godard Short Premiering at Cannes Film Festival
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Fashion house Saint Laurent has produced a short film exalting French movie maverick Jean-Luc Godard’s last work, and it will premiere at the 76th annual Cannes Film Festival later this month.
Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello describes it as the “trailer of a movie that will never exist.”
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“Unconventional in its form, the short art project describes the ideas, references and visuals he envisioned for a film that never came to be, giving the viewer rare insight into a genius’ mind and process,” according to Saint Laurent, which last month established a subsidiary devoted to the full-fledged production of movies.
As reported, Saint Laurent Productions will make its debut at Cannes with two short films among the official selection: The other is “Strange Way of Life” by Pedro Almodóvar, a Western with a twist and a focus on the male protagonists, new for the Spanish director.
The Kering-owned fashion house is billing itself as the first to set up a registered subsidiary to produce films, rather than merely funding them — or dressing its stars.
The Godard short promises to detail the creative process of the legendary French-= Swiss auteur, a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the ‘60s.
Known for such films as “Breathless,” “Band of Outsiders,” “Pierrot le Fou” and “Alphaville,” Godard died last September at age 91.
According to Saint Laurent, Godard “changed the course of filmmaking with his innovative camera work and experimental narrative style, rejecting traditional conventions in favor of a more personal and artistic cinematic idiom.”
“I greatly admired Jean-Luc Godard, one of cinema’s most influential masterminds,” Vaccarello commented in a brief statement shared with WWD.
Saint Laurent also has feature-length projects in the works with filmmakers David Cronenberg and Paolo Sorrentino, perhaps best known for “The Great Beauty,” which won the Oscar for best foreign-language film in 2013.
Saint Laurent-produced films are bound to bring additional visibility to the brand and its aesthetic, since Vaccarello is to conceive Saint Laurent clothing and accessories in concert with each director.
The Cannes Film Festival revealed the 20-minute Godard short on Friday as part of the Cannes Classics & Cinéma de la Plage selection.
Its “Memories of Jean-Luc Godard” program also includes an exclusive documentary about him and the screening of a 4K restoration of his 1963 film “Le Mépris,” or “Contempt.”
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