MovieChat Forums > 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle (1967) Discussion > A Commercial Film for France circa 1967?

A Commercial Film for France circa 1967?

posted 15 years ago by thereddishcolor
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I am not sure, but does anyone know how well this did in France? Was that nation open to the kind of ideas Godard presented?

It is highly unlikley that any sort of work with this much social commentary (besides a documentary made my Michael Moore) would ever perform at the box office, it seems sure that it would sink like a lead balloon.

Just wondering. I know Godard is considered an intellectual, but my question is how welcome his message was to his home country.

[–] siriustemplar 14 years ago

Godard was not considered terribly "mainstream" even in France. Remember that Hollywood films were marketed and sold to France (and the rest of the world) and were far more popular than their cultural counterparts. A fact that Godard both revels in (his love of Hitchcock and the American Western) and hates. He is a pop culture figure in France, but far more on the outsides with a clear audience- college educated, left-minded urbanites. Think of someone like Woody Allen in America. Not the best comparison, but it's all I got.

Commercially, he fares far less than his other Novelle Vague partners- Truffaut, Charbol, Resnais were all more commercially successful. By Godard's "video" 1970's period, most of the French mainstream had left him behind.