"In this time of increasingly personal cinema, the films of Jean-Luc Godard make those of most of his contemporaries look about as original and individual as monogrammed Volkswagens." - The New York Times

While alone in an abandoned television studio, two militants, Emile Rousseau (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and Patricia Lumumba (Juliet Berto), have a discourse on language. Referring to spoken word as "the enemy" – the weapon used by the establishment to confuse liberation movements – the two deconstruct the meanings of sounds and images in an attempt to ‘return to zero’ and truly experience the joy of learning.

Jean-Luc Godard and Luis Buñuel enjoyed an ardent misanthropic duel in the '60s and '70s, but who won is anyone's call. Godard's Weekend lays down the trump in a harrowing and darkly funny allegory in which social mores fray along political lines. Played out in a metafilm in which characters question their own reality, a morally bankrupt Parisian couple tries to leave the city on a much-loathed country holiday with the wife's parents. Along the way, endless traffic jams, sudden violence, and vistas of gory car crashes underscore their corrupted values. Their lethal encounter with the in-laws and kidnap by an anarchic band of radical cannibals finds the couple--and presumably "decent" society with them--reverting to a nasty primitivism. The idea is of course that the bored, apathetic heart of the bourgeoisie is never far from acting out its most homicidal fantasies. --Alan E. Rapp

From Jean-Luc Godard, possibly the most influential European film director of all time comes IN PRAISE OF LOVE, a mesmerizing and lyrical meditation on love, and the role history and memory play in shaping human consciousness, past and present.

Structured in two parts, the film opens in Paris, where the young artist Edgar is developing a project on the four stages of a love affair- meeting, sexual passion, separation. and rediscovery. During the casting process, Edgar discovers a beautiful young woman who he is convinced he has met before. In the second part, set two years earlier, Edgar interviews an elderly couple- former Resistance fighters during the war- only to find that their memories are being bought up for a Steven Spielberg blockbuster. Linking the two parts is Edgar's relationship with the enigmatic woman he met and re-encounters.

IN PRAISE OF LOVE is a combative but tender work that stubbornly asserts the importance of love, art and memory. A film of great intellectual freedom, elusive meanings and overwhelming visual beauty, Godard has never seemed more young, fresh and original.

Denounced by the Pope and banned and boycotted worldwide, this surprisingly serene and lyrical work translates the Virgin Birth into tangible contemporary terms, with Mary as a teenage basketball-playing gas-station attendant who receives the Annunciation by jetliner. Mary is a beautiful yet ordinary teenager who vows to maintain her chastity. Following a warning from an angel, a confused and innocent Mary unexpectedly falls pregnant and is forced to wed her taxi-driving boyfriend Joseph. He, in turn, must love his virgin bride from a distance, revering her without touching her. Forced to face a shocking reality, Mary and Joseph along with their family and friends must struggle to cope as the provocative theme unfolds. HAIL MARY is a sensational and bold work from French master director Jean-Luc Godard which touched off an uproar of protest heard around the world.

In 1972, newly radicalized Hollywood star Jane Fonda joined forces with cinematic innovator Jean-Luc Godard and collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin in an unholy revolutionary artistic alliance. Tout va bien tells the story of a wildcat strike at a sausage factory, as witnessed by an American reporter (Fonda) and her has-been New Wave film director husband (Yves Montand), culminating in a free-ranging assault on consumer capitalism and ineffective leftists. The Criterion Collection is proud to present this masterpiece of radical cinema, a caustic critique of society, marriage, and revolution in post-1968 France.

Ten great directors, one unforgettable film. Imagine that ten of the world's most well-known, highly regarded filmmakers were given a free hand to make real any vision. "Aria" is that history-making film. Sexy, violent, thought-provoking and funny, here is the movie critics raved about, audiences flocked to see, and no one could stop talking about. Includes Bridget Fonda's electrifyingly erotic film debut and a revealing, breathtaking performance by supermodel Elizabeth Hurley. Segments directed by Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, Bill Bryden, Jean-Luc Godard, Derek Jarman, Franc Roddam, Nicolas Roeg, Ken Russell, Charles Sturridge, Julien Temple.

Jean-Luc Godard has been called the most self-conscious, the most realistic, and the most modern of filmmakers. To his appreciators this means he owns up to the fact that a movie is a movie, that at any moment in one of his films you know you're watching a film by Jean-Luc Godard. His films are self-aware in a way that films never were before him. Pierrot le Fou achieves a rare spontaneity and naturalness, largely due to the presence of Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina, but also because of Godard's willingness to let go of any pretense to an illusionary or mimetic style, so-called "realism." What story there is has Pierrot (Belmondo) escaping from his boring life along with Marianne Renoir (Karina), who is chased by gangsters. But this is just an excuse to film a kind of essay to lost love, a poem to Karina that is delightful. If "Pierrot goes wild," then so does Godard, with Belmondo standing in for him in his pursuit of and journey with Karina. Godard is not for everyone, admittedly, but for those with the wherewithal to enjoy his films, they are receiving new life on DVD. Whatever coterie taste survives today has been distributed in multiple across the Internet and via the agency of video rental bins, perhaps all the more potent for that reach. Let's hope so. --Jim Gay

Ten of the world's greatest directors produce one unforgettable film in this sumptuous visual and musical feast based on the most famous arias in the history of opera. Erotic, violent, thought-provoking, funny, and moving, this critically-hailed milestone features the electrifyingly erotic film debut of Briget Fonda, a revealing appearance by supermodel Elizabeth Hurley (Austin Powers), and unforgettable performances from John Hurt (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), Tilda Swinton (The Deep End), Beverly D'Angelo (Vacation), Theresa Russell (Wild Things), and many more! Segments directed by Robert Altman (Gosford Park), Bruce Beresford (Double Jeopardy), Bill Bryden, Jean-Luc Godard (Contempt), Derek Jarman (Edward II), Franc Roddam (Quadrophenia), Nicolas Roeg (Performance), Ken Russell (Tommy), Charles Sturridge (Longitude), Julien Temple (The Filth and the Fury).

A woman is raped outside a tenement while her neighbors tune out the screams with their TVs… an avant-garde theatre troupe enacts the Death of God and the annihilation of the human race… a smiling Italian youth cavorts on a Rome thoroughfare while bombs explode around the world… two couples discuss war and revolution in an idyllic rooftop garden… a professor leads his students in a mock debate about Vietnam that threatens to escalate into genuine bloodshed…

Like the visions of a fickle television viewer switching channels from escapist violence to newscast genocide to political debate, LOVE AND ANGER brings together the talents of world class filmmakers Academy Award® winner Bernardo Bertolucci (THE LAST EMPEROR), Marco Bellocchio (DEVIL IN THE FLESH), Pier Paolo Pasolini (SALO`), Carlo Lizzani (THE LAST DAYS OF MUSSOSLINI) and French Nouvelle Vague pioneer Jean-Luc Godard (BAND OF OUTSIDERS) to tell five thematically linked stories of love, anger and indifference at the end of the 20th Century.

Nominated for the Golden Bear Award at the 1969 Berlin Film Festival, LOVE AND ANGER is a portmanteau film in the tradition of DEAD OF NIGHT and NEW YORK STORIES and features a one-time-only assortment of performers including Nino Castelnuovo (ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS), Andy Warhol Factory member Tom Baker (BLOW JOB) and The Living Theatre founders Julian Beck (POLTERGEIST II) and Judith Malina (THE ADDAMS FAMILY).

An obscure title in the resumes of all involved, LOVE AND ANGER is a time capsule of hopes and fears during the turbulent Vietnam era. NoShame Films is proud to present the film’s DVD premiere in an uncut, deluxe 2-disc that includes 80 minutes of recent interviews with Marco Bellocchio and Carlo Lizzani, as well as assistant director Maurizio Ponzi and editor Roberto Perpignani.

One of the landmark early films of the French New Wave, director Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless) weaves a tale of desperation and deceit. Anna Karina (Vivre Sa Vie) plays a stripper determined to have a child in the hopes that it will better her life. She tries in vain to convince her rough, selfish boyfriend (Jean-Paul Belmondo) to father the child, but he refuses. In desperation and sparked by anger she turns to his best friend to father the child, setting off a new round of recrimination and betrayal. Une Femme Est une Femme is one of Godard's first films and essential viewing for fans of the Nouvelle Vague, to chart the beginnings of the detached mood and style that influenced a coming generation of films. --Robert Lane