The first screening of La Chinoise by Jean-Luc Godard was at the 1967 Avignon Festival
Franco-Swiss filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard died in Switzerland at the age of 91. The world of cinema salutes the creator of the current of the New Wave. Jean-Luc Godard had been revealed by A Bout de Souffle in 1960. Jean-Luc Godard had made films until 2018. Emmanuel Macron pays tribute to a “iconoclastic master, the inventor of a resolutely modern, intensely free art. We are losing a national treasure, a look of genius”.
Film programmed in the Cour d’Honneur before being shot
Jean-Luc Godard had also upset the Avignon festival. In 1967, for the first time, a film was programmed in the Cour d’Honneur: Jean-Luc Godard projects La Chinoise.
When he was preparing for the 67 festival, Jean Vilar received a letter from director Antoine Bourseiller in October suggesting that he screen the future film by Jean-Luc Godard. Filming hasn’t even started, but the screening in Avignon would be a world premiere. Jean Vilar wants to open the door to creative cinema: he responds with the word Godard circled in red in the margin and punctuated by three exclamation points.
Evening of premieres with the Messe du Temps Present and La Chinoise
On August 3, 1967, the 10m by 15m canvas screen was hung in the main courtyard of the Palais des Papes. The request was launched as soon as the contract with Jean-Luc Godard was signed. It’s a premiere night since The Mass of the Present Time by Maurice Béjart is created in front of this canvas then at 11 p.m., the first images of La Chinoise. The main courtyard is full, but The Chinese is unwelcome, misunderstood: some see it as a leftist film, others a right-wing provocation. Jean-Luc Godard will try to is explained in the orchards of the Palace of the Popes.
The following summer, La Chinoise, c’est 1968, other filmmakers were invited to the Avignon festival. But Jean-Luc Godard is in solidarity with the revolutionary movement. He refuses to allow his screen to be used. He threatens to call bailiffs and a special device must be installed by the festival to protect the screen from the first images of La Chinoise.