Jean-Luc Godard, one of the most influential figures in the French New Wave cinema movement, experienced a dramatic political and artistic transformation in the late 1960s. During this time, he became associated with Maoist ideology, a radical shift that deeply impacted his films and public persona. Once celebrated for his innovative narrative style and romanticism in earlier works likeBreathless, Godard abandoned traditional cinema and began exploring revolutionary politics through experimental filmmaking. His embrace of Maoism was not superficial it shaped his approach to both theory and practice, leading to a highly controversial and intellectually charged chapter in his career.
From Filmmaker to Revolutionary
The Turning Point: May 1968 and Beyond
The student protests and workers’ strikes of May 1968 in France were a major turning point for Godard. The civil unrest, rooted in anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist sentiment, aligned with his growing disillusionment toward the commercial film industry. During this period, Godard grew increasingly politicized, gravitating toward radical Marxist ideologies, particularly those inspired by Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
Unlike many intellectuals of his time who flirted with leftist ideas while remaining within academic or artistic circles, Godard committed fully. He rejected his earlier fame and began working outside the traditional studio system. The events of May ’68 did not just inspire a few political references in his films they completely transformed his worldview.
The Dziga Vertov Group: A Maoist Collective
Creating Politically Driven Cinema
In 1969, Godard formed the Dziga Vertov Group alongside Jean-Pierre Gorin, a like-minded filmmaker and intellectual. Named after the Soviet filmmaker who pioneered documentary realism, this collective aimed to create what they called militant cinema. The group abandoned individual authorship, embraced collective creation, and openly embraced Maoist theory in both content and method.
The Dziga Vertov Group’s work was deliberately anti-commercial and dense with Marxist-Leninist and Maoist ideology. Their films were not made for entertainment but for ideological engagement, challenging the viewer to reflect on class struggle, capitalism, and imperialism. The group believed that cinema should serve revolutionary aims, not bourgeois pleasure.
Key Films from the Maoist Period
Several works from Godard’s Maoist period stand out for their radical form and political content:
- British Sounds(1969): A critique of capitalism and imperialism in the West, this film examines British workers and bourgeois values, blending Maoist slogans with provocative imagery.
- Pravda(1969): A politically charged travelogue examining Czechoslovakia after the Prague Spring, it critiques both Soviet bureaucracy and capitalist structures using Maoist discourse.
- Wind from the East(1970): A deconstruction of traditional cinema form, using Maoist and Marxist rhetoric to challenge narrative conventions and ideological assumptions in film.
These films abandoned linear storytelling and traditional cinematic aesthetics. Instead, they used didactic narration, stark juxtapositions, and non-professional actors. Dialogue was often delivered in a monotone, more like a political tract than a screenplay. For Godard, this was not poor filmmaking it was an act of rebellion against capitalist cinematic norms.
Maoist Influence on Film Language and Structure
Godard’s Maoist phase was not just political in content it deeply influenced how he viewed the role of form and structure in cinema. He believed that bourgeois cinema maintained ideological control through illusion and narrative satisfaction. In contrast, revolutionary cinema had to break those illusions. The audience was no longer to be entertained but educated or even agitated.
Inspired by Maoist emphasis on the masses and the rejection of elitism, Godard sought to remove artistic hierarchy. His use of long takes, abrupt edits, on-screen text, and voice-over reflected a Maoist desire to make the viewer aware of the mechanisms behind the film itself. It was cinema as critique, not as escape.
Criticism and Controversy
Public Reaction and Industry Pushback
Godard’s Maoist phase alienated many of his earlier admirers. Critics and audiences who loved his early films for their wit and innovation found his new works difficult, dogmatic, and inaccessible. The industry distanced itself from him, and his films from this era saw limited distribution.
Many leftist intellectuals also criticized Godard for his idealistic view of Maoist China, pointing out that he overlooked the harsh realities of the Cultural Revolution. His romanticization of Maoist ideology was viewed by some as naà ve or dangerously detached from the political violence and repression occurring in China at the time.
Godard’s Own Disillusionment
By the mid-1970s, Godard himself began to distance from strict Maoist positions. The Dziga Vertov Group dissolved, and he started exploring more personal and less dogmatic themes. However, traces of the Maoist influence remained in his later works, especially in his continued suspicion of mainstream cinema and his persistent questioning of power structures.
Legacy of the Maoist Period
Despite its controversies, Godard’s Maoist phase remains a significant chapter in film history. It challenged the boundaries of cinema as an art form and provoked intense debate about the relationship between politics and aesthetics. While many of the films from this period are rarely seen today, they remain important documents of a moment when artists believed cinema could genuinely contribute to revolutionary change.
Godard’s commitment to political filmmaking inspired generations of directors to use cinema as a tool for critique and activism. Even if one disagrees with his ideological stance, it’s impossible to ignore the impact of this radical shift on his artistic legacy.
A Revolutionary Experiment in Cinema
Jean-Luc Godard’s Maoist period was one of the most daring and unconventional phases in the history of cinema. Motivated by revolutionary zeal and disillusioned with the limitations of commercial filmmaking, he chose to reimagine what cinema could be. By adopting Maoist principles and applying them to both the form and content of his films, Godard redefined the filmmaker not as an entertainer, but as a political agent.
This period may not have yielded box office hits or popular acclaim, but it offered a profound meditation on the power of images, ideology, and the responsibility of artists in times of crisis. In studying Jean-Luc Godard’s Maoist years, we confront not only a filmmaker’s personal transformation but also the potential of cinema as a space for ideological confrontation and radical thought.