Michel Hazanavicius — the director of predominantly French spy movie spoofs who came to global attention and recognition through the silent movie of a silent movie homage, The Artist — is returning with another film-oriented film. (He diverged with the poorly received 2015 war movie The Search.) His latest film is Redoubtable, a biopic about Jean-Luc Godard and Anne Wiazemsky starring The Dreamers‘ (and just about every other erotic French drama’s) Louis Garrel. A just-released teaser trailer displays the first (rather stylish) footage of Garrel in the role of Godard.
It’s a fun bit of casting, given that Garrel’s own father is Philippe Garrel, another French New Wave director for whom Godard was a huge influence. The teaser, which Hazanavicius shared on his Facebook page, depicts Godard (well, Garrel-Godard) speaking, intercut with a series of nicely-fonted adjectives describing the director. The actual film, according to Indiewire, is based on a 2015 autobiography by Anne Wiazemsky called Un An Après. In that book, the actress/director/writer detailed her marriage to Godard (when she was 20) following the filming of La Chinoise — the first of many, many films they’d make together — alongside events leading to the youth rebellions of May ’68 (which Godard’s own films of the time politically paralleled.)
The film also stars Stacy Martin (who plays Young Joe in Nymphomaniac) and Bérénice Bejo (star of The Artist and Asghar Farhadi’s The Past, who happens to be married to Hazanavicius.)
Unsurprisingly, Godard himself was not so into the idea of the biopic (nor can one really imagine him going wild for any biopic). As The Film Stage notes, his comment on this film remains:
Oh, to even hear about it do not want to! I do not like it. Although, in fact, do not care. Stupid idea, stupid.
Watch the (un-subtitled) clip: