Eight years ago, the Film Library of Greece organized in collaboration with the French Institute and the Department of Communication and Mass Media of EKPA a great tribute to the great Jean-Luc Godard who “left” us at the age of 91. Many of the films were shown for the first time in Greece, from the first short “Operation Beton” that Godard directed at the age of 24, to the famous “Histoire (s) du cinema” completed in 1998 and lasting 266 minutes.
The tribute in question was also the biggest that was made in our country for the pioneer of the Nouvelle Vague who loved and praised Greece so much in his statements.
In 2011, at the beginning of the crisis, when the narrative of the “lazy Greek” found space in Western mouths, the director was responding to the magazine “Les Inrockuptibles”, on the occasion of the reference to the economic crisis of our country made in his film “Film Socialism”:
“We should thank Greece. The West owes a lot to Greece, the land of philosophy, democracy, ancient tragedy. We always forget the links between tragedy and democracy. Without Sophocles there would be no Pericles. Without Pericles there would be no Sophocles The world of technology we live in owes everything to Greece.
Who invented logic? Aristotle. A asserts B. A possesses a positive characteristic. So statement B is true. Since Aristotle said so, it will be so. Logic. It is what the dominant powers make sure every day that there is no reaction, so that we operate under the same logic.
The German-Jewish writer Hannah Arendt rightly said that reason encourages totalitarianism. Therefore the whole world owes money to Greece. This country could demand millions upon millions from everyone for the copyright of the ancients. And it would make perfect sense for them to be given to her. Right now. The Greeks are also accused of being liars. This reminds me of an old reasoning we learned in school: Epaminondas is a liar and since all Greeks are liars, then Epaminondas is a Greek. We haven’t progressed much since then.”
In the same year, in 2011, again, in his statements to the Guardian, he said, on the occasion of the release of the same film:
“Aristotle was the one who coined the big ‘therefore’. For example, ‘you don’t love me, therefore…’ We use this word millions of times to make the most important decisions. It’s time to start paying for this… If every time we use the word we pay ten euros, the crisis will end in a day”.
In his film in question (Film Socialisme), Godard, on the occasion of a cruise in the Mediterranean, with various stops from Naples and Greece to Egypt, once again found the opportunity to talk about our modern world and its political, economic and moral problems , in the logic that governs his entire career.
What is omitted from the film is that although one of the six stops on Godard’s cruise ship is Greece, the number of corresponding shots is proportionally small compared to the other five destinations. This is because, according to the production, when the French director approached the relevant Greek authorities in order to obtain the required permission to shoot in Epidaurus, they demanded to see the script first. Finally Godard himself came incognito to Piraeus, for some short filming.
In May 2010 he had also refused to attend the premiere of “Film Sosialisme” at the Cannes Film Festival, citing “problems with the Greek press” as he wrote in the laconic fax he had sent.
Of course, Godard had made similar statements in 2015, speaking to “SoFilm” magazine.
“Germans are bastards”, he would say, laughing, to add:
“We canceled all their debts, rebuilt their houses, and they are allowed to invade Greece as tourists.”
Answering about whether the Greeks “are right to ask for war reparations”, he characteristically said:
“Of course they’re right! And I suggest you watch the film ‘The Legacy of the Owl’ by Chris Marker in which we realize that we owe everything to Greek thought, which lasted for thousands of years. The film shows us how Greek thought still influenced and Japan. Spend an evening watching the movie “The Owl’s Legacy” and the problem between Germany, Europe and Greece will be settled for you. Europe and Germany must kneel before Greece and they say: ‘thank you’. That’s all. Every time you make a sentence and you say ‘therefore’, the Greeks should get ten dollars as author’s royalties, and so there would be no more Greek debt.”
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