Jean-Luc Godard: Histoire(s) du cinéma

by Jean Luc Godard

Overview

Histoire(s) du Cinéma is the complete soundtrack of legendary French art filmmaker/director Jean-Luc Godard's acclaimed eight-part video series on the history of cinema seen from his own idiosyncratic, witty perspective. Issued as a deluxe box-set, five compact discs are packaged together with four hard-bound books containing the full transcript of Godard's French narration with English and German translations, more than 300 stills from the video series and an interview with Godard by American film historian Jonathan Rosenbaum. It is a spectacular sonic adventure. Music and Godard's own narration intermingle with the taped voices of poets, all of which drifts over the complex weave of sound that also includes snatches of dozens of classic films. Featuring the voices of Juliette Binoche, Julie Delpy, Anne-Marie Miéville, Alfred Hitchcock, André Malraux, Ezra Pound, Paul Celan -- to name but a few -- and the music of Paul Hindemith, Arvo Pärt, Ludwig van Beethoven, Giya Kancheli, Béla Bartók, Franz Schubert, Igor Stravinsky, Johann Sebastian Bach, Dmitri Shostakovich, Anton Webern, Keith Jarrett, John Coltrane, Leonard Cohen, Otis Redding, Dino Saluzzi, David Darling, Ketil Bjørnstad, and others, this mammoth box set from ECM New Series is a tour-de-force.

Additional Reviews

"If you "see" the soundtrack without the images, it will have an even greater impact…" -- JLG

"surpassing the dream of all remix artists…" -- Le Monde

"Despite the absence of moving images - which have to be imagined, dreamed or fantasized (although each volume contains a very fine sheaf of stills), - we are at last in the presence of the best possible edition of these Histoire(s). Obviously this set enables us to assess the immensity of the work Godard has once again accomplished in the field of sound…It seems likely that in the next century, every cultivated person will feel compelled to have these CD-books as a portable audio memory, an accompaniment to every moment of their private life and the collective upheavals that seem imminent…A prophetic as well as historical work…" -- Thierry Jousee, Cahiers du cinéma

"Now that one can concentrate on the sound, one understands better how the world is sound for Godard and, above all, that sound is a world in itself. One has the strong impression that music is really everywhere in the air, if only one had ears to hear it. Everything that rings and swings, resounds and intones has its fixed position in the world's orchestra. The world is instrumentalized. -- Michael Alten, Süddeutsche Zeitung

"For fans of the films of Jean-Luc Godard, the soundtrack to an immense video project by the great French director, creating an impressionistic portrait in sound." - Gramophone

Product Details

Release Date:	09/26/2000
Label:	Ecm Import
UPC:	0028946515129
catalogNumber:	465151
Rank:	114745

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Chapitre Un, A: Toutes Les Histoires

Disc 2

1. Chapitre Un, B: Une Histoire Seule

Disc 3

1. Chapitre Deux: Seul Le Cinéma
2. Chapitre Deux: Fatale Beauté

Disc 4

1. Chapitre Trois: La Monnaie De L'absolu
2. Chapitre Trois: Une Vague Nouvelle

Disc 5

1. Chapitre Quatre: La Contrôle De L'univers
2. Chapitre Quatre: Les Signes Parmi Nous

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Jean Luc Godard   Primary Artist
Ezra Pound   Voices
Paul Celan   Voices
Bérangère Allaux   Voices

Technical Credits

Béla Bartók   Composer
Paul Hindemith   Composer
Arthur Honegger   Composer
Arvo Pärt   Composer
Dmitry Shostakovich   Composer
Igor Stravinsky   Composer
Anton Webern   Composer
Leonard Cohen   Composer,Lyricist
David Darling   Composer
Gavin Bryars   Composer
Jerry Butler   Composer,Lyricist
Otis Redding   Composer,Lyricist
Tom Waits   Composer,Lyricist
Keith Jarrett   Composer
Dino Saluzzi   Composer
Chip Taylor   Composer,Lyricist
Riccardo Cocciante   Composer
Meredith Monk   Composer
Manfred Eicher   Composer,Producer
E.Y. "Yip" Harburg   Lyricist
Lorenz Hart   Lyricist
Bernard Herrmann   Composer
Francisco Ibanez   Composer
John Lissauer   Composer,Lyricist
Jerry Ragovoy   Composer,Lyricist
Ketil Bjørnstad   Composer
Lerner   Lyricist
Heinz Holliger   Composer
Doris Fisher   Composer,Lyricist
Hans Leip   Lyricist
Giya Kancheli   Composer
Harry Williams   Composer,Lyricist
Allan Roberts   Composer,Lyricist
Gaio Chiocchio   Lyricist
Bettina Blumenberg   Text Translation
Jack Judge   Composer,Lyricist
Robert Gilbert   Lyricist
Jean Luc Godard   Producer,Text
Friedrich Holderlin   Lyricist
Jose Goytisolo   Lyricist