Attrice ed attore nel primo Jean-Luc Godard. 1959-1965

My thesis is on actors and actresses in the first period of JLG’s work (1959-1965), which corresponds to the early stages of Nouvelle Vague. The thesis provides a textual analysys of the actors’ work and a survey of the critical contributions on the role of actors and actresses. Both Godard and Nouvelle Vague cinema are marked by the research of new faces and new bodies as a form of refusal of the rules defined by previous cinema. The new ways to approach cinematic language and deal with film are thus radicalized by the refusal of the notion of interpretation. This refusal will be a landmark in Godard’s work with his actors and actresses. The first part of my work is on actresses, the second one on actors. Each part is further divided into three sections: the first one on faces and looks, the second on voices and words, the third on gestures and movements. This division is meant to replicate the fragmentation which is typical of Godard’s cinema, both in the use of editing and in the way to tell a story. Therefore, the analysis is structured in a way that replicates Godard’s work against harmony as a a defining mark in the body and the image of the actors.