Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #23. Untitled Yellow Vest Jean-Luc Godard Drama

Untitled Yellow Vest Jean-Luc Godard Drama

In April of 2019, the 88-year-old Jean-Luc Godard revealed he was working on his next film, a yet-to-be-titled drama about a Yellow Vest woman who breaks up with her boyfriend, modeled after Racine’s Berenice. The project promises to mark Godard’s return to contemporaneous political topics as well as a form linear narrative, based on the ongoing Yellow Vest grassroots revolutionary political movement calling for economic justice, which began in October of 2018. While many thought Godard’s 2018 title The Image Book, which picked up a Special Palme d’Or in Cannes, would be his swan song, the French icon looks to be surprising prognosticators once again with a project he also describes a hybrid between documentary and fiction and potentially using nonprofessional actors. At the forefront of the Nouvelle Vague with his 1960 classic, Breathless, Godard has long been one of France’s most controversial directors. Thus far, he’s competed for the Palme d’Or eight times (Every Man for Himself, 1980; Passion, 1982; Detective, 1985; the omnibus film Aria, 1987; Nouvelle Vague, 1990; In Praise of Love, 2001; Goodbye to Language, 2014; The Image Book, 2018) with 2010’s Film Socialism playing in Un Certain Regard. Berlin was initially Godard’s champion, with Breathless winning the Golden Bear, where he would return throughout that decade in competition with A Woman is a Woman (1961, winner of a Special Prize), Alphaville (1965), Masculine Feminine (1966, winner of the Youth Film Award), Week End (1967), the omnibus film Love and Anger (1969), and Hail Mary (1985). His celebrated Tout va bien played in the 1972 Forum. He also competed eight times for the Golden Lion, winning in 1983 with First Name: Carmen (the others being 1962’s Vivre sa vie; 1964’s A Married Woman; 1965’s Pierrot le fou; 1967’s La Chinoise (a Special Jury Prize winner); 1991’s Germany Year 90 Nine Zero; 1993’s Helas pour moi; 1996’s For Ever Mozart).

Gist: The scant details on the project involve a Yellow Grass woman who breaks up with her boyfriend amidst the ongoing political turmoil, utilizing Racine as to transpose a narrative component.

Release Date/Prediction: While Godard hasn’t revealed any further details other than his work on the project last April, with statements regarding an actual shoot and no personalities/actors yet cast, we’re unsure of where in the process Godard may be. However, should he have completed the shoot sometime in 2019, one assumes he’d be presenting in the Cannes main competition, where both his last projects bowed.