HONORARY LEOPARD FOR JEAN-LUC GODARD

When New York's Museum of Modern Art honoured French director Jean-Luc Godard with a retrospective of all his work, the man himself was a no-show. The Locarno International Film Festival, however, expects his presence not only to receive the Honorary Leopard Award, but also to launch his Introduction to the History of Cinema.
'Two years ago when everybody was very concerned about the centenary of film, we really did not think there was that much to celebrate,' said festival director Marco Müller. 'Although we thought that the anniversary could be an opportunity to offer a reading of the past as a guide to our somewhat unsettled present. Then we realised that Godard was already doing the work for us.'
Since Godard started his Histoire(s) du Cinéma in 1978, only two parts of the first chapter have been published. Now all four chapters have been completed for the book, which will be issued in two years. 150 signed copies of a special edition, made from colour photocopies of the galleys, will be available at this year's Locarno fest.
In the festival programme the collectors' item book will be accompanied by the full eight-part television series on cinema history, two recent films, a series of albums, objets d'art, round table discussions with filmmakers, writers, historians and philosophers, and a retrospective of films breaking with established practice or contributing to forming it.
'Through Godard's work we realise how fragile our set values on cinema really are', says Müller. 'He questions our general assumptions by juxtaposing films which react against each other, leaving us to decide ourselves whether to be optimistic or pessimistic about cinema, and its possibilities of continuing to exist.'

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