VidMate
Free YouTube video & music downloader
ACTOR
Woody AllenJean-Luc GodardAnnette Insdorf
DIRECTOR
Jean-Luc Godard
SYNOPSICS
Meetin' WA (1986) is a English movie. Jean-Luc Godard has directed this movie. Woody Allen,Jean-Luc Godard,Annette Insdorf are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1986. Meetin' WA (1986) is considered one of the best Documentary,Short movie in India and around the world.
Revolutionary French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard conducts a twenty-five minute interview with influential and acclaimed American director Woody Allen on the cultural radiation, the ubiquity and significance of Television, and how Television compares with cinema as a medium and form of expression.
Same Actors
Meetin' WA (1986) Reviews
If you can find it, and it isn't as bad as the copy I watched, it's...sorta courageous, and strange
Jean-Luc Godard and Woody Allen. Just by those two names you will know if this short interview-film, which has been seen by likely less than a hundred people since it was filmed almost twenty years ago, will be worth to see (and 80's era Godard and Woody no less). Basically, you get Godard's madman sensibilities as a filmmaker, playing around with the structure of a director interview, and you get Woody Allen's insights. Ironically, I think this was made for video, or at least shot on it (maybe it was shot on film, I'd have to look it up), and more than half of the interview is based around the idea (that Godard proposes and Allen agrees with when understanding) that television is a corrupter of the audience. But along with questions, and even more interesting answers, about television, there are also questions and answers about the film-making process, and how Allen feels about it. While at times Godard tries to back up to TV again, one does get of course what Allen is like- immensely underrating his films once finished, and at times finding the film-making process to be more of a distraction from the other horrors of the world. Godard does (and sometimes doesn't) succeed in adding to these words of Allen's with spliced in images from his films, other filmmakers (Orson Welles), and New York city buildings, among other swell oddities. Really, it isn't the most intriguing interview with Woody to date, but to see what his take on film-making, TV, Hannah and Her Sisters, and other things was like then in 86 is worth a peek. That it IS Godard at least brings some initial fascination, then some frustration, then, well, acceptance. This is a fairly courageous way of presenting what could be standard, pat-on-the-back interview fare (Godard does pay a compliment once or twice 'Hannah', though that's it, in his old-school Cashiers du Cinema ways). How Allen feels about his films won't be news to those who saw Richard Shickel's documentary on him. But just to have this film in your possession- if you would feel as strong a compulsion to see it based on the two names of the directors (known in their countries as the most intellectual, stimulating, &/or pretentious filmmakers around)- is a temptation that somehow lured me in. However, if you do seek it out, know well that the copy of the video will more likely than not be watchable only up to a point. It's literally one of those (perhaps minor) works by a director that end up on lists of all-time rarities, for better or worse. AMENDMENT: This interview is now available on certain sites online.
Journalism Meets Artistry
Most people don't understand what Godard's aiming at. That's sad, but not surprising. They're so caught up in conventional storytelling techniques (of which a great non-mainstream auteur like Woody Allen is also part of) that Godard's intellectual Brechtian devices appear to be sickeningly pretentious. In truth, all his jarring visual and tonal interruptions and blanks left for the audience to ponder on serve as a means to scrutinize media manipulation. And his interview with Woody is one of the finest examples of this method. While Godard's questions and - to a lesser degree - Allen's answers are highly interesting and profound in themselves, particularly those revolving around the issues of television influencing habits of perception, it's really Godard's handling of the material itself that provides ample food for thought. (But, of course, only for those willing to do so.) By the way, Godard's style of film-making should not be mistaken as a lack of respect towards Allen. On the contrary... 8 out of 10 apparently nervous Woody Allens
Two nebbishy film titans meet, short and sweet
Woody Allen - Jean-Luc Godard? This might seem an odd combination to many American film lovers, at least to much of Woody's loyal audience, trying hard to be highbrow and intellectual, but not perhaps all that much interested in the challenges of a mischief-maker like JLG. As it happens this is a highly entertaining and somewhat informative look at both filmmakers as they are passing through middle age (Allen 51, Godard 56), lamenting the loss of cinematic and artistic innocence through the corruption of TV and at the same time celebrating their own longevity and continued relevance in the small world of art-cinema. I was especially intrigued by Godard's use of title cards and the couple of shots of him playing around with videocassettes and books, and a still photo near the end of the film that I think was of Allen around the "Take the Money and Run" days but may have in fact been Godard; both are small, owlish men and the similarities both physical and intellectual are certainly played up here. This definitely belongs to JLG's video-work era but there are spots where the oncoming elegiac late-period film works seem to be foreshadowed, though perhaps that's just because I have this on a tape with "Nouvelle Vague." I'm not sure what this tells me about Allen on a deep level that I didn't already know or feel, but I do know that it makes me want to watch "Hannah and Her Sisters" again right away. Lovely and inventive.
Godard trying to be relevant
Godard interviews Woody Allen in New York Two of the greatest minds in modern cinema sit talking at cross purposes. Woody is on the back foot, looking uneasy most of the time, and often quite terrified, as the Godard rambles on in French, waiting for the interpreter to catch up. Allen is amazingly inarticulate, his speech full of false-starts and aborted phrases, seeking words he can't find, letting sentences tail off lamely. He looks like he's doing a very bad job interview. Neither does Godard impress. A film-school exercise in which the students pretended to be Godard and Woody Allen would have been more intelligent and informative. With some frivolous intertitles and dramatic music in the middle of Allen's sentences quite meaningless sometimes - Godard seems to be deliberately trying to ruin a serious interview. Woody certainly is serious, far too serious, always answering in earnest. The conversation rarely gets going. Godard can speak English enough to make himself understood, but prefers French because he doesn't want to make it easy. Woody laments at how watching movies on television is a small experience compared to the old cinema days. Godard suggests that television is an evil akin to radioactivity and is affecting his creative potential. Woody takes him literally and in order to politely follow up the point says (quite sincerely) that he's heard standing too close to colour CRTs can give you radiation poisoning. How he must have cringed at that blooper afterwards, worthy of the 'human chameleon' Zelig. He waffles on a little more, having totally lost presence of mind, and is mercifully faded out. You are increasingly aware that Allen is coming across exactly like George in Seinfeld, bluffing his way through a difficult question, his voice and speech mannerisms are bizarrely similar. After a while it just becomes hilarious. Godard is babbling on in French making himself totally unintelligible, the interpreter is translating simultaneously, Allen is looking backwards and forwards at each of them with his mouth open in bewilderment and terror. By this time we suspect that Godard is taking the urine, and Allen is being made to look a fool. It's reassuring that the conversation of brilliant people can be so dull and ineffectual, especially when the intention is to create something significant and timeless. This is one of the worst interviews you'll ever see, but a fascinating 25 minutes.
Very hard to obtain but worth it !
I managed to obtain this from a seller on Ebay (quite expensive). The picture quality was very, very poor (B- or lower) but from a distance it was watchable. I don't know why I'm complaining - this is extremely rare ! Anyway, this short was a different approach on interviews. I mainly watched it, thinking that Woody Allen was interviewing Godard (the title states the opposite, but I was wishful thinking) but when you watch and observe Godard's curiosity into Woddy's style & structure of film-making, it becomes very profound and interesting. Godard just sitting there puffing away at his cigar letting his questions just roll off his tongue. Woody on the other side, sometimes seems nervous - as if there might be an intellectual clash. It could have been longer but try and obtain a copy if you get the chance