Cannes Classics unveils the tribute to Jean-Luc Godard with the trailer for the defeated film “Funny Wars”

The Cannes Film Festival will pay tribute to iconic late director Jean-Luc Godard, who passed away last September, with a trio of works in its Cannes Classic cinema heritage lineup.

A highlight of the tribute to Godard, who died last year at 91, will be the world premiere of the 20-minute trailer he created for a film that will never be made: ‘phony wars (phoney wars).

The 20-minute work is called A Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello and Vixens production, in co-production with L’Atelier.

“Jean-Luc Godard has often transformed his synopses into aesthetic programs. phoney wars is part of this tradition and will remain as the ultimate gesture of cinema,” the festival said.

He quoted the text that accompanies the short work to give an indication of the director’s intention. It reads: “No longer trust the billions of dictates of the alphabet to restore freedom to the incessant metamorphoses and metaphors of a real language by returning to the locations of past filming while taking into account present stories.

The film will be screened in the presence of Godard’s longtime collaborator, filmmaker Fabrice Aragno, who worked with the late director on Our music (2004), socialism movie (2010), The Three Disasters (2013) and Goodbye to Language (2014).

The tribute will also include a screening of a 4K restoration of Godard’s 1963 classic Contempt and the documentary Godard by Godard.

Written by Frédéric Bonnaud and directed by Florence Platarets, the hour-long documentary is described as an archival self-portrait of Godard, tracing his life and filmography through his own words, eyes and work.

Other Cannes Classic highlights include Lubna Playoust’s documentary Room 999which revisits the work of Wim Wenders from 1982 Room 666 in which he poses the question: “Is cinema a language in the process of being lost, an art in the process of dying? to 16 directors in room 666 of the Hotel Martinez.

Exactly 40 years later, at the 2022 edition of Cannes, Playoust posed the same question to Wenders and filmmakers including James Gray, Rebecca Zlotowski, Claire Denis, Olivier Assayas, Nadav Lapid, Asghar Farhadi and Alice Rohrwacher.

The section will screen a newly restored version of Man Ray’s first improvised 1923 film Return to reason, with a new score by Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan, created under the banner of their rock band Sqürl. They will both be present.

Cannes Classics will also pay tribute to iconic actress, screenwriter, director, author and activist Liv Ullmann with a screening of the bio-doc Liv Ullmann – A Road Less Traveled, with contributions from close friends including Cate Blanchett, Jessica Chastain, Lena Endre, Pernilla August and Jeremy Irons. Ullman will attend the screening with director Dheeraj Akolkar.

The program also includes a celebration of Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu, on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of his birth in 1903 and the 70th anniversary of his death in 1963, which will unveil new restorations of Folder of a building gentleman (1947) and The Munekata Sisters (1950).