Jean-Luc Godard’s Early Films
September 5–November 19, 2026
A selection of Jean-Luc Godard’s early films is presented in conjunction with a BAMPFA poster exhibition. The posters, recently acquired by BAMPFA, were commissioned by Tom Luddy and designed by American painter and graphic artist Gvido Augusts on the occasion of Godard’s first visit to Berkeley in 1968.
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Jean-Luc Godard: La Chinoise, 1967
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Jean-Luc Godard: A Woman Is a Woman, 1961
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Jean-Luc Godard: Contempt, 1963
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Jean-Luc Godard: Breathless, 1960
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Jean-Luc Godard: Le petit soldat, 1963
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Jean-Luc Godard: Band of Outsiders, 1964
- Upcoming
Films - Past
Films - Past
Events
Upcoming Films
Breathless
Jean-Luc Godard
France, 19604K Digital Restoration
Saturday, September 5, 4:30 PMView DetailsJean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo star in the jazzy genre pastiche that launched Jean-Luc Godard’s career and embodied the breathless bravado of the French New Wave.
A Woman Is a Woman
Jean-Luc Godard
France, 19614K Digital Restoration
Sunday, September 6, 4:30 PMView Details“A whimsical celebration of romance, sentiment, musical comedy, color film, the city of Paris and the abundant charms of Anna Karina” (New York Times).
Vivre sa vie
Jean-Luc Godard
France, 1962Friday, September 11, 7 PMView DetailsJean-Luc Godard’s fragmentary portrait of a prostitute makes Anna Karina an object of endless visual fascination. It inspired Rainer Werner Fassbinder to cast Karina in Chinese Roulette. “A film of extraordinary purity” (Manny Farber).
Contempt
Jean-Luc Godard
France, 19634K Digital Restoration
Saturday, September 19, 4:30 PMView DetailsJean-Luc Godard’s Homeric homage to Fritz Lang, “one of the defining moments of modernist filmmaking” (Film Comment). With Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, and Jack Palance.
Band of Outsiders
Jean-Luc Godard
France, 1964Digital Restoration
Sunday, October 4, 1 PMView DetailsAnna Karina, Sami Frey, and Claude Brasseur are unlikely burglars in Jean-Luc Godard’s “reverie of a gangster movie” (Pauline Kael). “Band of Outsiders shows Godard at his most amusing, and that is no small thing” (Keneth Turan, Los Angeles Times).
Jean-Luc Godard's Early Short Films
Sunday, October 11, 1 PMView DetailsA glimpse of Jean-Luc Godard in the process of becoming Godard. This program of the director’s first shorts includes Opération béton, All the Boys Are Called Patrick, Une histoire d’eau, and Charlotte et son Jules.
Breathless
Jean-Luc Godard
France, 19604K Digital Restoration
Thursday, October 22, 7 PMView DetailsJean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo star in the jazzy genre pastiche that launched Jean-Luc Godard’s career and embodied the breathless bravado of the French New Wave.
Le petit soldat
Jean-Luc Godard
France, 1963Saturday, October 24, 7 PMView DetailsA disillusioned French counteragent in Geneva becomes embroiled with Algerian separatists, Parisian torturers, and Anna Karina in Jean-Luc Godard’s second film, banned for three years in France.
A Woman Is a Woman
Jean-Luc Godard
France, 19614K Digital Restoration
Friday, October 30, 7:30 PMView Details“A whimsical celebration of romance, sentiment, musical comedy, color film, the city of Paris and the abundant charms of Anna Karina” (New York Times).
Vivre sa vie
Jean-Luc Godard
France, 1962Saturday, October 31, 4 PMView DetailsJean-Luc Godard’s fragmentary portrait of a prostitute makes Anna Karina an object of endless visual fascination. It inspired Rainer Werner Fassbinder to cast Karina in Chinese Roulette. “A film of extraordinary purity” (Manny Farber).
Contempt
Jean-Luc Godard
France, 19634K Digital Restoration
Sunday, November 8, 6:30 PMView DetailsJean-Luc Godard’s Homeric homage to Fritz Lang, “one of the defining moments of modernist filmmaking” (Film Comment). With Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, and Jack Palance.
Band of Outsiders
Jean-Luc Godard
France, 1964Digital Restoration
Thursday, November 12, 7 PMView DetailsAnna Karina, Sami Frey, and Claude Brasseur are unlikely burglars in Jean-Luc Godard’s “reverie of a gangster movie” (Pauline Kael). “Band of Outsiders shows Godard at his most amusing, and that is no small thing” (Keneth Turan, Los Angeles Times).
La Chinoise
Jean-Luc Godard
France, 1967Digital Restoration
Thursday, November 19, 7 PMView DetailsJean-Luc Godard’s 1967 Pop-agitprop portrait of revolutionary youth “feels like a trial run for the May 1968 revolution. See it by any means necessary” (Time Out New York).