V.A. - "Bandes Originales des Films de Jean-Luc Godard" CD, Japan, 1994, (Hortensia)

Over the years there have been many great reissues or original vinyl that are connected to Jean-Luc Godard's film work.  As a Godard fanatic, I want them all!   But if push becomes a shove, and there is a fire in the house, and I have to reach out for that one Godard soundtrack collection, it would be Bandes Originales des Films de Jean-Luc Godard."

The reason is because it's an excellent package, the cover becomes a poster, but beyond the visual, the music on this CD is fantastic.   It covers "A Bout de Souffle" (Breathless), "Pierrot Le Fou, " "Alphaville," and the great soundtrack to "Le Mepris" (Contempt).  Very much a perfect compilation of the early Godard soundtracks, all on one disc.  Of course, the original soundtrack albums can be fitted on a 10" ep, when originally released - but to get all of it here is a fantastic buy.  The Japanese know how to put a music collection together.   The composers/performers are Martial Solal, Anna Karina (Godard's then-wife, and a brilliant actress), Antoine Duhamel, Paul Misraki, and the legendary Georges Delerue.  Find and buy!

Antoine Duhamel - "Pierrot Le Fou" / "Week-End" (Banes Originales Des Films de Jean-Luc Godard

Antoine Duhamel – Pierrot Le Fou / Week-End (Banes Originales Des Films De Jean-Luc Godard)

CD Album, France, 2001

Universal Music

There are no such thing as a bad Jean-Luc Godard soundtrack. Antoine Duhamel's haunting score for Godard's great Pierrot Le Fou is something to hear with and without the film. The orchestration and melody gives me chills as I listen to it now. There is always a sense of sadness in Godard's work, and that sadness is conveyed in the various soundtracks by a series of composers and performers. But Pierrot Le Fou conveys a sense of regret of not wasted moments, but the sadness that's life itself. History turned sour and slowly realizing that the world you are in is not one of your making or worst yet, you are part of that world. Also the piece very much reminds me of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, which I am not sure if it is an influence or not – but it carries the weight of the world on its melancholy melody. Even the Jazz here has dark overtures.

Week-End doesn't hint despair, it is despair. With some funny moments, but never the less the score to this mid-'60s Godard is full of nervous tension, and one can gather a traffic jam due to a fatal accident, as strings hum over the desolute landscape of abandoned cars and people.