Menu
Images free for use across all media: HERE
Friday 9 January 2026: The Irish Film Institute (IFI) is pleased to announce a new 24-film, two-month retrospective of the work of French master director, JEAN-LUC GODARD. Godard was a leading light in the French New Wave movement of the 1960s alongside fellow filmmakers François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, Éric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol and Jacques Demy. He is arguably the most important French filmmaker of his generation.
Tickets for this season are now on sale from ifi.ie, with great value passes available for IFI Members. 25 & Under cardholders can avail of €5 tickets for the season’s screenings. Visit https://ifi.ie/jean-luc-godard/ for full details and to book tickets.
This chronological retrospective will open on February 1st with Godard’s dynamic and groundbreaking debut Breathless (À bout de souffle), starring Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Released in 1960, Breathless announced the arrival of a filmmaker who spent the intervening decades striving to redefine and reshape the medium. The season coincides with the general release of Richard Linklater’s acclaimed Nouvelle Vague, a fictionalised and wry look behind the scenes of Breathless, which screened to sold out audiences at last year’s IFI French Film Festival.
Spanning his astonishingly prolific first decade, the films screening throughout February trace Godard’s path from the rule-breaking energy of that iconic debut to the increasingly radical, self-reflexive experiments that would come to define his later work. Godard’s restless reinvention of cinema from the revolutionary fervour of the late 1960s to the radical essay-films of his final decades is explored throughout March.
Speaking about the season, David O’Mahony, IFI Head of Cinema Programming, said:“Jean-Luc Godard remains one of cinema’s most radical and influential voices. This retrospective celebrates a filmmaker who continually questioned, disrupted, and expanded the language of cinema. We are delighted to offer IFI audiences a rare opportunity to experience the full scope of Godard’s restless reinvention and present a chronological journey through a body of work that continues to challenge and inspire.”
The films screening across February chart Godard’s shifting preoccupations: the playful reinvention of genre in A Woman Is a Woman [Une femme est une femme] (Feb 3rd), Band of Outsiders [Bande à part] (Feb 14th), Alphaville (Feb 17th) and Made in U.S.A. (Feb 24th); the emotional and philosophical depth of collaborations with Anna Karina, his wife for four years, in Vivre sa vie (Feb 7th), The Little Soldier [Le petit soldat] (Feb 8th) and Pierrot le Fou (Feb 21st); and the sharp critiques of consumerism and contemporary life in A Married Woman [Une femme mariée] (Feb 15th), Masculin Féminin (Feb 22nd) and Two or Three Things I Know About Her [Deux ou trois choses que je sais d’elle] (Feb 28th).
March’s films feature the explosive political fervour of The Chinese [La Chinoise] (Mar 1st) and the apocalyptic satire of Weekend (Mar 3rd), from Godard’s militant Dziga Vertov Group period; his fractured returns to narrative in First Name: Carmen [Prénom Carmen] (Mar 10th); and Detective (Mar 15th), and his audacious engagements with myth, literature, and theology in Hail Mary [Je vous salue, Marie] (Mar 14th), King Lear (Mar 18th), and Oh, Woe Is Me [Hélas pour moi] (Mar 21st).
The later works – In Praise of Love [Éloge de l’amour] (Mar 22nd), Film Socialisme (Mar 24th), Goodbye to Language [Adieu au langage] (Mar 28th), and The Image Book [Le livre d’image] (Mar 29th) – push cinema to its limits, blending sound, text, and image into fierce meditations on history, politics, love, and representation itself. Taken together, these films reveal Godard not as a figure of a single movement, but as cinema’s most relentless questioner.
Four of the season’s films will be available to view online via the IFI’s IFI@Home platform: Breathless (À bout de souffle), Band of Outsiders [Bande à part], Weekend and Contempt [Le Mépris]. The films will be available to rent and stream from Sunday February 1st.
Season Schedule:
Sunday Feb 1st (16.30): BREATHLESS (À BOUT DE SOUFFLE)
Tuesday Feb 3rd (18.30): A WOMAN IS A WOMAN (UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME)
Saturday Feb 7th (18.00): VIVRE SA VIE
Sunday Feb 8th (16.30): THE LITTLE SOLDIER (LE PETIT SOLDAT)
Tuesday Feb 10th (18.20): CONTEMPT (LE MÉPRIS)
Saturday Feb 14th (15.00): BAND OF OUTSIDERS (BANDE À PART)
Sunday Feb 15th (15.00): A MARRIED WOMAN (UNE FEMME MARIÉE)
Tuesday Feb 17th (18.20): ALPHAVILLE
Saturday Feb 21st (15.00): PIERROT LE FOU
Sunday Feb 22nd (15.10): MASCULIN FÉMININ
Tuesday Feb 24th (18.30): MADE IN U.S.A.
Saturday Feb 28th (16.30): TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER (DEUX OU TROIS CHOSES QUE JE SAIS D’ELLE)
Sunday Mar 1st (16.00): THE CHINESE (LA CHINOISE)
Tuesday Mar 3rd (18.20): WEEKEND (WEEK-END)
Saturday Mar 7th (16.20): ALL’S WELL (TOUT VA BIEN)
Tuesday Mar 10th (18.30): FIRST NAME: CARMEN (PRÉNOM CARMEN)
Saturday Mar 14th (16.00): HAIL MARY (JE VOUS SALUE, MARIE)
Sunday Mar 15th (16.00): DETECTIVE (DÉTECTIVE)
Wednesday Mar 18th (18.30): KING LEAR
Saturday Mar 21st (16.00): OH, WOE IS ME (HÉLAS POUR MOI)
Sunday Mar 22nd (16.00): IN PRAISE OF LOVE (ÉLOGE DE L’AMOUR)
Tuesday Mar 24th (20.50): FILM SOCIALISME
Saturday Mar 28th (16.30): GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE (ADIEU AU LANGAGE)
Sunday Mar 29th (16.30): THE IMAGE BOOK (LE LIVRE D’IMAGE)
BREATHLESS (À BOUT DE SOUFFLE) [1960] Jean-Luc Godard’s debut feature sees criminal Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) hiding out with American student Patricia (Jean Seberg) following his murder of a policeman.
A WOMAN IS A WOMAN (UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME) [1961] A playful tribute to the classic Hollywood musical, which features a score by Michel Legrand, this is one of Godard’s most accessible early films. The story follows Angéla (Anna Karina), who desperately wants to have a baby, but her boyfriend Émile (Jean-Claude Brialy) is hesitant, prompting Angéla to flirt with his best friend Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo) to provoke jealousy, which leads to a series of misunderstandings.
VIVRE SA VIE (1962) Anna Karina plays Nana, a Parisienne would-be actress who finds herself drifting towards prostitution, her downward spiral imaginatively depicted in a series of distinct tableaux.
THE LITTLE SOLDIER (LE PETIT SOLDAT) [1963] Completed in 1960, The Little Soldier was immediately banned due to its (for the time) unflinching depiction of torture during the Algerian War. The film remained suppressed for three years and was only released domestically in 1963, after the war ended.
CONTEMPT (LE MÉPRIS) [1963] Novelist and playwright Paul (Michel Piccoli) is hired by avaricious Hollywood producer Jerry (Jack Palance) to rework an adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey to be filmed by Fritz Lang (playing himself) in order to give it more commercial appeal. When the producer makes a pass at Paul’s wife Camille (Brigitte Bardot), what she deems Paul’s lack of sufficient outrage causes a rift between the two.
BAND OF OUTSIDERS (BANDE À PART) [1964] Band of Outsiders (Bande à part) sees Godard at his lightest and most accessible in a film which follows three young misfits – Franz, Arthur, and Odile – who wander through Paris dreaming of romance, rebellion, and easy money.
A MARRIED WOMAN (UNE FEMME MARIÉE) [1964] A cool, incisive study of modern life and consumerism, Godard’s eighth film follows Charlotte (Macha Méril), a young Parisian wife, torn between her husband, Pierre (Philippe Leroy), and her lover, Robert (Bernard Noël).
ALPHAVILLE (1965) Alphaville blends sci-fi and film noir to winning effect. Hollywood B-movie icon Eddie Constantine plays Lemmy Caution, a secret agent sent to overthrow the rule of Professor Von Braun, inventor of the Alpha-60 computer. En route, Lemmy meets the professor’s daughter (Anna Karina), who is incapable of loving.
PIERROT LE FOU (1965) Ferdinand/Pierrot (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is an unhappily married man who flees Paris for the south of France with Marianne (Anna Karina), an impulsive young woman on the run from her own murky past.
MASCULIN FÉMININ (1966) Jean-Pierre Léaud (The 400 Blows) stars as Paul, an idealistic would-be intellectual struggling to forge a relationship with the aspiring pop star Madeleine. Through their tempestuous affair, Godard fashions a candid and wildly funny examination of youth culture in 1960s Paris.
MADE IN U.S.A. (1966) A vibrant neo-noir that transforms a detective story into a political and pop-art collage. Anna Karina stars as Paula Nelson, who travels to a fictional French town to investigate the death of her former lover.
TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER (DEUX OU TROIS CHOSES QUE JE SAIS D’ELLE) [1967] Two or Things Things… follows the daily life of Juliette Janson (Marina Vlady), a married housewife from the Paris suburbs who picks up clients for extra money. The film is perhaps Godard’s most revelatory look at consumer culture, shot in ravishing widescreen colour by Raoul Coutard.
THE CHINESE (LA CHINOISE) [1967] A group of radicalised Parisian students form a Maoist study-cell in an apartment during the summer before 1968. Immersed in propaganda, manifestos, and ideological debate, they attempt to translate revolutionary theory into direct political action.
WEEKEND (WEEK-END) [1967] Determined to collect an inheritance from a dying relative, a bourgeoise couple traverse the French countryside while around them civilisation appears to collapse. The couple’s selfishness and amorality are exposed when they are captured by a radical guerrilla group that challenges and overturns their bourgeois values.
ALL’S WELL (TOUT VA BIEN) [1972] Suzanne (Jane Fonda), an American journalist, and her French husband Jacques (Yves Montand), a has-been New Wave filmmaker, become embroiled in an escalating strike in a sausage factory. The cross-sectioned factory set is itself a marvel of innovative production design.
FIRST NAME: CARMEN (PRÉNOM CARMEN) [1983] A loose reimagining of Bizet’s titular opera, Godard’s enigmatic film blends crime caper, political commentary, and romantic entanglement in the story of Carmen (Maruschka Detmers), a young militant who recruits her uncle, a washed-up filmmaker (Godard himself), and Joseph, a hapless bank guard, for a robbery to fund her avant-garde string quartet.
HAIL MARY (JE VOUS SALUE, MARIE) [1985] Premiering at the 1985 Berlin International Film Festival, Godard’s contemporary reimagining of the Nativity story drew outrage from religious groups. Marie, a young Swiss student, becomes mysteriously pregnant despite her vow of chastity. She wrestles with the spiritual and physical implications of her condition while Joseph, her bewildered boyfriend, is schooled by Gabriel, who has arrived by airplane, to love Marie from a distance, revering her without touching her.
DETECTIVE (DÉTECTIVE) [1985] A noir-inflected ensemble piece, Détective interweaves multiple pulpy storylines inside a fading Paris hotel: a detective (Laurent Terzieff) and his nephew (Jean-Pierre Léaud) investigate a two-year-old murder, while a boxing manager (Johnny Hallyday) struggles to repay debts to a couple (Claude Brasseur, Nathalie Baye) and the Mafia.
KING LEAR (1987) Godard’s first English-language film is a radical, essayistic riff on Shakespeare that finds the director continuing to reinvent the syntax of cinema. In a post-apocalyptic world where culture has collapsed, William Shakespeare Junior the 5th (theatre director Peter Sellars) attempts to reconstruct his ancestor’s titular play, aided by a cast that includes Burgess Meredith, Molly Ringwald, Julie Delpy, and Leos Carax.
OH, WOE IS ME (HÉLAS POUR MOI) [1993] Godard’s reimagining of the Greek myth of Alcmene and Amphitryon is set in a contemporary Swiss lakeside town where Rachel (Laurence Masliah) believes her husband Simon (Gérard Depardieu) may have been visited – or replaced – by a god seeking to experience human love.
IN PRAISE OF LOVE (ÉLOGE DE L’AMOUR) [2001] Even by Godard’s extraordinary standards, In Praise of Love (Éloge de l’amour) counts as one of his most perceptive works. Told in reverse chronology, the film follows Edgar, a filmmaker attempting to make a project about love in its various forms. Shot first in luminous black-and-white 35mm and then in saturated digital colour, the film weaves together romance, memory, history, and politics.
FILM SOCIALISME (2010) Divided into three sections, Film Socialisme travels from a Mediterranean cruise ship to Europe’s political and historical landscapes, and finally to a family-run garage.
GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE (ADIEU AU LANGAGE) [2014] Goodbye to Language (Adieu au langage) demonstrates Godard’s continued formal experimentation, well into his eighth decade, and sees him embrace 3D technology in a typically idiosyncratic manner. Shot in startling, deliberately disorienting 3D, the unclassifiable work breaks narrative continuity to question how images create meaning.
THE IMAGE BOOK (LE LIVRE D’IMAGE) [2018] Godard’s final feature-length work is a stimulating essay on the history and power of images. Drawing on film clips, newsreels, paintings and literature, Godard reflects on war, colonialism, cinema and the Middle East, assembling a fractured audiovisual collage that resists easy interpretation.
NOW BOOKING
Book now for cinema screenings via https://ifi.ie/jean-luc-godard/ or via IFI Box Office in-person or over the phone via 01 679 5744.
Season bundles are available for IFI Members only:
Season bundles can only be purchased via IFI Box Office in-person or over the phone via 01 679 5744. See https://ifi.ie/support for full details on IFI Membership and to sign up.
This season is available for 25 & Under cardholder pricing. Sign-up is free for the 25 & Under card for those aged 16-25. See https://ifi.ie/25under for full details.
SUPPORT
The IFI is principally funded by the Arts Council.
– ENDS –
For further media information please contact:
Sorcha FitzGerald, IFI Marketing & Publicity Manager, sfitzgerald@irishfilm.ie, +353 1 612 9429
About the IFI
The Irish Film Institute (IFI) is Ireland’s national cultural institution for film. It provides audiences throughout Ireland with access to the finest independent, Irish and international cinema, including online via its streaming platform IFI@Home; it preserves and promotes Ireland’s moving image heritage through the IFI Irish Film Archive, and provides opportunities for audiences of all ages and backgrounds to learn and critically engage with film. As the only cinema with a 70mm projector, the IFI is the home of film in Ireland with a commitment to analogue exhibition.
HAMNET 12:40, 15:15 (OC), 18:00, 20:45
MARTY SUPREME 15.00, 20.15
SAIPAN 12.50, 16.00, 18.10, 20.55
SENTIMENTAL VALUE 13.10, 18.10
The IFI is supported by The Arts Council
More News