Terry Gross

Both of these films are about obsessed artists.

This is about Godard at the beginning of his career, and Blue Moon is about Hart at the end of his career and the end of his life, or close to the end of his life.

They were both obsessed with their work and both very self-absorbed.

So I'm going to ask you to describe what defined the French New Wave.

I don't know whether Godard actually says this, but he says it in the film.

Because as you pointed out, he was a film critic for Cahiers du Cinema, which translates to Notebook of Cinema.

And so Godard says in the movie, the best way to critique a film is to make one.

Right.

Well, he broke a lot of conventions.

He didn't want to use a script.

You know, the actors would show up and say, we don't have our lines.

And he'd go, I don't want a script.

It's too mechanical.

If you've memorized your lines in advance, it's going to be too mechanical.

You are clearly the opposite.

You do a lot of takes.

You shoot over years.

So what did you make of that?

The plot of the movie is very basic, very genre.

You know, a guy and a girl.