Tout va bien
Encyclopedia
Tout va bien is a 1972 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard
and collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin
and starring Jane Fonda
and Yves Montand
.
, and Brecht
ian in its formal qualities, which emphasize the motion of the camera.
The factory set consists of a cross-section of the building and allows the camera to dolly back and forth from room to room, theoretically through the walls. This makes the factory look like an ant farm, and serves the overarching Marxist agenda. This staging is also an homage to Jerry Lewis
's film The Ladies Man
in which a similar set is used for a women's boarding house.
Godard and Gorin followed this up with Letter to Jane
, an essay film which deconstructs a photograph of Fonda visiting Hanoi
during the Vietnam War
. It asks what the position of the intellectual should be in the class struggle.
The film's title means "Everything is Fine." It was released in the United States under the title "All's Well" and internationally under the title "Just Great."
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
and collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin
Jean-Pierre Gorin
Jean-Pierre Gorin is a French filmmaker and professor, best known for his work with Nouvelle Vague luminary Jean-Luc Godard during what is often referred to as Godard's "radical" period....
and starring Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
and Yves Montand
Yves Montand
-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...
.
Overview
The film centers on a strike at a sausage factory witnessed by an American reporter and her French husband, who is a film director. The film is Marxist in its political message, explaining the logic of the class struggleClass struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
, and Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
ian in its formal qualities, which emphasize the motion of the camera.
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
's film The Ladies Man
The Ladies Man
The Ladies Man is a 1961 American comedy film directed by and starring Jerry Lewis. It was released on June 28, 1961 by Paramount.-Plot:...
in which a similar set is used for a women's boarding house.
Godard and Gorin followed this up with Letter to Jane
Letter to Jane
Letter to Jane is a postscript film to Tout va bien directed by Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin and made under the auspices of the Dziga Vertov Group. Narrated in a back-and-forth style by both Godard and Gorin, the film serves as a 52-minute cinematic essay that deconstructs a single news...
, an essay film which deconstructs a photograph of Fonda visiting Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. It asks what the position of the intellectual should be in the class struggle.
The film's title means "Everything is Fine." It was released in the United States under the title "All's Well" and internationally under the title "Just Great."