Killing a man in defense of an idea is not defending an idea; it is killing a man.
Jean-Luc GodardRead
If you want to make a documentary you should automatically go to the fiction, and if you want to nourish your fiction you have to come back to reality.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Documentary and fiction are interconnected, with reality enriching the creative process.
In this quote, Jean-Luc Godard suggests that creating documentaries requires a grounding in fiction, highlighting the relationship between the two genres. He emphasizes that to craft impactful fiction, one must draw inspiration and insights from reality, illustrating the cyclical nature of creativity where reality informs imaginative storytelling and vice versa.
Themes
DocumentaryFictionRealityCreativityArt
In practice
Example use cases
In a film class, to illustrate the creative process, you might quote this while discussing the relationship between documentaries and fiction.
More from Jean-Luc Godard
All quotes βI don't think you should feel about a film. You should feel about a woman, not a movie. You can't kiss a movie.
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Sometime reality is too complex. Stories give it form.
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More or less, I am always saying, 'Give me more. Let's do what has not been done.'
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Objects exist and if one pays more attention to them than to people, it is precisely because they exist more than the people. Dead objects are still alive. Living people are often already dead.
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Cinema is not a series of abstract ideas, but rather the phrasing of moments.
Jean-Luc GodardRead
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