Godard on Monster Movies

Godard on Monster Movies (from a series of lectures presented at the Conservatoire d'Art Cinématographique de Montréal in 1980). Portions of the lectures are included in these film film notes from the Pacific Film Archive (as gif image files). Some excerpts:

"The true monster film is Grease, or Saturday Night Fever... Because one has no fear.....

"I believe that there were few movies in the genre of Dracula, Nosferatu, Frankenstein where [the monster] was not totally invented; frightening, but separate from reality.... A movie was never made about a worker's strike using Dracula, which would be useful; or films about the mafia. Suck the blood or take the money - there's no real difference....

"One could imagine Germany, Year Zero being made in another manner; it would not be disorienting to see, all of a sudden, Bela Lugosi cross the screen....

"There are few films that attempt the two together. When Frankenstein was made, one could have put him into a monstrous social situation... the Depression.... It appears at moments, but the film doesn't treat it, it treats it separately.... I would rather try to treat the two together.....

"Dracula is somebody from another world in today's world. One says Dracula doesn't exist, but through 3/4 of the film you have only to see how the people are dressed.... Still today on all the boards of directors, in all of high society, people are dressed like this. So, where are the monsters? Who are the monsters? Dracula's house is absolutely the house of Dupont de Nemours.... Do you think they would have had the idea of shooting in another kind of house? Your ideas come from the world you come from... you get ideas only from seeing things. If I had seen only Dracula, I never would have had this idea. But as I see Germany, Year Zero just before or after, I find... cosmic links between these films.... Berlin is the tomb of Dracula. It's effectively Hitler's genius.... If you had put a little mustache on Dracula...."