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Jean-Luc Godard continues to draw attention to himself long after dropping out of the critical limelight by A) continuing to still be alive and B) continuing to turn up his nose at modern day cinema. In an article released by German magazine "Die Zeit," Godard admitted that he stole money from his family to make his early films and declared that he has little time for contemporary filmmakers:

"Most directors, and three-quarters of the people who will receive prizes in Berlin, only pick up the camera to feel alive. They do not use it to see things that you cannot see without a camera."

Though he doesn't appear to go on and list names, it would certainly seem like this statement lumps together filmmakers like the Coens, Scorsese, Ang Lee, and others who, unlike Mr. Jean-Luc Picard Godard, are today producing genuinely inspired and masterfully crafted work. Perhaps his comments are grounded in the ever increasing Hollywood atmosphere that many big festivals are developing into. Or, maybe his comments are grounded in the fact that nobody likes him anymore. That Berlin award he was talking about? He hasn't won or been nominated there since 1985. How about Cannes? No nominations since 2001 and no wins, ever. The Venice Film Festival hasn't nominated him since 1996 nor awarded him since 1991, and he's got no wins from either the European or French (ouch) Cesar Festivals. Now I'm not so ignorant as to deny the influence that Godard had as one of the front runners of the revolutionay French New Wave movement of the 60s, but think about it - when's the last time anything significant came from this guy? In 1961 Godard probably could've shot someone reading the phone book and people would've thought it was brilliant. Nowadays he sounds like Zack Morris demeaning these newfangled iPhones. Fads come and go and influences spawn new influences. Of the monumentally influential New Hollywood Wave that included names like Friedkin, Coppola, Cimino, and Malick, only Scorsese is still succeeding criticially and financially; and it took The Departed to confirm the latter. But do you see Friedkin taking pot shots at the Golden Bear winners or Coppola condemning the future of cinema? It seems to me that someone's just upset nobody's paying attention to him besides hipsters in Williamsburg.

And just to confirm that you read that right, it's now become a bad thing to do what makes you feel alive. You'd think that you'd devote undivided attention to whatever makes you feel alive, including making a movie. To assume that there can be no overlap between an experience that makes you feel alive using the camera to see what cannot be otherwise is presumptuous and ignorant. Imagine Joe Shmoe coming home for dinner to tell his bride of twenty years and his two kids that he's leaving them all because they make him feel alive after a hard day at work.

But cheer up, Godard - your legend will always be safe with Breathless, Contempt, and many others, and there's no harm in drifting out of critical favor. So why can't you just keep your mouth shut and acknowledge there's not just one reason to make a film, or that not everyone's passion runs as deep as robbing their own family blind? Or, even better, win that Golden Bear or that Palm d'Ore and prove to everyone you still got it.

Still, I have to give him credit - his comment about seeing things that you cannot see without a camera is a ringing endorsement for Ghost Hunters. Either that or he was using some kind of x-ray camera which made everyone naked.