10/07/2023 - The Swiss filmmaker talks about his latest documentary, a pilgrimage in search of Jean-Luc Godard

We caught up with Thomas Imbach to talk about Say God Bye [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Imbach
film profile], a road movie that starts from Zurich and ends in Rolle at Godard’s doorstep. Playing in the Proxima competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the film isn’t just an homage to the so-called god of cinema, but also a reflection on cinema and an exploration about today’s Switzerland.

Cineuropa: Where did the idea for the film come from and why is the question of pilgrimage central to you?
Thomas Imbach: During the pandemic, when I was stuck in Zurich, in my studio – like everyone else – I happened to watch an online conversation with Godard. It was during the Kerala International Film Festival where he received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Godard actually means a lot to me although I hadn’t really followed him closely for the past twenty years. Seeing him online face-to-face like that came as a real shock – he was so old and vulnerable, and suddenly I knew that I had to do something. I had to meet him in person. My last chance to say thank you, JLG. 

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Spending all that time walking was like a form of preparation and during the pilgrimage, we kept talking about whether or not we should plan ahead. I didn’t want to plan anything except overnight stays. 

Since I wanted to film a portrait of him with my 35mm camera, we had heavy backpacks, 20 kg each. I realised I was not fit enough to carry 20 kg up the Jura mountain, so we decided to walk along the water, to follow lakes and rivers. The idea was just to find an ordinary Switzerland. Luckily, we met more local people that way because it turned out to be a less touristy route. I knew from the beginning that the pilgrimage would also be a pilgrimage through Godard’s work, a cinematic dialogue with him and also about my first steps as a filmmaker in the eighties. 

When we finally reached his house and he heard the knocking at his door, he probably thought it was the postman; that’s why he came to the door and we were able to give him our presents and talk a little. During that very first meeting, I thought it wasn’t a good idea to push it too far. My plan was to come back, but when I decided to meet him again, I learned that he’d had an assisted suicide. It was an awful shock because I had found him in really good shape. So, I had to give up the idea of shooting together with him and concentrated even more on the cinematic encounter with his work. 

What is the role that you, as a filmmaker, give to the spectator?
In this film, I wanted to show where Godard’s work comes from. What I learned from him is that cinema is a universe of its own – separate – a way of discovering the world. I love Godard’s concept that cinema is not here forever, that it evolves from birth to death. It’s not just about storytelling, being experimental or not, it’s about being authentic. You have to ask yourself: can I trust what I see or is it just made up to produce some effects? Godard is not concerned about effects, even though he has a very specific style that can be perceived as disturbing. I think he considered cinema bigger than his own films. 

Where does this desire to underline his relationship with Switzerland, his adopted homeland, come from?
To me, he’s always been Swiss. I was 19 when I discovered Sauve qui peut (la vie) and it seemed so very Swiss to me – every image, every sound. Like the game of Hornussen or Nathalie Baye on a bike in the Jura Mountain. Passion was a little less Swiss and other films were more French, like Détective. I think that he knew how to negotiate between Switzerland and France very well; he grew up like that, his parents were Swiss and French. He lived in Rolle for more than forty years and he has a Vaudois accent. For many Americans or Asians, he’s French, because everybody knows the Eiffel Tower but nobody knows Rolle. I wanted to show that he’s one of us.