Programme Details

Jean Luc Godard has made a revolutionary mark on cinematic history. Since his debut in 1954, Godard has helped define the ambitions of French cinema and, in some ninety short and feature films, has created a body of work that has always pushed at the boundaries of film and its potential for visual, emotional and intellectual meaning. Now in his mid seventies, Godard is as active as ever with a large number of video projects and a huge exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in planning. His latest feature film is released this week in Britain - Notre Musique - a compelling mix of documentary, drama and philosophy which he describes as a meditation on war. Michael Witt and Ian Christie review Godard's strange take on Hell, Purgatory and Heaven on Night Waves with Isabel Hilton.

She first wrote a book on how the ancient Greeks decoded and explained the presence of fossils. Now Adrienne Mayor, a scholar of natural history folklore, has researched a book on how Native Americans have interpreted prehistoric events and explained fossil remains. She describes to Isabel Hilton the surprisingly scientific reasoning of many Native American folk legends and how fossils also became used for supernatural or medicinal protection.

Also on the programme, Ekow Eshun, the new director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, describes his recent return to Ghana in search of his roots and the alarming discovery he made there; and critic Susannah Clapp reviews the very first performance of the National Theatre's stage adaptation of the classic MGM movie Theatre of Blood, the story of an enraged actor's gory vendetta with the press.

Night Waves live at 9.30pm here on BBC Radio 3


Presenter: Isabel Hilton
Producer: Anthony Denselow



Additional Information
1) Fossil Legends of the First Americans is published by Princeton University Press
2) Jean Luc Godard's NotreMusique is released this Friday in London and selected cinemas around the country next week. Cert 12.
3) Ekow Eshun's book Black Gold of the Sun is published by Hamish Hamilton.
4) Theatre of Blood is running at the National Theatre in London