Jungen: Once again, there is a debate in Jewish newspapers about whether or not you are an anti-Semite. Does this hurt you?
Godard: That’s nonsense! What does ‘anti-Semite’ mean? All peoples of the Mediterranean were Semites. So anti-Semite means anti-Mediterranean. The expression was only applied to Jews after the Holocaust and WWII. It is inexact and means nothing.
My respect for JLG kind of withered and died when I read that (and it gets worse). I still love (a lot of) his films, but that smirky, evasive non-answer is the equivalent of saying “How can I be a misogynist when I love my mother?” It really depresses me.
