Jean-Luc Godard is one the most influential filmmakers of the last fifty years. Scorsese, Tarantino, Wong Kar-Wai and Lars von Trier are but a few of the directors who have fallen under the spell of his freewheeling style. In his 1960s heyday Godard - always in dark shades, cigarette in hand - epitomised European cool. But he subsequently grew into one of the most formidable artists the cinema has produced. Writer and film-maker Richard Brody, one of the few to have interviewed Godard in his Swiss retreat, here offers an accessible account of this extraordinary and fascinating artist.

Richard Brodie dropped out of Harvard to join the computer revolution and write the first version of Microsoft Word. Then, burned-out helping Microsoft achieve its phenomenal success, he quit and embarked on an equally intense search for a more meaningful life. For three years Richard mined the wisdom of famed self-improvement seminars and workshops. Most of all, he wanted to discover why life seemed to coast along at either an "OK" level or plummet into "the pits," spending so little time in true satisfaction and fulfillment. In this book, he shares the results of his odyssey, providing a step-by-step guide for discovering your own individual formula for long-term success and happiness. It gives you all the tools you need to find yourself, take charge, and get past OK. You'll learn how to: - Understand what's really going on in your life - Make the most of your potential - Pull out of crises--and move on - Achieve rewarding relationships - Be in control of stressful situations - Keep your quality of life in the WOW zone

A "serious-minded and meticulously detailed . . . account of the lifelong artistic journey" of one of the most influential filmmakers of our age ("The New York Times")

When Jean-Luc Godard wed the ideals of filmmaking to the realities of autobiography and current events, he changed the nature of cinema. Unlike any earlier films, Godard's work shifts fluidly from fiction to documentary, from criticism to art. The man himself also projects shifting images--cultural hero, fierce loner, shrewd businessman. Hailed by filmmakers as a--if not the--key influence on cinema, Godard has entered the modern canon, a figure as mysterious as he is indispensable.

In "Everything Is Cinema," critic Richard Brody has amassed hundreds of interviews to demystify the elusive director and his work. Paying as much attention to Godard's technical inventions as to the political forces of the postwar world, Brody traces an arc from the director's early critical writing, through his popular success with Breathless, to the grand vision of his later years. He vividly depicts Godard's wealthy conservative family, his fluid politics, and his tumultuous dealings with women and fellow New Wave filmmakers.

"Everything Is Cinema" confirms Godard's greatness and shows decisively that his films have left their mark on screens everywhere.

If you've ever wondered how and why people become robotically enslaved by advertising, religion or cults, this is the book for you. It's all because of 'mind viruses,' or 'memes,' and those who understand how to plant them into other's minds. Virus of the Mind is the first truly accessible book devoted to the science of memetics, a controversial new field that transcends psychology, biology, anthropology, and cognitive science. Memetics is the science of memes, the invisible but very real DNA of human society. Richard Brodie builds on the work of scientists Richard Dawkins, Douglas Hofstadter, Daniel Dennett and others who have become fascinated with memes and their potential impact on our lives. But Richard goes beyond science and dives into the meat of the issue: is the emergence of this new science going to have an impact on our lives like the emergence of atomic physics did in the Cold War? He would say the impact will be at least as great. While atomic bombs affect everybody's life, viruses of the mind touch lives in a more personal and more pernicious way. Mind viruses have already infected governments, educational systems and inner cities, leading to some of the most pervasive and troublesome problems of society today: youth gangs, the welfare cycle, the deterioration of public schools and ever growing government bureaucracy. Viruses of the mind are not a future worry: they are here with us now and are evolving to become better and better at their job of infecting us. The recent explosion of mass media and the internet has made the earth a prime breeding ground for viruses of the mind. Will there be a mental plague? Will only some of us survive with our free will intact? Richard Brodie weaves together science, ethics and current events as he raises these and other very disturbing questions about memes.