Pierrot Le Fou (1965)
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Synopsis: French auteur Jean-Luc Godard continues his fascination with the crime genre--after BREATHLESS and BAND OF OUTSIDERS--with PIERROT LE FOU. After escaping his stale, bourgeois marriage, Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a man on the run, encounters a captivating woman, Marianne... French auteur Jean-Luc Godard continues his fascination with the crime genre--after BREATHLESS and BAND OF OUTSIDERS--with PIERROT LE FOU. After escaping his stale, bourgeois marriage, Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a man on the run, encounters a captivating woman, Marianne (Godard's then-wife, Anna Karina). Striking up an immediate connection, the two begin a freewheeling affair that leads them to the Mediterranean Sea. There's one slight problem, though. Marianne is being pursued by a group of bloodthirsty mobsters who have chased her out of Algeria. Making matters worse for Ferdinand is the unfortunate fact that she turns out to be as much of a headache as his wife was, constantly referring to him as "Pierrot," much to his disdain. As their relationship reaches its boiling point, the hit men arrive, threatening to terminate both their relationship and their lives. Based on Lionel White's OBSESSION, PIERROT LE FOU is an example of a filmmaker's lack of preparation actually working to his benefit. Godard has said that he had no script on which to proceed, forcing him to make up the film as he went along. It is this seemingly improvised, brisk pacing--in addition to the performances of Belmondo and Karina--that makes the film such a fresh and original twist on an oft-mimicked genre. [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Jean-Pierre Léaud
DVD Info
Release:
Feb 29, 2008
DVD Features:
- 2-Disc Set
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.35
Audio:
- Dolby Digital Mono 1.0 - French
- Subtitles - English - Optional
Additional Release Materials:
- Featurettes - 1. "A Pierrot Primer" (with audio commentary by Jean-Pierre Gorin)
- 2. "Godard, L'amour, La Poesie"
- Interviews - 1. Anna Karina - Star
- 2. Jean-Luc Godard - Director; Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo - Stars (archival)
- Trailers - Theatrical Trailer
Additional Product:
- Booklet
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
Pierrot Le Fou was [Godard's] way of wrapping up the past before stepping forward into his next phase of overtly political filmmaking -- a magnificent mash-up before the manifestos to come
... plays like Godard's formal farewell to his past films, a last play with his old toys before putting them into storage and moving on to more serious concerns
It's one of Pierrot's unique charms that Godard doesn't regard Ferdinand and Marianne's situation with emphatic mockery or inordinate reverence.
Pierrot le Fou is a movie in love with movies, but mostly it's a movie in love with itself.
Provencal scenery is pretty, the movie-star chemistry is potent and Karina (then Mrs. Godard) has never looked more stunning.
So challenging and prolific has been Godard's 53-year career that virtually all of his films are as deserving of revival as Pierrot le Fou.
Made in 1965, this film, with its ravishing colors and beautiful 'Scope camerawork by Raoul Coutard, still looks as iconoclastic and fresh as it did when it belatedly opened in the U.S.
More surprising is how lushly romantic the film seems now -- even the frostiest qualities of the director's volatile aesthetic are warmed by the Riviera sunlight and the presence of Karina at her most beguiling.
The result is repetitive and precious rather than inventive and fresh.
...ultimately nothing more than an infuriatingly vague and utterly pointless piece of work...
Arguably one of the few Godard pictures to have the desired balance of romance, adventure, violence, and humor on one side, and philosophy, literary and cinematic allusion, and Brechtian distancing on the other.
I once wrote of it as "Godard's most virtuoso display of his mastery of Hollywood genres," I now see it more as the story of silly characters who have seen too many Hollywood movies.
Brilliant but disturbing essay on love and a myriad of other things.
It works well enough on that level alone -- a simple crime thriller -- but it also functions as an allegorical view of the Vietnam War.
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