Pierrot Le Fou (1965)

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Directed by Jean-Luc Godard.

Starring Raymond Devos, Graziella Galvani, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Dirk Sanders.

Pierrot le fou (1965) is Jean-Luc Godard's sixth film staring Anna Karina, his first wife. It is the story of Ferdinand (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and Marianne (Karina). They meet when Ferdinand's wife hires Marianne as a baby-sitter. As he drives Marianne home, Ferdinand decides to run away with her. The couple get caught up in a mysterious gun-running scheme involving Marianne's brother (Dirk Sanders). With Pierrot le fou Godard returns to the story of A bout de souffle (Breathless): the tale of a couple on the run. But in the six years between the two films Godard developed a more complex and often difficult style. Pierrot le fou incorporates musical numbers, references to the history of cinema and painting, and quotations from literature. The film features Godard's most extended use of color to that point, as the shots are filled with blocks of bright primary colors. Pierrot le fou is a catalogue of cinematic inventions and of gestures made by couples in love. ~ Louis Schwartz, All Movie Guide

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Reviews and discussions

Jean-Paul Belmondo Turns 75. Cl ...
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

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"Perhaps Karina gave adequate attention to Jean-Paul Belmondo recently with her review of the Pierrot le Fou Criterion DVD (though she mainly focused on Anna Karina), but the actor turns 75 today, and according to David Hudson at GreenCine, he’s not getting enough love on this monumental occasion. So, here’s a fun clip of him duking it out with Alain Delon in Jacques Deray’s Borsalino. My introduction to Belmondo was with Pierrot, and that is still my favorite of his films (I would love to paint my face blue in his honor today). Yet I chose this scene from the lesser known and lesser regarded film because Belmondo and Delon equally co-represent the epitome of cool in French cinema, but I prefer Belmondo’s more rubber-faced, gangly, comical kind of cool guy. And while the fight ends in a draw, I think Belmondo gets in the better blows. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog " [More]

One Word: Emotion! Clip of the ...
by Karina in Karina on SpoutBlog

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"Criterion is about to release a beautiful new edition of Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou. I’ll have my own review of the two-disc set (which includes a new interview with Anna Karina, as well as a documentary about the actress’ relationship and work with Godard) next week, but others have already begun to weigh in. Glenn Kenny sets to work dissecting the film’s literary references, both direct and indirect. At the A.V. Club, the less-enamored Nathan Rabin blames those references in part for making the film feel “at worst…like the product of a man rapidly losing interest in anything beyond politics and ideology.” Rabin cites the famous scene embedded above, in which Samuel Fuller reduces cinema to “one word, emotion!” as “bitterly ironic” because “it would be hard to imagine a film with less visceral emotion than Pierrot Le Fou.” I have not watched my screener copy yet, but in art school I wore out a VHS copy of Pierrot Le Fou by watching it over and over again, falling obsessively ... " [More]

One Word: Emotion! Clip of the ...
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

Cinephile Calendar, Week of 7/0 ...
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

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"Chicago: Nothing cuts through a mid-summer haze like the sound of Isabella Rossellini warbling a Bobby Vinton song. My alma mater the Art Institute of Chicago is sponsoring a month-long festival of David Lynch films. This week offers three chances to see Blue Velvet in the gorgeous Gene Siskel Theater. And what luck! If you prefer your Italian women to keep mouths shut, there's an Antonioni retrospective in the very same theater complex. Via ScreenGrab. Seattle: Quick, go home and change--you've finally got an audience for that Ruby Keeler impression you've been practicing. Cineoke starts tonight at the Jewelbox Theater at 8pm. Sponsored by the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Cineoke is basically karaoke set to your favorite scene from your favorite movie musical. The organizers say they have hundreds of songs to choose from, but you're also welcome to bring your own DVD or cued-up VHS. More info here [via Wes Kim]. New York: You have just four more nights to catch what is ... " [More]

Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

loved it.

Based on Lionel White's novel Obsession, Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le Fou (1965) transforms a story about a couple on the run into an existential romance and an essay on the possibilities of film. With no script, Jean-Paul Belmondo's and Anna Karina's flight to southern France becomes a spontaneous series of incidents that reflect on romance, aesthetics, story-telling, and art as an antidote to alienation. Equating men with the intellect and women with the body, and using the widescreen frame to emphasize the couple's psychic division, Godard unites them in romantic moments and musical numbers, but these gestures cannot prevent their final, explosive separation. Stylized colors and compositions celebrate art for art's sake (even though the colors also carry potential meaning), as in the repetition of the couple's response to a murder in three different shooting styles. Allusions to other films, the brief appearance of Hollywood tough-guy director Samuel Fuller, and references to writers, writing, and painters all emphasize Godard's concern with the meaning of cinema and art, and their place in life. Though not as popular as its predecessor Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou won the Critics' Prize at the 1965 Venice Film Festival, and it was a key precursor to his most radical 1960s film, Weekend (1968). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Tags: New-Wave , criterion , extramaritalaffair , betrayal , doublecross
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