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As the French New Wave was reaching its maturity and filmgoing had evolved as a favorite pastime of intellectuals and urban sophisticates, along came Jean-Luc Godard to shake up every convention and send highfalutin critics scrambling to their typewriters. 1965's Alphaville is a perfect example of Godard's willingness to disrupt expectation, combine genres, and comment on movies while making sociopolitical statements that inspired doctoral theses and left a majority of viewers mystified. Part science fiction and part hard-boiled detective yarn, Alphaville presents a futuristic scenario using the most modern and impersonal architecture that Godard could find in mid-'60s Paris. A haggard private eye (Eddie Constantine) is sent to an ultramodern city run by a master computer, where his mission is to locate and rescue a scientist who is trapped there. As the story unfolds on Godard's strictly low-budget terms, the movie tackles a variety of topics such as the dehumanizing effect of technology, willful suppression of personality, saturation of commercial products, and, of course, the constant recollection of previous films through Godard's carefully chosen images. For most people Alphaville, like many of the director's films, will prove utterly baffling. For those inclined to dig deeper into Godard's artistic intentions, the words of critic Andrew Sarris (quoted from an essay that accompanies the Criterion Collection DVD) will ring true: "To understand and appreciate Alphaville is to understand Godard, and vice versa." --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (39)

the greatest sci-fi film ever: not a special effect in sight
'Alphaville' is Jean-Luc Cinema Godard's 'The Wizard of Oz', the story of an American stranded in a strange fantasy city, who must find its controlling wizard before he can return home, evading forces sent to destroy him. Eddie Constantine reprises the role of Lemmy Caution that made him famous in 1950s France, as the roughneck FBI agent who fisticuffed, dame-bothered and slang-winked his way through a series of simple-minded thrillers. here he has become Special Agent 003, sent by his superiors in the Outlands to assassinate Professor Von Braun, the brains behind Alphaville, a futuristic city controlled by a philosophical computer, and which bears more than a passing resemblance to Gaullist Paris.

Alphaville is a classic dystopia, its minions brainwashed, dehumanised and branded; photographs of its leader on every available wall; the surveilling computer present in every room. dissidents are tortured or murdered in elaborate rituals (e.g. diving-board firing-squads in swimming pools before a gallery of socialites). Double-talk couched in the complexities of dialectic numb the brain; dictionaries are censored daily.

Much of the fun in Godard films of this period lies in their playfulness with familiar cinematic genres; and the trappings of the gangster and spy genres, the detective story and sci-fi adventure (brawls, shoot-outs, car-chases, interrogations, (literal) femmes fatales etc.) are made ridiculous by their slapstick treatment, comic exagerration and over-emphatic music. 'Alphaville' may be a pulp adventure, but the world Lemmy must negotiate is not one of genre, but of ideas, about reality, history, politics, freedom, love, poetry, dreams, the mind, logic, conformity, escape, all reverberating in an environment based on One Big Idea.

'Alphaville', like Chris Marker's similar 'La Jetee', is less a futuristic satire than a reflection of contemporary France (its dark and dense mise-en-scene like a negative photograph of the familiar city; with its extraordinary modern architecture reconfigured as a giant prison), with memories of the recent Nazi Occupation. But, as its name suggests, Alphaville is also the first (cinematic) city of post-modernity, where meaning and authority is decentred, where language ceases to have any shared value, where time ceases to exist, the past and future are abolished, and the mindless live in an eternal present, unable to learn from mistakes or hope for improvement, unable to acknowledge the value of culture. Lemmy seems to be set up as a very 'human' interloper, a repository of 'our' feelings and values in a culture that would seek to suppress them. But Godard called him a Martian', and he is a stranger to Alphaville, which, after all, is our world: he is a figure from pulp fiction , a risible set of signifiers who can only offer Natasha a choice between who gives her orders.

Most dystopias, like '1984' and 'Blade Runner', ultimately fail, because they are as cold and inhuman as the worlds they portray. 'Alphaville', especially in its visionary climactic half hour, shares more with Nabokov's novel 'Bend Sinister' - positing whimsy, idiosyncrasy, gags, Surrealism (Eluard, Bellmer), pop art, the absurd, the unexpected, the daft, the poetic, the aesthetic, the cinematic (especially Melville's 'Deux Hommes Dans Manhattan'), Anna Karina's gorgeous coats against the Brave New World.

But we shouldn't get too comfortable in this ''us vs. them', anti-totalitarian model: Professor Von Braun, with dark, impenetrable shades permenantly welded, is the clean-cut image of the director; he too forces Anna Karina (his daughter, Godard's wife) to perform for strangers and suppress her personality; he, like Godard, is the creator of Alphaville.

The Beauty of Individuality Exemplified
It is a rare thing to see a film that not only shows one what life is, but espouses a concrete vision of what life should be. Even more rare is a film which does this by situating characters in a world where one would not want to live thereby isolating the very essence of what makes on human. Godard's Alfaville not only accomplishes this feet but it creates an artistic embodiment of all that true individuality stands for. More potent than 1984 and just as beautiful as novels such as Atlas Shrugged, Alfaville shows one who is willing to watch and listen the true value and purpose of freedom and the ominous results when that freedom is removed from their lives. The music, cinematography and overall directing could only be done by an individual who's sense of life is majestic and bordering on, if not completely genius. This is not only great science fiction but it is art at its highest ideal, a work that makes me proud to be human.

a weird film and quite interesting
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This film which is one of several involving the character Lemmy Caution remains popular to this day as one of the few science fiction films with no special effects. It is a good view of a technocratic society an has elements which at the time seemed like fantasy but in our computer age seems more feasible.

The film also has a voice over that is really deep and raspy that sounds very interesting.

The DVD does not have any special features but still is a good one to buy.

The Eternal Theme of the Individual VS The State
It should not surprise anyone that a film from Jean-Luc Godard will invariably attract the usual assortment of Post-Modernist, ethically and politically retarded, anti-Western afficionados. Some of that can be seen in the reviews for this film, both on this page and throughout the Internet. The truth however, is that while Godard was a borderline socialist and critical of the supposed decadence of "America", he was more of a heroic individualist than anything else and his pre-1970 films all demonstrate this fact.

Alphavile is without a doubt, his greatest achievement and it is a work that speaks of an artistic sensibility all but lost in the France of today, which is overun with rampant anti-intellectualism and a worship of un-reason.

Godard takes the Bogart-like "Lemmy Caution" character out of his former slew of 40/50's French spy thrillers and puts the very same character into a future where a technocratic dictatorship exists. In doing so, the very best idealism of American pulp-fiction is given back its soul by a French director, Godard, who truly was interested in the world of ideas.

This film not only shows why a totalitarian state must be destroyed, it also demonstrates some key philosophical concepts in the process. Through Godard, we learn that it is language that first must be assaulted before one can enslave man, then mathematics, then history and finally, the human mind itself. We can see parallels to this line of thinking through the world today and yet, how ironic that it is today's France that probably best embodies Godard's nightmare come to life (for a Western democracy of course).

The cinematography of Alphaville is superb, as is the musical score by Paul Misraki which is one of the finest I have experienced, for it reaches its crescendo with the most important line in the film, almost as an answer to a question. The theme of Alphaville is simple enough - the Individual against the State, but the soul of Alphaville reaches higher to a level where Man is sanctified against all intrusions on his life, liberty and happiness.

Anna Karina plays the part of the Ideal Woman still capable of feeling and understanding the value of love and that immortal word that may still one day save humanity - "I". It is a rare thing to find a work of art that speaks so eloquently to the sublime beauty of Man, Humanity and Individualism. Godard does this and more in Alphaville and for that, he should go down in history as one of Europe's finest artists.

Note - One would need to watch this film about 3 times to completely grasp every important nuance. Also, Anthem and 1984 are good reads along the same vain.

An Analysis of Genre
As usual with Godard moments stand out. In this film the most absurd sequence involves a diving platform in what looks to be an eastern bloc recreational center and a number of black sweatered and bereted revolutionaries with sub-machine guns standing on the pool deck spraying the divers as they dive. Whats it all mean? Well I suppose you could say its Godards way of commenting on the wests ability to turn even political oppression into mass entertainment.

I like a number of Godard films: Breathless, My Life To Live, Contempt, Pierrot Le Fou, First Name: Carmen, Hail Mary, In Praise of Love --still Alphaville remains kind of a hard one for me to get into. Perhaps because I am not too keen on science fiction. It seems the people who like this film are the ones who like science fiction in general. To me science fiction is full of cliches and so is film noir and so to me it seems Godard is using these genres to address cultural cliches -- and yet he is also making pointed comments on modern culture as he does so. You can always count on a Godard film to be smart and even though its not one of my favorites Alphaville is no exception to that rule.

Anna Karina looks great as always. Unfortunately for Lemmy Caution she is the daughter of Alphaville's overlord. No one really believes the future will look like a parking garage nor that a super-computer will run our lives and that people will become vacant automatons. Only a handful of early twentieth-century authors thought the future was leading us toward Alphaville. In the context of the swinging sixties sci fi just looks campy and noir even campier. Whats going on in Godards head? Hard to say in this film. To me its funny, but a surprising amount of people seem to take this sci fi stuff seriously.

I think the new wave band of outsiders enjoyed genre hopping because it gave them a chance to flex their movie knowledge. Plus genres come loaded with rules which the new wavers can then subvert -- so that is the fun of Alphaville, subversion of genre and in this case its a double dose of subversion because Godards subverting two genres, sci fi and noir. I think its interesting to note that in both of these genres men and women relate in steretypical and fatalistic ways -- and the new wave was about being hyper-conscious of these film conventions. Perhaps what Godard is really saying is that in order to invent life anew we must break free of these conventions. This is of course something his characters often fail to do although in some films they try. ... Read more

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One of the landmark early films of the French New Wave, director Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless) weaves a tale of desperation and deceit. Anna Karina (Vivre Sa Vie) plays a stripper determined to have a child in the hopes that it will better her life. She tries in vain to convince her rough, selfish boyfriend (Jean-Paul Belmondo) to father the child, but he refuses. In desperation and sparked by anger she turns to his best friend to father the child, setting off a new round of recrimination and betrayal. Une Femme Est une Femme is one of Godard's first films and essential viewing for fans of the Nouvelle Vague, to chart the beginnings of the detached mood and style that influenced a coming generation of films. --Robert Lane ... Read more

Reviews (14)

A glorious celebration of life!
When you watch "A Woman is a Woman" you enter a cinematic fantasy world created by Godard, one of our most inventive filmmakers. It is a world filled with color, music, humor, heartbreak, fluid tracking shots, creative editing and groundbreaking audio tracks. When you watch films like Coppola's "One from the Heart" or the recent "Moulin Rouge" you can instantly see how much "A Woman is a Woman" influenced those films. The big difference is Godard's film was made in 1961! Years ahead of it's time. The acting from Brialy, Belmondo and Karina is nothing short of brilliant. They play off of each other so well and look like they're having a marvelous time thru-out the film. The music score by Michel Legrand is one of the highlights of the viewing experience. There are so many musical interludes that pay homage to Hollywood musicals and at moments grand opera. They're just breathtaking! But remember, this is Godard's version of "life as musical." The actors don't break into song at any given moment. The musical score accents their dialogue as if they were in a musical, operatic production. In reading the other reviews posted here I am shocked to see people write the film off as a piece of boring fluff. If you keep an open mind and allow yourself to enter the world created by Godard in "A Woman is a Woman" you will be greatly rewarded. You'll wish you could go back in time and be on the streets of Paris sharing Anna Karina's red umbrella!

"I'm Not Without Shame. I'm a Dame!"
With the minor exception of the new english subtitles messing up this great final line, the Criterion Collection edition of Godard's "A Woman Is A Woman" is yet another outstanding release, on par with their "Contempt" and "Band of Outsiders" DVDs. Great picture/sound quality and great extras. An early short film (from 1957), "All Boys Are Called Patrick" is alone worth the price of the DVD. It's nice to see even in 1957, Godard had his style down; it's quite a funny bit of cinema. Wong Kar-Wai clearly liked this short-film, because there's a scene from "Chungking Express" lifted straight from it. Also included on this DVD is a 1966 French television interview with Anna Karina and she's enchanting as always (interesting to, because this comes right after her break-up with Godard), plus you see a bit of Serge Gainsbourg talking about Anna! If you're a Godard and/or Anna Karina fan, this is a must-own DVD. The movie itself, "A Woman Is A Woman", is one of Godard's most expiermental yet more accessible films. It's without doubt, his funniest film with several verbal and sight gags that will cause you to laugh-out-loud. And Raoul Coutard's camera work is amazing as usual. This film was definitely a few years ahead of it's time, seeming more in line with post-LSD flicks like Magical Mystery Tour and The Thomas Crown Affair than anything else form the early 1960s. Also, there's Michel LeGrand's outstanding, hyper-active score, which foreshadowed his Thomas Crown work.

There She Goes...
The New Wave has been assessed in every intellectual capacity, and using every aesthetic criterion imaginable, but what makes the New Wave the most beguiling of cinematic phenomenon is that, in essence, it is a declaration of the love of cinema, through cinema itself.

AWOMAN IS A WOMAN ("Une Femme est une Femme"), Godard's third film, is as much a milestone as his own "Breathless" two years earlier. The basic premise is effectively that of a kitchen sink drama; an exotic dancer's (Anna Karina) whim to have a baby is met with consternation by her boyfriend (Jean-Claude Brialy), who is further dismayed when she asks a mutual friend (Jean-Paul Belmondo) to act as a surrogate father.

But the neo-realist background gives way to a film shot in bold, giddy colours and synchronised to Legrand's harebrained soundtrack - A WOMAN IS A WOMAN is best described as a musical with no singing. Actors frequently affect choreographed like stances and positions, their conversations punctuated with overtly dramatic interventions from Legrand's score. Our heroine expresses her desire to appear in an American musical, "with Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse", before adopting the relevant deportment for the approval of the audience, who are constantly consulted, bowed to, winked at and cavorted with by actors revelling in front of Godard's lens.

It is Godard's preference for the actor, in favour of the character, that makes A WOMAN IS A WOMAN an unparalleled experience in spontaneity. Filmed without a script, the actors wear their own clothes and concoct their own dialogue. Belmondo in particular frolics in the new-found fame gifted to him by Godard, expressing his wish to be present when "they're showing Breathless on television", and grinning at the audience as he namedrops new acquaintance Burt Lancaster. Later, he meets Jeanne Moreau in a bar, and asks her "how JULES ET JIM is coming along".

And it is with Truffaut's masterpiece that A WOMAN IS A WOMAN shares its essential raison d'être - the embodiment of femininity through a dazzling and formidable singularity, in this instance Anna Karina, whose whims, mood-swings and impetuosity are her right and privilege as a woman, as all women. "Women have a right to dodge issues, men don't", she tells Brialy, shortly after decreeing the stupidity of modern women, "these women who imitate men". A smile turns to a frown or a tear in the blink of an eye, and back again just as quickly, in an infectiously joyful and touching performance that is among cinema's most engaging. Karina, the new wave bride, worked with husband Godard on seven of his greatest films, but it is this wonderful and dizzying cinematic cocktail that is Godard's most translucent love poem to an extraordinary actress touched by an impulsive genius and unique beauty.

Along with JULES ET JIM, Jacques Demy's LOLA and Godard's own BAND A PART, A WOMAN IS A WOMAN is the most energizing and uplifting of all New Wave films. Ironic, gleeful and baffling, it is essentially summed up by Brialy himself, who towards the film's delightful conclusion declares: "I don't know if this is a comedy or a tragedy, but it's a masterpiece"

To be re-released by Criterion
A Woman is a Woman should be re-released by the Criterion Collection in the 2nd half of 2004. Save your money from buying the expensive Fox-Lorber version.

Woman is a Ho, at least in this case.
I can forgive Godard for any number of sins but being cute is not one of them. This cloying, silly movie is embarassing, a total fluff from one of the most daring filmmakers ever. What led him to this? Love for Karina make his head go pop fizzle dizzy wizzy? This is Godard as an auteur of Hallmark I-Love-You cards. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

"Il faut se preter aux autres et se donner a soi-meme."
(Lend yourself to others and give yourself to yourself---Montaigne): ominous advice for the heroine of one of Godard's most easily digestable and congenial films. A seamless and cohesive twelve chapter documentary, _My Life to Live_, starring Godard's then wife Anna Karina, succeeds at striking the perfect balance between the filmmaker's more esoteric artistic tendencies and the ability to relate to a more mainstream audience. Loosely, the plot involves Nana, a 22-year old woman who leaves her husband and takes up casual prostitution. No doubt it is also an allusion to Emile Zola's novel about a female courtesan of the same name. Brilliant camera work is especially evident in the opening scene where we are introduced to Nana and her husband not by their faces, but by an affronting view of the backs of their heads. This visual device is used throughout and is contrasted with some mesmerizing shots of Joan-of-Arc-coiffed Karina, staring directly at the camera. If you thought Godard too intellectual or abrupt, give this film a try.

beautiful moving movie, godards best along with weekend
this movie i think will surprise most fans of godard accustomed to his formalism or his quotations of culture and art that some people regard as childish. which it does not mean that the movie is not interesting formally but i rarely cared about form since it seems it might be the movie in which godard cared the most about its content and characters; which cannot of course be said about the more famous and more representative of godard's style "breathless" which not surprisingly influenced some rather shallow, self indulgent filmakers such as martin scorsese or quentin tarantino. the movie moved me so much it made cry. the story of a young woman who leaves her unhappy relationship with her husband to seek an opportunity in the movies but instead must become a prostitute to support herself, is presented in a almost documentary-like style which lets the events speak for themselves and which lets the viewer see inside the girl's soul. theres no cheap manipulative music or exagerated acting. the camera style resembles more the simplicity and stillness of a movie by bresson or dreyer. this style was also used to great effect in "Masculin/Femenin" but here it leaves from the attention of the viewer which will most likely be caught by the great touching performance of anna karina. i cannot do anything right now but recommend this movie which just shows the awesome potential of cinema as an artform.

One of the best films I have ever seen
I watched this film in a theater full of people who did not like this film. They were loud, obnoxious, and groaned at the ending. I am embarassed and appalled to say that this was during a screening session at the film school I currently attend. I personally found this to be one of the most amazing films I have ever seen, and because of this was devestated: it was the film that I have always wanted to make, and now will never be able to without seeming like a pale imitation.

As soon as the word "FIN" came up on the screen, complaints were flying at the screen. My fellow students lammented either about how the ending was "contrived" or "too rediculously sad." It is my very strongly held opinion that they missed the entire point of this film. This film was not about the ending. This film was not even about the "plot." This film is about the human connections that we make and the human connections that we fail to make. It is about conversation at its most banal and at its most liberating (sometimes seperated by mere words). It is about life, it is about morality, and it is about filmmaking.

Although the silouette shots that compose the flawless opening credits sequence are beautiful, they are immidiately outdone by the cinematography of the first conversation of the film. This is a conversation with opposing motivations. The two people "engaged" in it (I use this term in the loosest sense) are not connecting with each other, and, indeed, only seem passively interested in each other.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HEAR A SINGLE WORD OF THIS CONVERSATION TO UNDERSTAND IT.

Granted, the words shared are spectacular, and their performance is even better (amazing considering the lines were given to the performers only a few short moments before the camera began rolling) - especially the moment in which a phrase is uttered several times just to explore its different potential meanings. But the words are utterly superfluous - the visual language is all that one needs to take in. Every shot is of the back of the performers' heads. We do not see their faces. They are expressionless. They are ciphers. Their conversation is tossed off, it does not even connect on a surface level. We not only never see their faces, but also never even see them in the same frame. It is disconnection and discontentment completely and utterly represented on purely visual terms.

Needless to say, the amazing camerawork continues throughout the film to the point where it would be impossible to analyse it all (not to say that my previous comments were analyzation - you'd need to write at least a 10 page essay just to approximate what the first sequence illustrates effortlessly), so just watch the film yourself, take it in, and enjoy it.

May I suggest that if you do not enjoy the film the first time (as my fellow students certainly did not), try to focus on other aspects of it. There are a tremendous number of layers to this film, and any one element of it demands a viewing of its own. If you still can't wring any enjoyment out of it, well, then, I'm terribly sorry. You're missing a wonderful experience.

Essential
Although the basic DVD extras (a commentary track, for starters) are missing, the print quality is very good and the movie is absolutely great - first-quality Godard and Karina.

a great film for little money
I believe someone complained about this film being full screen, but I'm pretty sure that's the original aspect ratio. I have to give a hand to Fox Lorber. Although Criterion does the best with older films, at least they have made these great films available on DVD at LOW prices! Where I live there are no decent video stores, so if I want to see something like this I have to buy it.
Now about the film.......the cinematography is beautiful.........and it doesn't hurt that it's main subject is Anna Karina.....i love it when she does 'itsy bitsy spider' to find out her height, and the editing in the cafe when the gun shots are fired & just about everytime she smiles......this was the first time I laid eyes on her *heart beats* ..now i want to see A Woman is a Woman badly.......the word is Criterion will release it this year.....yippee!! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Nino Manfredi gives a wonderfully comic and sensitive performance asNino, an Italian working as a waiter in Switzerland. Absent three years from his wife and children--for whom he is theoretically raising money to join him in Swiss prosperity--Nino is a little like David Bowie's dispirited alien in The Man Who Fell to Earth, an outsider too reinvented to return to his roots. Lonely, earthy, and clumsy among the polished locals, Nino has a series of Chaplinesque disasters that ultimately cost him his work permit and resident status. Instead of leaving the country, however, he sneaks back in and stays with a reclusive, beautiful woman (Anna Karina) with something of her own to hide. The adventures don't end there: like a modern Candide, Nino moves from one situation to the next, clinging to his optimism but also a strong suspicion he can never return home. Director Franco Brusati (Forget Venice) has made a rare comedy here that is both light and tough at the same time, with a hero whose clownish trappings don't so much soften his anxieties as make him more sympathetic for suffering them. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Lousy Copy
While the movie is delightful, this DVD should have been condemned. The titles are unreadable 30 to 40% of the time. What slappdash work on a good movie. The producers should be ashamed.

Great movie - AWFUL DVD!
This film is as significant as it is delightful because it is even more relevant today than in the 1970s. Today, most of Europe is populated by immigrant workers from all parts of the continent and Africa. And there is still the same kind of pecking order (those of you who've seen the film forgive that pun!): The Swiss look down on Italians, North Italians look down on Southern Italians, they in turn look down on Turks etc. The film bravely laughs at all our cultural flaws and salutes them.

And Nino Manfredi... what a gem! Part Charlie Chaplin and part Marcello Mastroianni, he's a wonderful blend of pathos and sweetness with just the right drop of vulgarity.
BUT...! Be forewarned, the DVD is the worst I've ever seen! The print they transferred is FULL of scratches, pops, and splices that chop off whole sentences. The light scenes are often washed out and the dark scenes are far too dark. And there are a number of occasions where the subtitles were lost in the white background. I can't imagine that they couldn't find a decent print of this film anywhere. Still, if you can't find a rental copy anywhere, it's still better to have even this awful version than no version at all.

A Great Film
This is one of my favorite films because it is multi-layered and rich. It makes me laugh, it fills me with sadness and it makes me think. An exquisite comedy, full of historical, social and philosophical implications, it is characterized by creative directing, wonderful acting, engaging cinematography and a great script. Buy it!

Impossibility overwhelms the dream
Although all performances are beautifully done, Nino Manfredi demonstrates an awesome level of acting skill that draws the audience into the midst of his trials and laughable tribulations.

The best comment I ever read by a reviewer of this film (many years ago)was: "You'll laugh 'til your heart breaks."

And so it goes. Don't miss it!!!

too much chocolate, not enough bread!
BREAD: funny at points, the main actor was a sensitive and sympathetic character...at first at least... also the portrayal of a a man out of his country, out of his element struck a symbolic chord in me (= a person not at home in him/herself, not on a connected path, a lost soul out of joint)

CHOCOLATE: the character went too far at being comedic and became a buffoon, so that it was hard to empathize with him...and at that point the story lost its symbolic strength. also, by the plot going over the top, becoming too wild and absurd, it lost its simple power and just became dull, frankly.

i couldn't finish watching it. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Mediocre, lavish but empty but compelling
George Cukor's impossibly ambitious version of Lawrence Durrell's superb "Alexandria Quartet" (of which "Justine" is only the first volume) is quite mediocre, lavish but empty, but compelling in a strange way. It is garish kitsch but just when you want to totally discount it, the performances pull you in. It is colorful, well-cast and generally well acted: Ana Karina is actually quite wonderful as the belly dancer Melissa; Dirk Bogarde (Pursewarden) , Philipe Noiret (Pombal), and John Vernon (Nessim) are equally good. Look for those fine actors Michael Dunn and Abraham Sofaer in tiny roles. Filmed in Tunisia, Cukor took over from the feckless Joseph Strick who destroyed Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" only the year before.

A trio of fine performances!
Distilling Durrell's complex novel was an impossible task, as Cukor's attempt shows. The renowned Hollywoood director inherited the project from Joseph Strick. Not quite the unmitigated disaster some critics claim it to be. Anouk Aimee is beautiful to look at, but it is the triad of Dirk Bogarde, Philippe Noiret and Anna Karina which stands out. Karina is especially touching as the doomed bellydancer Melissa--a performance overlooked by Oscar voters in 1968!

argh! no don't!
ok it was an almost impossible task to reduce the brilliant quartet to the screen, but this was just so disappointing. more than anything, it felt, well, cold and claustrophobic. END ... Read more

Description

Up Down Fragile is a luminously unique romantic musical set in summertime Paris.In beautiful sun drenched streets, cafes and parks three young lives intersect and are changed by an artist, a mystery, and a gun.Three of today's most talented young French actresses (Laurence Cote, Marianne Denicourt, Nathalie Richard) sing, dance and romance their way through Paris in this cinematic triumph directed by Jacques Rivette (La Belle Noiseuse", "Out 1", "Gang of Four") Up Down Fragile is a joyful burst of true cinema from one of the greatest French filmmakers of all time. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Challenge at every shot
This film was for me the coldest bucket of water I ever recieved in my face. Besides being a perfect performance in the classical and avant-garde point of view, it reaches a point hardly ever achieved in the story of cinema. Why? Because its intentions go beyond the screen and awakes the spectator thanks to the freshness of all its components (acting & dancing improvisation, subtle rythmic script, beautiful chansons, direction). The effect I mean is that the sense of real life (the unexpected, the fantasy, the inner trivial thoughts) created in this film was scarecely shared by other ones. Although it well fits in the Nouvelle Vague, where Rivette I consider to be one highest exponents (or the highest): to search endlessly the power of the camera to manipulate life or understand it. Rivette, in my opinion, created an antithesis of the hollywood film: break the stereotypes that blind us. He proposes us to see life as if is, half thoughts and fantasy and half the unexpected of the other one, tho whom we dedicate our life. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

The Godardian aesthetic reaches its apex...
Jean-Luc Godard has long been the darling of the French New Wave, beginning with the 'stereotypical' nouvelle vague film, "Breathless." While "Breathless" is the film that everyone regards as 'the one,' the true beauty in Godard's filmmaking is expressed with "Band of Outsiders." Once again featuring Godard's beautiful wife Anna Karina, "Band of Outsiders" is the kind of crime film that you're not entirely sure if you like or not. You know it's good, and you understand the mocking nature of it, but you're not sure if you like it.

Godard puts the viewer in a state of euphoria by spinning a tale of intrigue involving two 'criminals' and their female counterpart. This part of the story is the crime drama that we know and love. But at the same time, Godard is letting his imagination run wild, filling our minds with life's little pleasantries and random absurdities.

While Truffault's films as a whole are more widely recognized around the world, Godard truly is the grandfather of the French New Wave. Truffault's films are easy for average film viewers to watch, as he spoon feeds us one situation after another. Truffault is the Zemeckis of the French New Wave. Not a bad director, in fact a very competent one, just not one who is on the cutting edge, as is Godard. To begin to appreciate Godard, one must watch the master at work. And the best place to start is right here, with the relatively unknown and certainly underappreciated "Band of Outsiders."

Dancing the Madison in glorious black and white!
If there are any films that offer a wonderful sense of love for the cinema, they are the films of Jean-Luc Godard. But, as he explains in a brief interview from 1964 that is included with this fine DVD, he was also against film; that is, against the conventions and rules that predominated French cinema. So he introduced unconventional methods of telling stories and making movies and decided to include elements that films typically left out. "Band of Outsiders" is a playful, unconventional, mesmerizing tale of small-time gangsters and young love set in 1960s Paris. Its source material runs the gamut from the pulp crime novel on which it is based to the American B-movies and film noir that inspired its look. It's Godard's best love letter to Paris since "Breathless," and also one of the last of his true New Wave films.

The story might be simple enough: Arthur and Franz enlist the help of the young, beautiful Odile to stage a robbery. But if the story is simple, everything else around it is not. Here we find allusions and homages to Arthur Rimbaud (the poet whom one of the characters is named after), Franz Kafka, film composer Michel Legrand, "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," T.S. Eliot, Shakespeare, American cartoons, Jack London, Charlie Chaplin, Andre Breton, Andre Malraux, and numerous others. That's Godard doing his thing, and even if we miss those allusions, there's so much more to be cherished: the famous minute of silence, the running visit through the Louvre, the dance scene, the glorious closeups of Anna Karina, riding on the underground metro, the trio driving through the streets of Paris.

"Band of Outsiders" is playful, wondrous, hilarious, breezy, but at the same time melancholic, dark in its undertones. Raoul Coutard's photography gives it a stark look, but its playfulness is its most alluring aspect, along with Godard's wonderfully appealing, inventive visual language. It might not be the finest example of the French New Wave, nor is it as perfect as a work of art as "Breathless" and "My Life to Live," but in its flaunting of cinematic invention, its richness, and its embodiment of pure cinema, it's in a class by itself and certainly a film that should be seen, if not owned, by lovers of cinema. Its most memorable moments will remain in your mind forever.

Many Godard fans, myself included, have been waiting eagerly for this Criterion edition of "Band of Outsiders." It's a remarkable digital transfer; the images and contrasts are crisp; the mono soundtrack is as clear as possible. The additional features are worth the price of the DVD alone, including a visual glossary that explains many of the film's allusions and a brief interview in which Godard explains the philosophy behind the New Wave. Criterion has really outdone itself with this disc, and that's saying something.

I recommend that, even if you do not know French, you should watch this film at least once with the subtitles off since they sometimes obscure the closeups that make this film so memorable. When the camera is on Anna Karina's face, believe me when I say you don't want anything to stand in its way.

Line Dance
Saw this the other day. Didn't know it was Godard classic. The Dance Scene, I didn't want it to end. It was so flakey, kind of a line dance to French Pop sound of 1964, hard to describe. Anna Karina is sutle knock out, frumby in most scenes, but she Ann Margaret's in dance. The rest of the movie is a playful romp, a nonsensical take off on American heist movies of the 40's. Not totally successful, but worth it for sophisticated.

Classic Godard!
This is classic Godard here. This is a very fun and entertaining film.

There are a few scenes in the film that are quite famous and it's a delight to have seen it.

If you love true cinema, experience Band of Outsiders.

DVD Review
Band of Outsiders is easily Godard's most accessible and most enjoyable film. This is early 60's New Wave spirited, movie convention bashing Godard, not the abstract inpenatratably political Godard of the late 60's and on. Spontaneous and joyful the picture has that wondeful feel of Paris in the early 60's. Godard punctuates the film with brilliant witty asides that are among his finest. The Louvre tour and Madison dance are some of the coolest moments on film. In fact the entire movie conveys a great sense of cool, a quirky cool. For me the film is especially notable because it introduced me to Anna Karina. This is one of the seven films she made with Godard and with this film I became captivated by her prescence as icon of the New Wave.

Video: Thank you Criterion for providing a gorgeous transfer of the film. Extremely clean, perfectly sharp, nice contrast and this film is nearly 40 years old!

Extras: Way to good, this is cheap for a Criterion disc and has more extras then most. A fun bonus identfies several in jokes and literary references, although the narrator is annoying. A short documentary actually has footage of Godard directing on set and is great for historic purposes. A recent interview with Coutard is interesting, but the highlight for me was an recent interview with Anna Karina. My college term paper on Karina took a lot of material from this. Another great bonus is a short silent film starring Karina and Godard. This short is in the film Cleo 5-7 and is lots of fun is you know a thing or two about Karina and Godard's relationship. Godard's own trailer for the film is wonderful and as I write this I notice their is a lengthy booklet which I didn't get around to reading. Awesome job Criterion one of your best DVDs. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Freedom, where?
Anna Karina, Jacques Rivette's then wife, stars in this many tiered expose of social and religious norms in 18th century France. Anna Karina's striking beauty and smoldering sensuality are in full bloom and yet since she is an illegitimate daughter she is treated like a burden by her parents who want nothing more than to be rid of her. The convent is the easiest solution. And for Karina the convent is an especially cruel fate as she has grown up amid the most opulent surroundings. In the first scene of the film we see beautiful Karina being coerced into taking vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. She rebels against the bizarre rituals she is being forced to take part in and is returned home but slowly she is coerced by both family and church to enter the convent. And the convent turns out to be just one long torture for her. Once there she is told she must surrender all individuality but the more they try and subdue her the more she fights back and since they can't convert her spirit she is soon being punished with more and more severe physical depravities. She applies to be released but the civil authorities fear doing anything that will upset the very powerful church authorities. Finally one sympathetic clergyman allows her to be transferred to another convent.

Convent #2 is absolutely a world apart from the first convent. In fact it looks like the 1960's in this new locale as all the nuns wear beads and dress each according to their taste and sit hand in hand singing songs. This new convent is as liberal and permissive as the other convent was strict and disciplinarian but Karina soon finds out that convent #2 has a few irregularities of its own--like night visits from a wanton mother superior. Karina's beauty seems to be her curse. Karina confides to the parish priest about her fears of the mother superior whose intentions she only partially understands and the prieswho knows full well the mother superiors inclinations helps her escape. Once free of the convents walls however the priest also tries to accost her. The religious institution failed her in every way and society proves just as unkind. She is soon taken under the wing of a nice woman who feeds her but that woman turns out to be a madame of a brothel and the last scenes of the film show Karina yet again forced to take part in yet another bizarre ritual.

A very powerful film which stays with you days after seeing it. I believe ultimately it is a story about how elusive a thing true freedom really is.

Studious Look at the Life of an Unwanted Woman
Though Jacques Rivette is equated with the French New Wave his films are not marked by the quick cuts and time shifts and collage quality of other New Wave directors. Rivettes style is slow and meticulous with very long takes. Some New Wave film makers emphasize spontaineity by speeding things up Rivette does just the opposite--he slows things down and the effect of his very long scenes is that you have time to think and focus on things much more intently, perhaps even meditatively.

The story is of Susan whose two older sisters have been married off. But Susan will not be married off because she was the product of a brief infidelity. Her presence is a constant reminder to her mother of that infidelity so she wants to be rid of her if only to clear her conscience. So Susan is coerced into becoming a nun. At first she refuses her vows but soon she sees no other way. Rivette painstakingly shows the inner torment this beautiful girl of 19 goes through as she is told she must vow to poverty, obedience and chastity for life. One understanding older nun helps her along but soon that only friend passes away and since Susan is not as docile as the others she is soon at odds with everyone in the convent. The Mother Superior tries to tame her with tortures and cruelties but Susans will is not broken. Finally her petitions to be transferred are accepted and she is off to convent number two. This second convent is idyllic, the sisters are much more liberal and much less severe, unfortunately for virtuous Susan its also a hotbed of sapphic activity. In the first convent Rivette showed us Susans rebellious side and in this new setting he shows us another side of her, her pure and innocent side. Rivette is studiously showing how conventions both social and religious shape people(or try to) and what blunt(and corrupt) instruments they prove to be especially when a true individual comes along and confronts them and refuses to be shaped by them.

Lastly there is Susans attempt to live in the outside world. But brought up in such cloistered surroundings and never having been given a proper education about the ways of the world and given the limited options available to women in 18th century France she is thoroughly unprepared, she remains an innocent though a thoroughly unique one to the end. The ending is abrupt. Rivette is never sentimental, he is matter of fact. He presents his scenes like facts and lets his viewers come to their own conclusion. Fascinatingly told story from a fascinating film maker.

poor susanne
i agree wholeheartedly with the previous reviewers comments. this is melodrama at its finest, with a slow confident pace that gradually builds tension up to a surprising twist and tragic finalle. however, i feel compelled to warn potential buyers - the quality of this transfer is quite poor. if you have seen any of the old "hen's tooth" releases of renais' films of the sixties (i.e. muriel), you will know what i mean - with that it mind i would recommend searching for a rental before making a purchase. but do check it out. it has a grace totally lacking in todays general hollywood fare, which makes it all the more shocking and admorable.

Astonishing!
Initially banned in France in the 60s, this film version of Diderot's shocking novel about a young woman forced into the nunnery is considered the most traditional of New Wave master Jacques Rivette's oeuvre. But it is compelling, visually beautiful and poignant. The film is greatly abetted by the superb performances of the sterling cast-- Micheline Presle as the kindly mother superior, Liselotte Pulver as a lesbian nun and Anna Karina, Godard's muse and then wife, in the title role. Karina's performance is unforgettable,making this film one of the important achievements in French cinema. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Hypnotically stylish, witty, but problematic Gothic thriller
Chinese Roulette (1976) is a hypnotically stylish, witty and puzzling Gothic thriller. Its several intertwined mysteries - some of plot, all of character - make it diabolically involving. Yet while its ambiguities are a strength, some nag more than they resonate. The DVD transfer is vivid.

After focusing on films about individual characters in the previous three years (Effi Briest, Fox and His Friends, Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven), Fassbinder here creates a striking ensemble piece. Although each actor gives a finely-etched performance (including Fassbinder regulars Margit Carstensen, Ulli Lommel, and Brigitte Mira; plus two actresses associated with his idol Jean-Luc Godard: Macha Meril and Anna Karina), the screenplay is another matter. Several of the characters' names seem heavily symbolic, with some kind of tension between names with a biblical resonance (Christ, Angela, Gabriel), and others with a Greco-Roman bent (Ariane/Ariadne gave Theseus the thread to find his way out of the minotaur's labyrinth), Irene in Greek means peace. The implications behind each of those names can be forced into a reading of the film as a whole: Gabriel "announcing" a new world order (in his loopy "philosophy"); Ariane, in the final moments, helping lead Gerhard out of a sexual "labyrinth," etc. But after three viewings, the film feels top-heavy with symbols, yet they never come together as clues to reading the film, either straightforwardly or ironically. And the film's final image of a ghostly throng (their banner looks vaguely Nazi) marching outside the Christs' chateau does not meaningfully help clarify, or complexify, anything. The screenplay feels half-baked, although in other films Fassbinder is usually dead-on in his writing - including his use of subtle layers of meaning.

However there are several details to admire, including the sly way he plays with our expectations. Instead of some hand-wringing melodrama about infidelity, his four "adulterers" are remarkably sensitive to each other's foibles. And they are in committed, long-term infidelities (not a paradox in Fasbinder's world): Ariane and Kolbe have been together for seven years, Gerhard and Irene for eleven. And it was a stroke of twisted genius for Fassbinder to make sweet-faced, disabled little Angela, who loves to hug her dollies, the antagonist. Although we understand the possible motivation for her revenge on her parents, she is still a chilling creation. She also embodies one of Fassbinder's key themes in her manipulation of other people - either directly (her sadistic bossing of the sinister housekeeper), indirectly (her constant but unspoken provocation of her mother), or both (masterminding the climactic Chinese Roulette game).

Although Angela's scheming helps keep the narrative moving, like the other characters she never gels either as metaphor (too murky) or as a person (too vaguely drawn). Of course in many other films, Fassbinder did create characters who are simultaneously symbolic and real, like Effi Briest, "Fox" Biberkopf, Mother Kusters, and dozens of others. Despite many fine, small moments, the problems of character in this film also affect the overall dramatic scheme.

The dramatic problems reveal themselves clearly in the brief final act - the Chinese Roulette scene (reputedly one of Fassbinder's favorite pastimes). Although he masterfully builds up to the game, when it arrives the characters were not developed enough to give this climax its necessary force. I expected it to reveal something momentous not only about them but about the picture's themes. But it does not. And although there is plenty of psychosexual ambiguity, it feels more atmospheric than integral.

Throughout, Fassbinder seemed to use his eight characters to create a microcosm - but of what? A critique of the upper crust and/or upwardly mobile; of materialism? A satire on the foibles of desire, romantic habit, matrimony (at the end Fassbinder prints the marriage vows over that final eerie long shot of the possibly-Nazi ghosts)? Or, more darkly, does this group represent the profound failures of self-understanding which lead to fascism (the recurrent Nazi motif)? This film needed more of the psychological and thematic fullness of, say, Renoir's Rules of the Game (1939) or Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), which may have inspired it. (Fassbinder is a great filmmaker, who worked under tremendous strain: In 1976 he wrote and directed three feature films, plus staged a major production of Clare Boothe Luce's play The Women, even as he prepared to film it.)

The film is much more successful in the mysteries it suggests through image, which resonate long after memories of the story fade. Some are hauntingly poetic: Angela's diabolical dolls, a shot of a forest reflected onto a window and all of that reflected yet again in a mirror, the decaying head of a stag in the forest, and several more. Those images feel like a gloss on the macabre nature of Gothicism itself (with its love of death, decay, and doppelgangers), as much as on the particulars of this film. Those fleeting images seem to have bubbled up from some dark recess of Fassbinder's fantastically rich imagination, and that instinctively he put them in where they felt right. They do not have a pat meaning, which you can easily put into words; they are genuinely, richly ambiguous.

[3-1/2 stars rounded up to 4, because this film is worth seeing. Also, many Fassbinder fans consider this one of his greatest works.] ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Ferdinand (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is a man who has married for money and is terribly disillusioned with his life.When forced to go to a dinner party he does not want to attend, he throws a temper tantrum and returns home early. When driving Marianne (Anna Karina), the babysitter, back home, they fall in love and decide to run away from Paris.They embark on a series of escapades that begins with running illegal arms for extra cash and runs the gamut: love, death, ennui, boat chases, murder, betrayal, revenge, lost cash, and almost anything else you can think of, and all with a sense of reality that is an interesting contrast to the typical American film. Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless, Alphaville) blends different genres with great success and achieves moments of cinematic poetry in this quasi-epic of modern malaise.Also a cameo by the Hollywood director Samuel Fuller is something to watch for.Be aware that Godard is for people seriously interested in cinematic art. --James McGrath ... Read more

Reviews (26)

What we cannot speak about, we must pass over in silence
At my local UC PIERROT is shown in the survey of film history class they offer. I was invited to sit in once. Normally the professor shows the film, then lectures. He screened PIERROT. When it was over, there was total silence. He started to lecture, but almost the entire lecture hall of students walked out. A good friend told me later that she had been profoundly moved, and she simply didn't want to understand why. She didn't feel it was respectful to what she had just seen. PIERROT is on of the few examples of true mystical cinema that we have. Yes, there are the references to Rimbaud, Hollywood musicals, gangster films.... The visual puns, the references to Godard and Karina's life at the time, the improvisations, the barbs about American commercialism, the Gish-rebeling-against-Grifith quality of Karina's amazing performance... But what do they matter?

Sunlight/love/color/the face/poetry/emotion/loss of love/slapstick/image/life: PIERROT LE FOU

"Pierrot le Fou" Is Me and You
Godard's "Pierrot le Fou" (1965) is in my opinion his greatest film and possibly the greatest movie of the 1960s. In it Godard attempts to do EVERYTHING- capture both life and art in a movie. I don't think there's been a movie like it before or since. Seeing it is an experience like no other - it truly involves the viewer's mind and senses in a breathtakingly imaginative, creative,new way. "Pierrot le Fou" stars Godard's (then)muse and wife Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo, the star of his first, breakthrough film "Breathless"."Pierrot le Fou" begins with a deft satire of the incredible power of corporate culture and advertising to shrink people's interior life and identity/personality, and then follows a couple's run on the lam (a la Bonnie and Clyde) from a crazy series of crimes and rejection of social conventions. It is filled with images, comments and action referring to politics(the Vietnam War, Algeria, Arabs and Israel, terrorism) art (Renoir, Velasquez, Celine,Rimbaud,comic books and 'pulp' genres, Samuel Fuller and on and on), the war between the sexes, the impossibility of really knowing and understanding another person,and other things. It also has some very enjoyable comic and musical vignettes. It's a lot for a movie to take on, but in spite of all this, the experience of "Pierrot le Fou" feels like both a pleasurably cerebral and sensual new way of viewing (and making) a movie. I don't know where Godard could have gone after "Pierrot le Fou" - it's too bad he wasn't able to continue in this exciting new vein. His films after this became more explicitly leftist/Marxist/Maoist political and in the case of "Weekend", completely bleak as well. And after "Weekend"(1968) Godard gave up on feature filmmaking for over ten years. All I know is that it's great "Pierrot Le Fou" is here as an example of how thrilling the process of life and the movies' transformation/representation/reflection of it can be.

O Criterion Where Are You
This is a five-star movie with a deduction for the DVD release. It may be that this movie will never look or sound that good technicallly, but a restoration would surely help. Even if Fox Lorber gave us only a commentary track, I would give the extra rating star; this is a bare-bones production effort of a movie that deserves the red-carpet treatment.

Funny, Tragic, Mystic : Pierrot le Fou c'est moi
What I love about the two Godard/Belmondo films (Breathless & Pierrot Le Fou) is the marriage of the sacred and profane, the comic and the tragic, the high and the low. Only true masters achieve a world view that encompasses so much of life. Pierrot Le Fou is to the late sixties what Breathless was to the early sixties. If Breathless contains just the rumblings of unrest then Pierrot Le Fou is an open revolt. In Breathless Belmondo played at being Bogart and he and Jean Seberg just played at being alive. Breathless was Godard's homage to gangster films and American spontaneity, compared to Pierrot Le Fou however it was a very tamely structured film. In Pierrot Le Fou all semblance of structure is destroyed; Godard picks up and discards genres as quickly as Belmondo picks up and discards books. Godard and Belmondo make a perfect team; Godard is the overly intellectual auteur and Belmondo the oafish clownish ham but together they seem to comprise one complete individual--one behind the camera and one in front of it. Anna Karina is perfect just being Anna Karina. She doesn't have to do much but be her charming and pretty self--everything seems to come too easy for her and so she is always bored and in need of change. On one level the film traces a love story from its inception to its demise but on another level its about how pervasive consumer culture has become. Consumerism affects every aspect of these characters lives. Belmondo consumes culture-- he reads books at an alarming rate, and he needs a constant supply of new books to keep him happy. And Karina consumes lovers--the first time we see her there is an unidentified male corpse in her room(an old lover that she has grown bored with and disposed of). Eventually she will dispose of Belmondo too.

Its a very funny film in parts and a very sad film in other parts and even a bit mystical toward the end. Its a poignant elegy for the brevity of all things. In the end once all the antics and activity have ceased and the play acting at love and at being gangsters has lost its ability to entertain, Belmondo and Karina confront the emptiness that is always at the heart of life and its then that we realize how important all that play acting really was. But Godard finds beauty even in emptiness and the ending of this film has an eerie and mystic grace to it--two dead lovers talking to each other about how only death can truly bring them together. Pierrot Le Fou is one of the most satisfying of Godards films--it entertains more consistently than any of his other films and it also presents the Godard vision in full.

Another Take on the DVD Edition
If you have only seen PIERROT on VHS/Pan & Scan, the letterboxed version here is automatically welcome. In terms of picture quality, it just may be possible that this is how the film was meant to look: a little rough in spots and with a few idiosyncrasies in the sound. Godard's film is deliberately self-aware as a 'put-together' work and is probably not meant to be conventionally beautiful. Nonetheless, several sequences are striking and aethetically pleasing.

Since the packaging currently available is different from a previous DVD incarnation, could it be possible that the disc represents a newer, improved mastering? This is suggested only because to this viewer, the film looks mostly terrific. The sound is another story: mastered at a low-level, it does not come across as well as might be expected. As for the walkie-talkie scenes, they are surely meant to sound the way they do.

4 stars as a rating, because there are no trailers or extras worth mentioning.

An acceptable, if not ideal, DVD of a one-of-a-kind film experience ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Big MacInnes fan not too disappointed
I am a huge fan of Helen MacInnes' work and would love to see all 4 of the movies based on her books. Unfortunately, only 2 made it on video. I now own both and am not disappointed with either one.
While this movie does seem dated to today's eyes, it is a good movie. MacInnes' books are extremely meaty and, while not all could be translated to screen, this does a good job of staying true to the story w/o using everything from the book. I also think that those who have no interest in the book would still enjoy the story, although not if you can't appreciate the fact that it is dated by today's standards. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Described by its maker, Jean-Luc Godard, as "Alice in Wonderland meets Franz Kafka," this 1964 film noir stars Anna Karina as a naive woman who takes up with couple of would-be bad guys (Claude Brasseur, Sami Frey) in a disastrous effort to rob her aunt of a fortune. Along the way, the motley group joins the Godardian (and Hollywood gangster) tradition of characters who walk a line between reality and invention, in this case distracting themselves by running around the Louvre, taking a stab at learning English, stumbling through some dance steps, and reenacting the death of Billy the Kid. A uniquely spontaneous work in Godard's canon, Band of Outsiders also continues the Brechtian strain in the director's merged relationship with Karina, his then-wife and artistic muse. Yet it is also more buoyantly unpredictable in its sense of romantic doom than any of the director's movies since his seminal debut, Breathless (also a gangster film, not coincidentally). --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (17)

The Godardian aesthetic reaches its apex...
Jean-Luc Godard has long been the darling of the French New Wave, beginning with the 'stereotypical' nouvelle vague film, "Breathless." While "Breathless" is the film that everyone regards as 'the one,' the true beauty in Godard's filmmaking is expressed with "Band of Outsiders." Once again featuring Godard's beautiful wife Anna Karina, "Band of Outsiders" is the kind of crime film that you're not entirely sure if you like or not. You know it's good, and you understand the mocking nature of it, but you're not sure if you like it.

Godard puts the viewer in a state of euphoria by spinning a tale of intrigue involving two 'criminals' and their female counterpart. This part of the story is the crime drama that we know and love. But at the same time, Godard is letting his imagination run wild, filling our minds with life's little pleasantries and random absurdities.

While Truffault's films as a whole are more widely recognized around the world, Godard truly is the grandfather of the French New Wave. Truffault's films are easy for average film viewers to watch, as he spoon feeds us one situation after another. Truffault is the Zemeckis of the French New Wave. Not a bad director, in fact a very competent one, just not one who is on the cutting edge, as is Godard. To begin to appreciate Godard, one must watch the master at work. And the best place to start is right here, with the relatively unknown and certainly underappreciated "Band of Outsiders."

Dancing the Madison in glorious black and white!
If there are any films that offer a wonderful sense of love for the cinema, they are the films of Jean-Luc Godard. But, as he explains in a brief interview from 1964 that is included with this fine DVD, he was also against film; that is, against the conventions and rules that predominated French cinema. So he introduced unconventional methods of telling stories and making movies and decided to include elements that films typically left out. "Band of Outsiders" is a playful, unconventional, mesmerizing tale of small-time gangsters and young love set in 1960s Paris. Its source material runs the gamut from the pulp crime novel on which it is based to the American B-movies and film noir that inspired its look. It's Godard's best love letter to Paris since "Breathless," and also one of the last of his true New Wave films.

The story might be simple enough: Arthur and Franz enlist the help of the young, beautiful Odile to stage a robbery. But if the story is simple, everything else around it is not. Here we find allusions and homages to Arthur Rimbaud (the poet whom one of the characters is named after), Franz Kafka, film composer Michel Legrand, "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," T.S. Eliot, Shakespeare, American cartoons, Jack London, Charlie Chaplin, Andre Breton, Andre Malraux, and numerous others. That's Godard doing his thing, and even if we miss those allusions, there's so much more to be cherished: the famous minute of silence, the running visit through the Louvre, the dance scene, the glorious closeups of Anna Karina, riding on the underground metro, the trio driving through the streets of Paris.

"Band of Outsiders" is playful, wondrous, hilarious, breezy, but at the same time melancholic, dark in its undertones. Raoul Coutard's photography gives it a stark look, but its playfulness is its most alluring aspect, along with Godard's wonderfully appealing, inventive visual language. It might not be the finest example of the French New Wave, nor is it as perfect as a work of art as "Breathless" and "My Life to Live," but in its flaunting of cinematic invention, its richness, and its embodiment of pure cinema, it's in a class by itself and certainly a film that should be seen, if not owned, by lovers of cinema. Its most memorable moments will remain in your mind forever.

Many Godard fans, myself included, have been waiting eagerly for this Criterion edition of "Band of Outsiders." It's a remarkable digital transfer; the images and contrasts are crisp; the mono soundtrack is as clear as possible. The additional features are worth the price of the DVD alone, including a visual glossary that explains many of the film's allusions and a brief interview in which Godard explains the philosophy behind the New Wave. Criterion has really outdone itself with this disc, and that's saying something.

I recommend that, even if you do not know French, you should watch this film at least once with the subtitles off since they sometimes obscure the closeups that make this film so memorable. When the camera is on Anna Karina's face, believe me when I say you don't want anything to stand in its way.

Line Dance
Saw this the other day. Didn't know it was Godard classic. The Dance Scene, I didn't want it to end. It was so flakey, kind of a line dance to French Pop sound of 1964, hard to describe. Anna Karina is sutle knock out, frumby in most scenes, but she Ann Margaret's in dance. The rest of the movie is a playful romp, a nonsensical take off on American heist movies of the 40's. Not totally successful, but worth it for sophisticated.

Classic Godard!
This is classic Godard here. This is a very fun and entertaining film.

There are a few scenes in the film that are quite famous and it's a delight to have seen it.

If you love true cinema, experience Band of Outsiders.

DVD Review
Band of Outsiders is easily Godard's most accessible and most enjoyable film. This is early 60's New Wave spirited, movie convention bashing Godard, not the abstract inpenatratably political Godard of the late 60's and on. Spontaneous and joyful the picture has that wondeful feel of Paris in the early 60's. Godard punctuates the film with brilliant witty asides that are among his finest. The Louvre tour and Madison dance are some of the coolest moments on film. In fact the entire movie conveys a great sense of cool, a quirky cool. For me the film is especially notable because it introduced me to Anna Karina. This is one of the seven films she made with Godard and with this film I became captivated by her prescence as icon of the New Wave.

Video: Thank you Criterion for providing a gorgeous transfer of the film. Extremely clean, perfectly sharp, nice contrast and this film is nearly 40 years old!

Extras: Way to good, this is cheap for a Criterion disc and has more extras then most. A fun bonus identfies several in jokes and literary references, although the narrator is annoying. A short documentary actually has footage of Godard directing on set and is great for historic purposes. A recent interview with Coutard is interesting, but the highlight for me was an recent interview with Anna Karina. My college term paper on Karina took a lot of material from this. Another great bonus is a short silent film starring Karina and Godard. This short is in the film Cleo 5-7 and is lots of fun is you know a thing or two about Karina and Godard's relationship. Godard's own trailer for the film is wonderful and as I write this I notice their is a lengthy booklet which I didn't get around to reading. Awesome job Criterion one of your best DVDs. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Described by its maker, Jean-Luc Godard, as "Alice in Wonderland meets Franz Kafka," this 1964 film noir stars Anna Karina as a naive woman who takes up with couple of would-be bad guys (Claude Brasseur, Sami Frey) in a disastrous effort to rob her aunt of a fortune. Along the way, the motley group joins the Godardian (and Hollywood gangster) tradition of characters who walk a line between reality and invention, in this case distracting themselves by running around the Louvre, taking a stab at learning English, stumbling through some dance steps, and reenacting the death of Billy the Kid. A uniquely spontaneous work in Godard's canon, Band of Outsiders also continues the Brechtian strain in the director's merged relationship with Karina, his then-wife and artistic muse. Yet it is also more buoyantly unpredictable in its sense of romantic doom than any of the director's movies since his seminal debut, Breathless (also a gangster film, not coincidentally). --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (26)

My first Godard
I must confess, this is, so far, my own exposure to Jean-Luc Godard (hey, the local Blockbuster doens't have "Breathless!"), so I can't really compare or contrast this film to any of his others.

But I did enjoy this film very much.I like the story, love the cinematography (did I spell that right?), and what's not to love about the Madison scene?My only complaint is the blatent b-movie and pulp novel references (did the narrator really have to say things like "This is the part where we learn what the characters are feeling?").Perhaps that's the whole point of the film, but I personally think the film would be just as good without them.

But other than that, I say go see this movie...and bring me back "Breathless" while your at it.

Take the New with the Old...
...and vice versa.Cinema today would not be what it is without the classics; without Godard, without Kurosawa, without Fellini we would have no Tarintino, Spielberg, or Scorsese.Band of Outsiders is an example of how fun a movie can be, and an even better example on how early cinema gave a blueprint for modern classics.In one of the greatest scenes in a film I've ever witnessed, the films three main characters, Odile, Aurthur, and Franz, dance the Madison for several minutes inside a cafe, while taking a break from their drinks and, seemingly, their reality.Their reality, for the moment, is the thought of performing a crime; stealing several thousand Francs from the house where Odile stays with her aunt.It is not the only place in the film where the characters do this (another memorable scene is a race through the Lourve in an attempt to beat an American's record for the fastest visit), but it is easily the finest.The scene is mimicked, but not mocked or re-created, in less a revealing or personal scene in Pulp Fiction.Although it was funny and odd to see Uma and John dance the way they do, it is a far cry from the trio dancing the Madison.However, I don't think Tarintino was trying to BE Godard in that scene, simply to pay homage to him (the name of Tarintino's production company is A Band Apart.Bande a Part is the french name for Band of Outsiders; thats not a coincedance!)

Just as Scorsese pays deliberate homage to Sam Fuller during a Boxing scene in Raging Bull, Tarintio uses his films to pay due respect to the brilliant films and film-makers that inspired him.My point in all this is to fans who attack modern film makers, and often times cut them down for showing such respect to those who inspired them, just as much as it is to say to fans of modern cinema to take a much-needed gander back to the classics.Pulp Fiction got me interested in the art of film making, and I will always love that movie for it.And if I decide that Tarintino used bits and pieces from his favorite movies to make his own, so what?It shows an amount of personality and respect that is lost on most of today's (my!) generation.Don't be mad at Tarintino for being too obvious; be glad that someone who is considered hip has the guts to do it at all and not sell himself, or his heros, short.

artfully entertaining
Single frames flash onscreen to jubilant music in this remarkably carefree film from Jean-Luc 'cinema' Godard.

"A few clues for latecomers: Several weeks ago... A pile of money... An English class... A house by the river... A romantic young girl... "

A palatable and light examination of crime, pop culture, and psychology, Band of Outsiders is an enjoyable journey into the life of three mischievous and idealistic youths. Two questing criminals enlist the help of a naive schoolgirl to steal the fortunes of her Aunt, only to encounter the fragility of human relationships, the joyousness of youth, and the unanticipated failure of thievery.

Replete with b-movie references, Band of Outsiders combines the confrontational, innovative style characteristic of Godard with a lighter and more grandiose mood of positivity. Brash negativity rears its ugly head less often than it could in a gangster film as the audience leaves with overall positive feeling despite the inevitable perish of main players.With sparse and meaningful narration, the story is brutally honest to both the shortcomings and the endearments of characters, and is a vehicle for both the stereotypical movie character as well as the realistic human.

Plot is classic criminal film spruced up with a compilation of quotable Godard affectations, and cinematography is gracefully effective.Editing stands out here, especially in the realm of sound design where audience is invited to a contemplative minute of veritable silence.

This film is a journey of enjoyment, inviting the viewer to take part in a record-breaking run through the Louvre, and to dance the highly addictive Madison.Unashamedly perfectly directed by Godard, Band of Outsiders is an important addition to true cinematic genius, unparalleled by followers and its maker alike.

Will film critics stop praising how glorious Tarantino is!!!
Yes, this movie is awe-inspiring, awesome (I'm running out of adjectives here, lol) but will certain film critics (Roger Ebert I hope you read this) stop going around and saying how everything with dark humor, odd narrative, talky dialogue, etc., is Tarantino-esque?? Without Godard writing the blueprint on how to be a film essayist, there wouldn't be a Tarantino-esque (QT also owes a lot to Elmore Leonard, Scorsese, DePalma, and blaxploitation.). If I read one more review from overrated critic Ebert about how Tarantino paved the way for filmmakers that have a Godardian bite to their films, I might kill myself, lol

He never says how great of an influence Godard had on Tarantino. Nor does any other critics say how Godard's "Breathless" created modern cinema. Its as though these critics totally ignored Godard's methods, and pretend geeks like Tarantino created them. Shame on you Ebert.

That's like saying Christina Aguilera created that soulful yet high-scale histeronic singing she does, when Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey did it before her. Give people the credit they deserve!

Godard=Genius
I am just getting this movie on Criterion and I have to say, it's a bonafide masterpiece. Best characters are Franz and Odile. This movie was overshadowed by Godard's earlier gangster movie "Breathless" but this one is just cool.
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