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LIII: Jean-Luc Godard, Pierre le Fou (1966)
The 1960s French New Wave is a key cinematic movement, characterised by a group of young-ish film makers who had been young film critics graduating from theory to practice. It's not that they invented art film, but they did a lot to characterise the genre - ambiguity, existentialism, sex, anti-consumerism, avoidance of straight narrative, a film that leaves the audience talking on their way out. This generation of film makers became an influence upon American film makers at college in the sixties - Spielberg, Coppola, Scorsese, Lucas et al.
So it is perhaps odd to see just the one Jean-Luc Godard in the Top 100 - and a film I wasn't familiar with (A Bout de Souffle, 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle, Weekend, Une Femme est une Femme), let alone watched. I wonder if it acts as a summary choice - Jean-Paul Belmondo stars (effortlessly cool in A Bout de Souffle), as does Danish actor Anna Karina who had been married to Godard, there are car crashes, allusions to noirish movies, neon lights, song and dance routines...
The facts are these: Ferdinand (Belmondo) is bored, married to an Italian, and goes home early from a party to meet up with the babysitter Marianne (Karina) whom he'd known five years before. He offers to drive her home and they seduce each other, only there's a body in the flat so they go on the run. People are after them - and the money in the car they've stolen - and Marianne wants to hook up with her brother.
The film seems to have been made up as they went along - something Spielberg has used in the latest Indiana Jones - and the plot is a contrivance to hang philosophical speculation, robberies and bizaare cameos on (including director Sam Fuller as himself). Both main characters break the fourth wall, both seem to be narrating the novel they wish their lives were, but Ferdinand actually prefers his books to the action Marianne craves. Meanwhile there is the critique of capitalism (characters talk like adverts in one sequence) and American foreign policy (Vietnam - a former French colony, of course).
Beware, though: the DVD comes with an optional Colin MacCabe introduction, which tells you the ending - and leads you to expect it to be more violent than it really is.
Totals: 53 (Cinema: 19; DVD: 32; TV: 2]
The 1960s French New Wave is a key cinematic movement, characterised by a group of young-ish film makers who had been young film critics graduating from theory to practice. It's not that they invented art film, but they did a lot to characterise the genre - ambiguity, existentialism, sex, anti-consumerism, avoidance of straight narrative, a film that leaves the audience talking on their way out. This generation of film makers became an influence upon American film makers at college in the sixties - Spielberg, Coppola, Scorsese, Lucas et al.
So it is perhaps odd to see just the one Jean-Luc Godard in the Top 100 - and a film I wasn't familiar with (A Bout de Souffle, 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle, Weekend, Une Femme est une Femme), let alone watched. I wonder if it acts as a summary choice - Jean-Paul Belmondo stars (effortlessly cool in A Bout de Souffle), as does Danish actor Anna Karina who had been married to Godard, there are car crashes, allusions to noirish movies, neon lights, song and dance routines...
The facts are these: Ferdinand (Belmondo) is bored, married to an Italian, and goes home early from a party to meet up with the babysitter Marianne (Karina) whom he'd known five years before. He offers to drive her home and they seduce each other, only there's a body in the flat so they go on the run. People are after them - and the money in the car they've stolen - and Marianne wants to hook up with her brother.
The film seems to have been made up as they went along - something Spielberg has used in the latest Indiana Jones - and the plot is a contrivance to hang philosophical speculation, robberies and bizaare cameos on (including director Sam Fuller as himself). Both main characters break the fourth wall, both seem to be narrating the novel they wish their lives were, but Ferdinand actually prefers his books to the action Marianne craves. Meanwhile there is the critique of capitalism (characters talk like adverts in one sequence) and American foreign policy (Vietnam - a former French colony, of course).
Beware, though: the DVD comes with an optional Colin MacCabe introduction, which tells you the ending - and leads you to expect it to be more violent than it really is.
Totals: 53 (Cinema: 19; DVD: 32; TV: 2]
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