Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Movie review - "Pierrot Le Fou" (1965) ***

Jean Luc Godard is reunited with Jean Paul Belmondo who plays a man who runs off with Ana Karina and they are chased by some gangster types.

Interesting credits, lush score, talk of Johnny Guitar, Sam Fuller makes a cameo to talk about cinema ("A film is like a battle ground - love, hate, action, violence, death. In one word - emotion"), satire of commercialism (ditzes talking about hair and Alfa Romeos), a beautiful love object to rejuvenate a married man, women singing randomly, dance numbers, splatterings of violence, kabuki theatre, yellow face, torture, death.

It is bright and colourful and Karina is charming - Godard clearly adores her. Belmondo is miscast to play a married office worker but he's always entertaining to see - Godard used stars well however Marxist he was. I enjoyed the playfulness of this time. It's a young man having fun.

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