The Jean Luc Godard masterpiece Pierrot le Fou tells the story of Ferdinand, portrayed by Jean-Paul Belmondo. He’s bored with his middle class life and hooks up with Marianne, played by the beautiful Anna Karina.
The plot is that of a simple detective novel: a guy, a girl, guns, and money. There are a couple of double crosses. Marianne is searching for her brother who is involved with smuggling or gun running in Africa.
Just like Ferdinand, we can never be sure if Marianne is ever telling the truth. But the truth doesn’t matter. Marianne is beautiful and full of life.
Early in the film, Ferdinand is at a party where everyone speaks in advertising slogans. A brilliant Godard technique showing how programmed, predictable, and boring “successful” middle class people are.
The heart of the film follows Ferdinand and Marianne as they hide-out in the French Riviera, along the Mediterranean Sea.
The camera work by Raoul Coutard is amazing. Pierrot le Fou is in full color Cinemascope and is one of the most beautiful movies ever made in color. And the Criterion Collection DVD is stunning.
There are wonderful bits of musical whimsy during the French Riviera sequence. There is also political commentary thrown in as well. To raise some money, Ferdinand and Marianne put on an impromptu play about the Vietnam War for the amusement of some American tourists.
But not is all fun and games. At one point Marianne is captured by a dwarf then escapes. Ferdinand is water-boarded by two men looking for Marianne and the money she stole from them.
To think that this movie came out in 1965 and features water-boarding is interesting. People have tortured in the past and will continue to torture in the future. The reasons for torture may change but the torture remains the same.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
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