At this point in my life I’ve seen most of Jean-Luc Godard’s films and there is something to love in just about all of them, but I didn’t think that I’d be surprised yet again, but I was by Pierrot le fou. It takes the energy and joy of his “A bout de souffle” and adds brilliant, beautiful colour as well as a bigger budget and a more sophisticated array of equipment. The problem with Godard and a film like Pierrot le fou is that it makes it all look so casual, but with Godard directing and Raoul Coutard shooting, it’s a series of virtuoso shots that constantly seem to gleefully shout “watch this!” Released in France in 1965 it lovingly alludes to all of Godard’s earlier films and combines his sense of humour with his politics and love of cinema together in an almost perfect balance.
At the core of the film is Anna Karina who has one of the most remarkable screen presences and the most playful relationship with the camera of any character in film history. The main character is played by Jean-Paul Belmondo, but it’s Anna Karina who brings the energy to the film and moves the plot along. She’s the babysitter and Belmondo leaves a party (and his wife) where everyone recites advertising slogans to each other (except for Samuel Fuller, who explains to Belmondo that film is “like a battleground. There’s love, hate, action, violence, death. In one word - emotions.” Arriving home, he leaves with Karina in a car and we find out that they used to date and then we’re in her apartment with a dead man and then there is a musical number.
But it’s not really about the plot and the film moves around between a few musical elements, and swings between a crime drama and a love story, often with narration letting us know that things are switching. It’s a deeply self-conscious film with the characters talking to the camera (but it’s Karina who looks at us and speaks directly to the camera most often). The first scene in a car is shot in a studio with rotating lights giving the impression that the car is moving, but in the wide shots that linger we can see that the lights are always the same. Then later scenes in a car have the camera in the back seat, which is much more realistic, but Belmondo turns and speaks to the camera and Karina asks who he was talking to, and he says, “the audience”, and she turns and looks at us. At one point Belmondo goes to a movie theatre and sees his co-star of Breathless (Jean Seberg) on the screen holding a movie camera pointing at the camera. Sitting in the theatre in the row in front of him is Jean-Pierre Leaud (five years after The 400 Blows). Godard mixes references to the French New Wave along with pop culture and Hollywood. He manages to capture the love and joy that is at the core of all those who have the filmmaking gene.
Brilliant colours and Godard’s trademark reds, whites, and blues go throughout the frames in stunningly beautiful compositions that all seem to have perfect colour palettes. Raoul Coutard creates gorgeous images in both static frames and complex shots on cranes, in vehicles, on boats, and in tilts and pans that seem almost effortless as they reveal information and characters.
The transfer of the Criterion DVD is beautiful and I can only imagine how great it would be to see a print projected on a screen. While a more recent tendency in films cuts action up into smaller and smaller bits, it’s rare to see long takes on location with complex movement (and singing!) The locations don’t seem real as everything seems to be perfectly positioned.
In Pierrot le fou Godard assembles an amazing team and constructs a loose framework and then lets everyone play beautiful cinematic music. It’s a complex combination of a fierce intellect (I can’t even begin to figure out the significance of the paintings, the quotations, and allusions) and an almost child-like love of films and popular culture.
