421 Pierrot le fou

[Michael]

It's not so much about caring about the characters. Read a bit about Pierrot before watching the film.. I was expecting something radical (like davidhare said just now), fun, adventurous, playful - something like the most awesome lovers-on-the-lam film ever Gun Crazy.. but I didn't get it. 90% of the film has the characters quoting from all kinds of books and Ferdinand correcting Marianne too many times shot my nerves.

[sidehacker]

Pierrot le fou is suppose to be more visceral, psychedelic even, beyond character development or any other type of conventional cinematic structure. To say it's one big "blah" would be exactly correct! I think that was the type of reaction Godard wanted. I'll be ostracized for saying this, but Pierrot is sort of what I'd image Gummo to be like if it was a love story.

[HerrSchreck]

I'll proably be ostracized even more for saying this: the whole Vague bores me to tears and is the most overrated period of invention in the whole century of the cinema. Barring a few genuine works of excellence interspersed across the period, if I never acquired another work from these dudes it'd still be too many.

I appreciate the spirit of urgency, sense of revolution pounding at the shut musty doors of a dying studio system-- and especially the way the techniques of someone like Coutard were taken up by Scorcese and the whole zeitgeist of American cinema of the 1970's-- than I do the films themselves. But I'd still rather watch Superfly or Sweet Sweetback rather than Breathless (the roadmap for Eternity commercials and Madonna videos).

[ellipsis7]

I agree with David - come 1970 I too cool to Godard, but I really like the 60s films, mainly with or relating to Anna Karina... PIERROT is one of the peaks, if not the peak to this period... What he's doing is layering texts on top of one another in a palimpsest, so it appears to be a set of random textual fragments whereas in fact it is a series of texts working simultaneously on several levels... What saves this from being a dry snd distanced exercise (like his later work) is that there is drama and plot and characterisation (some of the structure is visual in the colour coding etc.) but also there is real passion and feeling there... If the New Wave best encapsulated a counterpoint between pathos and pastiche, Godard's work in this period is inextricable from his relationship with Karina... Godard=cinema, and his films then are his means of expression of his feelings for her, the ups and downs, how he loves her and falls out of love with her through the medium of cinema... Classically she is his muse, so in PIERROT and most of the other 60s films real and complicated human emotion is juxtaposed with dry intellectual reference... Even when she's not in the film, as with LE MEPRIS/CONTEMPT, MASCULIN FEMININ or 2 OU 3 CHOSES QUE JE SAIS D'ELLE he cannot get her out of his head, while Wiazemsky era films such as WEEKEND & LA CHINOISE are consciously working with an anti-Karina woman as character and actor, while politics start to surplant feelings so he can blot all effect out of his and work... Altogether it is a potent and poignant mix...

[GringoTex]

I find Pierrot le fou one of the most intensely romantic films ever. It was Godard's swan song to Anna Karina, American cinema, Belmondo, and kitsch, while at the same time setting up a framework for a new political cinema. It has an eternal place in my top 10.

[Thomas J.]

I agree with David - come 1970 I too cool to Godard, but I really like the 60s films, mainly with or relating to Anna Karina... PIERROT is one of the peaks, if not the peak to this period... What he's doing is layering texts on top of one another in a palimpsest, so it appears to be a set of random textual fragments whereas in fact it is a series of texts working simultaneously on several levels... What saves this from being a dry snd distanced exercise (like his later work) is that there is drama and plot and characterisation (some of the structure is visual in the colour coding etc.) but also there is real passion and feeling there... If the New Wave best encapsulated a counterpoint between pathos and pastiche, Godard's work in this period is inextricable from his relationship with Karina... Godard=cinema, and his films then are his means of expression of his feelings for her, the ups and downs, how he loves her and falls out of love with her through the medium of cinema... Classically she is his muse, so in PIERROT and most of the other 60s films real and complicated human emotion is juxtaposed with dry intellectual reference... Even when she's not in the film, as with LE MEPRIS/CONTEMPT, MASCULIN FEMININ or 2 OU 3 CHOSES QUE JE SAIS D'ELLE he cannot get her out of his head, while Wiazemsky era films such as WEEKEND & LA CHINOISE are consciously working with an anti-Karina woman as character and actor, while politics start to surplant feelings so he can blot all effect out of his and work... Altogether it is a potent and poignant mix...

Interesting analysis. So who would Godard have been as a filmmaker if Karina had not entered his life?

If she's as important to Godard's films as Godard himself, could she then be considered a co-auteur, if by "auteur" I mean the person most responsible for the quality of the work?

[dadaistnun]

Dave Kehr on Pierrot and the Lions Gate set (mostly Passion).

The book Overtones and Undertones: Reading Film Music has an interesting chapter on Vivre sa vi and Pierrot le fou. For the latter, the author even has a breakdown of every single music cue: its length, its source (both Duhamel's score and source tracks), and its placement in the film. You can read an excerpt from the book here, though there are pages missing from each chapter. I've only read this chapter and the interview with Howard Shore, but it's worth checking out from the library if not necessarily buying outright.

I do have a music question that the book doesn't answer: what is the short snippet of classical music that is played several times in the trailer on the Janus site (it's also the one used on the dvd)? Is it from the same Vivaldi concerto used in the film (Concerto in F, "La Tempesta di Mare")?

[Rowan]

That’s the seesawing theme from the Scherzo in Schumann’s ‘Rhenish’ Symphony. It does have a sort of studied-airheadedness that would seem to suit Godard’s tone.

David, that was a lovely post and makes me wish for more Godard - of the films you mention I’ve only seen ‘Une Femme’, but ‘Pierrot le Fou’ is high on the list of priorities. I’m fascinated by the playfulness of meaning in his earlier films. ‘Une Femme' seems to expose it’s counterpointed texts in such a way as to open up the ‘meaning’ - it’s usually light or absurd, but not quite ironic, and then there are those little moments of Manet-like stillness and pathos-through-alienation.

You’ve got a way of pushing all my buttons.. but what exactly do you mean by ‘decoupage’? Do you mean the layering of a given image, or is it an allusion to cutting and the build-up/sequencing of shots/scenes? Or both I suppose?

[accatone]

Godard has restructured all the elements of the films including music, narrative, decoupage and dialogue independently but in counterpoint to each other to re-connect meanings and narrative.

Being a big fan of late Godard (more than of the 60s pop culture films) still one scene from the 60s is emblematic - the "dialogue scene" in WEEK END! (Mirelle Darc sitting on the piano and paraphrasing the little ménage á trois she had some days ago). The "use" of music in this scene still scares the fuck out of me anytime rewatching the film (i saw the movie a few times in cinema on the big screen/big sound - the effect is overwhelming!). Of course the sub text of this scene, its intention and its effect on the viewer is arguable ...
David, i was pretty impressed that you liked PASSION as far as the later Godard is getting more and more mystical (religious under tones - exp. catolicism is pretty obvious in my opinion). There are many essays and critiques on this particular (religiouse) subject and i must admit some of it is pretty comprehensible (e.g. "the resurrection of the image" etc…).
I really like the term "layout" - it makes me think of a graphical tableau and from the 60s to the most recent films that is how Godard works. You could really see the Man behind hhis editing table (mon beau souci) putting all the text, sound and image together - not to create something "complete" and "finished" but to show, as David allready pointed out, the inherent connections between these different stylistic devices and their connection to/with the audiance. Amazingly, and this goes back to A BOUT DE SOUFFLE, the author is always "visible" (which is of course intended in a Brechtian way) and after the years he is trying more and more to show us "a/the world" behind the screen (i.e. its not just about "the connections" inside the movies layout anymore - but "the connections" in the most general form/layout - that is the world we live in and History, which is always an integral part of the present for Godard)
Highlights of Godards usage of montage, music, image and text can be found in the HISTOIRE(S), of course!

[dadaistnun]

Many thanks for the trailer music answer, Rowan, and your comments, David. The documentary on the new dvd about Godard and Karina and how their relationship informed the films they made (or in the case of Contempt, didn't make) together is quite good, though even I, with my fairly limited knowledge of all things Godard, was surprised at the relative lack of attention given to Band of Outsiders, and none at all to Made in U.S.A., although I maybe it makes for a better dramatic arc to end with iPierrot (I haven't seen Made in U.S.A.).

By the way, for those who don't know, Duhamel's scores for Pierrot and Weekend are available on one cd



but appears to be out of print. Pierrot is the original recordings, Weekend is a re-recording done in 2000.

[Rowan]

His films up to Contempt and Mariee (and just barely Pierrot) are still informed by his love for Karina don't you think? And the playfulness of the earlier movies is a real flowering of that.

Yes. I think ‘Une Femme est Une Femme’ is the perfect expression of that joy, curiosity, confusion and identification that are all part of being in love. It’s a celebration of the appeal and unknowability of the love object. The camera is mostly ‘with’ Karina in this, following attentively and picking up her gaze (with a few set-piece-like exceptions that seem to ridicule any sense of mutuality or connection between characters – esp the ‘displaced’ shots of leery old men and passers-by staring with bemusement during a conversation between Angela and Suzanne); it repeatedly imitates a fawning lover looking up at her window; even in conventional looking set-ups of her, the way the frame quivers lightly carries an erotic feeling beyond the usual verite immediacy. The bar scene is very moving too, even as it’s almost obscured by the against-the-grain music.

I’m attracted to ‘Pierrot’ mainly because it looks to share some of the same kaleidoscopic visual qualities of ‘Une Femme’, which draw me in every time. Though, would ‘Le Mepris’ be a closer point of comparison?

Anway, it's ordered, together with the Lionsgate box. Flippin cheap at the mo on amazon uk!

[I love your characterisation of the Schumann David (this movement is titled ‘Ride a cock horse’ on my John Lill recording). For convulsive mania of a different strain, I can’t get enough at the mo of the Beethoven’s 8th Symphony - in the development section of the schizophrenic 1st movt he bashes the sweetly-turned head motif from the opening until it’s black and blue! Surely one of his most brutal acts of rhythmic foreshortening!]

[colinr0380]

DVD Talk review

[GringoTex]

JP Gorin's video essay intro for the film is outstanding. I hope they ask him to do more of these. He's lept to the top of the pile of my favorite Criterion contributors.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

I'm looking forward to the rest of Gorin's essay, but so far Luc Lagier's doc is my favorite extra. I enjoyed it as a whole, but the observations on Contempt were outstanding for me just because I'd not thought of the film in terms of all the emptiness. The only downside was that it made me want to watch Band of Outsiders again - my copy of which being back at home twelve hours away.

As for Pierrot, it blew me away. I watched it a few years ago on VHS and didn't understand it so much. "This is how Godard ends it? With dynamite?" I longed for Band of Outsiders and Alphaville instead. But now, it's my favorite Godard. The daring is more enlightening. The narrative made more sense to me now than it did when I first saw it. The aim of the film is easier for me to see now that I saw it again and had learned more about Godard in the interim. It was like disccovering Godard again. This is the one I'll recommend to Godard newbies after they see Breathless. Two viewings down, it's time for a third! I love this movie.

[Michael]

Watched it again with my half-asleep brain, cupcakes and coffee all by myself this morning (a rare occasion). Now I'm back here to ask you to ignore everything I wrote ... so much of Pierrot clicked with me this morning and since then I've not been able to escape from Pierrot's sad gaze of Marianne. No longer one of the most terrible movies in the collection.

[gubbelsj]

Watched it again with my half-asleep brain, cupcakes and coffee all by myself this morning (a rare occasion). Now I'm back here to ask you to ignore everything I wrote ... so much of Pierrot clicked with me this morning and since then I've not been able to escape from Pierrot's sad gaze of Marianne. No longer one of the most terrible movies in the collection.

So often the case with Godard, at least in my own experience. Bewilderment followed by delight. Just give him time, and so many of his movies kick in, and you're left smacking yourself, wondering why you didn't catch that the first time around.

[Max von Mayerling]

David, you've given me the extra tip of the boot in the ass necessary to make me feel excited at the prospect of revisiting Passion. Thank you.

And while I am a slave to Godard, I must admit to struggling with Pierrot. It hasn't got under my skin like many others - Weekend, Germany Year 90, masculin feminin, etc. But I have faith that it is a matter of wrasslin' with the beast. To others having similar struggles, I recommend both Gorin's video essay and Brody's traditional essay - while neither has got me over the hump, I found both to be very rewarding. While I haven't yet fallen under the spell of the film, I am very pleased with this dvd package.

[HerrSchreck]

I absolutely love that spirit of searching out the "sublime" in films that eluded you on first & second pass-thru's... I believe our NZ Count zedz articulated it well years back. Funny to be posting this for a director who never put a rocket in my pocket, but who knows...? perhaps the future will find me fou for Fou, too.

[jbeall]

I just watched this for the first time, and it's now my favorite 60's Godard (so far, although I haven't seen much of his post-1980 stuff yet). It's challenging--I can't claim to understand everything, even after watching the first half-hour of Gorin's primer--but it's much more playful and I didn't find JLG indulging in the condescension that makes his 70s stuff so off-putting. There was a surprising amount of feeling in this film, and it was also a lot funnier than I expected.

[Jaime_Weinman]

I like Pierrot a lot although I do think it's too long (I can't say which scenes I could have done without, just that the jokes start to wear thin with 20 minutes left in the picture).

I've said this elsewhere but I think that if there's a "muse" hovering over this film, it's Frank Tashlin. The cartoony gags (the net dropping on the car, the dynamite gag that closes the film), the fourth-wall breaking, the comedy/music interludes that stop the story cold, the splashy colors, the pop-culture satire -- you can tell that this movie was made by a guy who, as a critic, was a huge fan of Artists and Models and The Girl Can't Help It. (Both of which are movies that incorporate violent gangster/spy material.) The scene where Karina is trying to get Belmondo to put down his comic book -- I think it was a comic book, I can't remember just now the title of what he was reading -- reminds me a bit of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in the opening scenes of Artists, too. It's like Godard's live-action cartoon.

[Zazou dans le Metro]

I was listening to an interview the other day with Dennis Hopper. He told a story where in his early career as a would be artist he wrapped himself in dynamite and detonated himself at a public event. A bit of an extreme PR stunt one might have thought! Anyway why he's here to tell the tale and not in a thousand bits or detained in Guantanamo is because apparently if dynamite is wrapped in a circle it creates a vacuum inside and only blows out. Does this shed new light on the ending of Pierrot ??

[portnoy]

Dennis Hopper single-handedly supported multiple banana republics with his drug use, so I'm guessing his story is a load of horseshit from a chemical-ravaged brain.

[jbeall]

I've said this elsewhere but I think that if there's a "muse" hovering over this film, it's Frank Tashlin. The cartoony gags (the net dropping on the car, the dynamite gag that closes the film), the fourth-wall breaking, the comedy/music interludes that stop the story cold, the splashy colors, the pop-culture satire -- you can tell that this movie was made by a guy who, as a critic, was a huge fan of Artists and Models and The Girl Can't Help It.

Thanks for the context, JW. I'd also say don't overlook the Pierrot motifs from the commedia dell'arte and 19th-century Funambules of Paris. The pantomime stage was full of explosions, decapitations, etc., some pretty violent stuff even by today's standards.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Dennis Hopper single-handedly supported multiple banana republics with his drug use, so I'm guessing his story is a load of horseshit from a chemical-ravaged brain.

That's as maybe but it is apparently captured on film

[Max von Mayerling]

Weinman - The Tashlin thing hadn't occurred to me, but I think you're on to something there. The car driving off into the drink also reminds me of Tashin. If only a great dane had been driving the thing. There's no question that there's multitudes at work in Fou.

While I'm not sure the Hopper thing sheds any light on Pepe le Fou, the third issue of that sometimes interesting dvd "magazine" Wholphin includes the video of the Hopper dynamite routine.