One of my all time favorites.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Godard films can be broken into two periods: before Pierrot le Fou and after Pierrot le Fou. Before, the French iconoclast was still somewhat concerned with narrative coherence; afterwards, not so much. As such, Pierrot le Fou occupies an interesting spot in his filmography as it bridges the two periods. It has a conventional plot like his earlier work, but the style is much closer to the experimental efforts that comprise the vast majority of his post-1965 output. So how does it all fit together?The narrative here is very flimsy: out protagonist Ferdinand just sort of gets swept along with Marianne's cross-country crime spree without much in the way of explanation after two brief scenes of conversation. This is not atypical for Godard, but even here we're given little justification for why the characters do anything. Ferdinand is apparently dissatisfied with his bourgeoisie lifestyle which is conveyed solely by a rather bizarre party sequence while Marianne is just a whirlwind in human form.Once the characters are on the road, the plot starts and stops randomly with plenty of scenes consisting of characters sitting around and talking about sophisticated things, a Godardian trademark. But there are also several scenes of the duo just messing around. Of the later, there is a rather offensive scene where Marianne and Ferdinand put on a skit about the Americans' current involvement in Vietnam. Marianne wears what is essentially yellow-face, Ferdinand garbles out something in broken English and the message basically boils down to "Americans are violent buffoons." I don't take offense at anti-Americanism per say (a lot of it is deserved) so much as the presentation of it and this particular scene feels crude and childish.Eventually the narrative develops into a plot involving gangsters pursuing the duo and Marianne betraying Ferdinand by running away with her real boyfriend. It just feels tacked on. Given Godard shot the whole film with no script, it's not exactly surprising and this incoherence seems to be intentional. I can't really say I'm a fan however. Nonetheless, the ending, where Ferdinand paints his face blue and blows himself up only to regret it at the last moment, is very well done and rightfully remains one of the French New Wave's most iconic moments.Stylistically the film is also a mixed bag. On the positive end of things, the film looks gorgeous. Rarely have I seen colors look so vibrant and as expressive as I've seen here. On the other hand, the dialogue gets repetitive very quickly, Ferdinand says some iteration of "My name is Ferdinand" after Marianne calls him Pierrot close to a dozen times which gets annoying. The breaking of the fourth wall, while cute at first, gets tiresome the more Godard does it. The cutaways to Ferdinand's poetry are also rather irritating especially since it adds nothing to the film unless you're fluent in French.Overall, Pierrot le Fou is a rather messy blending of Godard's narrative and experimental styles that has some nice highlights to it, but can be a bit of a slog to get through unless you just happen to really love Godard and the French New Wave. I personally enjoy the visual aspects of the film but the cerebral parts of it ended up leaving me cold. Even so, it's still entertaining enough for me to give it a hesitantly positive rating.

I have just watched this for the first time in a very long time and just possibly for the first time ever, although that seems unlikely considering what a fan of Goddard's I was in the 60s. As with many of the great director's films it is far better to enjoy and experience them than to try and follow them. The central gangster plot, where man is seduced by bad lady gets involved with case of money and after shootings, torture and death an ambiguous ending, is very much subservient to the whole film of which it is merely the core narrative and of no real consequence to us any more than it seems to be to the characters. So, I say, sit back and enjoy, the verbal interplay, the wondrous and painterly imagery and the wry humour that allows Goddard to nudge us into considering, the troubles of North Africa, the Middle East and of course Vietnam. Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina are wonderful, both on their own and together - Belmondo must have had it in his contract that he would have a cigarette in his mouth throughout (admittedly Karina does take it out momentarily to give him a kiss, but puts it straight back afterwards). And at the start, even before the two have joined forces, we see Belmondo suffering colour coded party sequences where the guests spout advertising copy as if their own. Later the film will be splattered with wonderful images concocted from partial advertising holdings and bits of neon signs. Beautiful film that absolutely glows on my Blu-ray print.

Nouvelle Vague is one of the most famous movements in film history and Jean-Luc Godard is one of the most famous of this movement, he directed classics as Bande à Part and Vivre sa Vie, but his possibly best movie might be Pierrot le Fou. Ferdinand decides to escape of his boring life with Marianne, a young woman being chased by mafia of Algeria. Godard shows all the virtues of society and how society and its values are limited in a original and fun way, the film gets stronger colors and some music scenes with the arrival of the character Marianne, both of their lives becomes dangerous and adventurous. The cinematography of this movie is beautiful,constantly with strong colors. The performances are okay, Anna Karina does a good work to represent Marianne, and Jean-Paul Belmondo is okay. The directing of this movie is great and the script is also great. The only bigger problem with this film is its length. "Pierrot le Fou" is a excellent movie by Jean-Luc Godard and high possibly his best.

Like much of Godard's work, "Pierrot le Fou" doesn't have much of a plot so much as a basic premise. Frenidand, bored and alienated by his robotic upper class peers, leaves a party on bad terms and runs into his still at home babysitter. He drives her home, and then the two start to fall in love. Then they run off, and the rest of the film is their misadventures.The film is filled with subversions and deconstructions. The soundtrack inexplicably stops and restarts throughout. Characters talk directly to the audience, and at points even just flat out say "the audience". The characters are well aware they're in a movie at points ("let's go back to the gangster picture"). There are a few musical numbers, though they are very low key, lacking the grandeur and choreography one would expect. In fact, I love the musical moments in this film because they are so low key and unobtrusive. Action sequences are truncated and undermined. The characters narrate, often telling the audience what the next chapter is, which is pretty much always despair, bitterness and hope. Godard is determined to tear down the curtain, to never let you forget you're watching a movie.Yet, all of these elements come together naturally. It never crosses into stupid pretentiousness. These elements only serve to enhance and give a new layer to a film that is still deeply compelling. Godard apparently didn't care to be sentimental (a lot of the European art directors don't care for that word) but sentimental is one way I'd describe the movie. Here we have two characters whose common ground is being unable to live in their current state of life: Fernindand because it's devoid of any intellectuality and passion, Marianne because she seems incapable of living in a steady life and becomes bored quickly. It's for this reason the two are drawn toward each other and run away together.Much of the film is made up of episodes, as the two end up on a "Bonnie and Clyde" style crime spree (a whole two years before the definitive Bonnie and Clyde movie made waves in the united states), robbing people and trying to stay one step ahead of the police as well as gangster Marianne has angered. The movie is very comedic in it's tone, and while it's easy to laugh at the absurdities of what you see, I found the most humor in the subversions and pot shots at cinematic tropes. In contrast though, you'll have the characters, whether in narration or talking to the audience (especially Fernidand) giving beautiful narration and monologues, punctuated by beautiful imagery (did I mention the film looks really good?). Their feelings for each other indeed begin being put to the test, as while the similarity brought them together, their differences start to bring them into conflict, shown when the characters are hiding out in a beautiful resort with nothing to do. When Marianne suggests going back to "the gangster picture", their crime spree, it makes clear that the distraction of danger and adventure may be what keeps them together.This blending of comedy and deconstruction with almost poetic resonance of feelings comes to ahead in it's ending, which I won't spoil, but needless to say it is both hilarious and touching.If you've seen any of Godard's other films, you have a good idea of what you're in for. If you've never seen a Godard film, this one might catch you off guard, but it's probably among his more easily accessible films.