Pierrot le Fou

A middle class Parisian (Jean-Paul Belmondo) runs out on his life and heads for the Mediterranean with his babysitter/mistress (Anna Karina) who, in turn, is the target of gangsters. Though influential in its time and innovative in its approach and style, Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le Fou is pretentious, beatnik garble, typical to its director.

** out of ****

Vivre Sa Vie

Told in twelve varied, discontinuous episodes, Vivre Sa Vie tells the tragic story of a young Parisian woman who leaves her husband with aspirations of becoming an actress, but winds up a prostitute. Jean Luc-Godard’s New Wave staple is fresh and well-realized with then wife and favorite collaborator Anna Karina lovely in the lead role. Details of the protagonist’s professional life are frank and shocking which are blended with other lighter, more poignant moments offering a unique cinematic experience all told through Raoul Coutard’s tremendous black and white photography.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Weekend

A married bourgeois French couple, both seeing others on the side and both with murderous intentions for their spouse, set out on a nightmarish weekend road trip to attain an inheritance from the woman's dying father, and end up encountering bizarre traffic jams and bandits before joining a radical guerrilla unit and devolving into cannibalism. "Weekend" is Jean-Luc Godard's outrageous critique of France's upper class and perhaps represents the beginning of the end of his utilizing any discernible storytelling techniques. The film feels dated, and like much of his other work, the meaning feels impenetrable as we are supplied with a meandering story and incomprehensible subtitles. Of note, however, is an impressive early scene featuring an 8-minute seemingly unbroken dolly shot of a lengthy and outlandish traffic jam. Godard is a New Wave director who helped reinvent the cinema, and while he has made a number of fascinatingly entertaining films, he has always seemed obliged to stay ahead of the 8-ball, and that is clearly evident in this film, though it is still considered one of the seminal works of the 60s.

Histoire(s) du cinéma

"Histoire(s) du cinéma" is an ambitious art house project by legendary French director Jean-Luc Godard, made over a period of over ten years, and generally considered to be his greatest work outside of his New Wave period. In a series of eight, 25-50 minute long episodes, Godard offers essentially what the title says, except not only just history of the cinema, but an attempt to explain the 20th century through the history and with images from the cinema...I think. The movie is deliberately vague and extremely obtuse, with Godard meshing images from films as diverse as "Rear Window", "Notorious", "Scarface", "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", with pornography and other bizarre imagery while spouting outlandish and sometimes mad declarations, to what end I'm not sure even its esteemed director could explain. The work is intriguing and even hypnotic, to a point but I would only recommend this to the most adventurous viewer of loyal Godard devotee.

Breathless

Sometimes it takes only one film to open the doors to the creation of innumerous subsequent films and watching Breathless, it is clear that many modern movies were made because of it. Made at the beginning of the French New Wave, it was written by Francois Truffaut and directed by Jean-Luc Godard and implemented a style that had not been used, or not widely used in mainstream cinema. Filmed with jump cuts (two different consecutive shots of the same focal point) and implementing a free form style light on plot and heavy on rambling dialogue, I was reminded of many following films with a similar style. It stars Jean-Paul Belmondo as a petty car thief who models himself on Humphrey Bogart. After killing a cop, he hides out in Paris while waiting for travel funds to come through. During this time, he romanticizes an American woman (Jean Seberg) while the two hold rambling and wide ranging discussions in their hotel rooms. Though I thought the film was maybe too loose and could have used a little more plot, it is undeniably influential and a movie that liberated the movies.
***1/2