{"id":8701,"date":"2010-03-10T13:41:02","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T21:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=8701"},"modified":"2010-03-10T20:05:13","modified_gmt":"2010-03-11T04:05:13","slug":"band-of-outsidersbande-a-part-jean-luc-godard-1964-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=8701","title":{"rendered":"Band of Outsiders\/Bande \u00e0 part (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964): France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Nitsa Pomerleau<\/a>. Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What could I say? \u201cA few words chosen at random\u2026 Three weeks earlier. A pile of money. An English class. A house by the river. A romantic girl\u201d <\/em>Godard\u2019s overture. Anna Karina. Michel Legrand’s “final” score. The film came out before Bonnie and Clyde <\/em>was made. Before Stranger than Paradise.<\/em> Before Quentin Tarantino could speak. Band of Outsiders<\/a><\/em> is Godard\u2019s deviation from the dark decadence of Contempt, <\/em>his return to black and white, to three robber-romantics in the outskirts of Paris, and is a joy to behold.<\/p>\n

Fitting its genre, Band of Outsiders <\/em>steals from American B-films and Dolores Hitchens’ novel Fool\u2019s Gold<\/em> . Our gangsters are two restless young men: the macho Arthur (<\/em>Claude Brasseur) and his Kafka-inspired partner-in-crime Franz (Sami Frey). The duo becomes a trio when the men charm the na\u00efve Odile (a role which satiates our fantasy for the Virgin Anna Karina) into a plot to rob her own house.\u00a0 In accordance with tradition, the trio becomes a love triangle, with Odile falling for Arthur, and Franz for Odile, and they have to steal the money soon or else\u2026 the story is familiar. Except\u2014 it is Godard.<\/p>\n

The director\u2019s intimate poetic narration (he uses his own voice) and light disregard for the narrative brings everything that is occurring at the surface to an exaggerated pretend-reality. Arthur and Franz suddenly act out the death of Billy the Kid and we hold our breath\u2026. Odile breaks convention and looks straight into the camera to ask \u201cUn plan? Pourquoi\u2019?\u00a0 (A plan? Why?) <\/em>A robbery is delayed until nightfall, \u201cin keeping with the tradition of bad B-films\u201d and the three veer off to race through the Louvre in a record-breaking nine minutes and 45 seconds\u2026 \u00a0The viewer capers along with them in good humor, regardless of plot coherence or convention\u2014 the tone of emotionally-dense yet playful ambiguity is enough.<\/p>\n

But for all its insouciance, Band of Outsiders<\/em> is not invulnerable to gravity. The \u201cMinute of Silence\u201d (which Godard in his nature shortens to 40 seconds or so) is a surprisingly precious scene during which the three cease conversation, almost all sound is cut, and the film drops into a contemplative tone.\u00a0 When the trio assembles in a caf\u00e9 to perform the awkwardly lyrical dance of \u201cThe Madison\u201d\u2014we sense the isolation in companionship hinted at in the title. Equally poignant is how cinematographer Raoul Cotard captures the French Suburbs and a pre-war melancholia in the overcast sky, polluted rivers, and town life. And then there is Karina and her delicate portrayal of Odile\u2019s looming disillusionment (as director and husband, Godard lets the camera linger).<\/p>\n

In my praise of Band of Outsiders<\/em>, I must note the franchise surrounding it: clothing labels,\u00a0\u00a0rock bands, Tarantino\u2019s production company\u2026\u00a0 in an ironic arc this picture \u00a0(and Nouvelle Vague in general) has become integral to American culture\u2014but that\u2019s a good thing, right?<\/p>\n

Either way, a disgruntled possessive viewer born long after the theatrical release is a sign of a good film. And if you get the Criterion Collection release of this DVD, it even has an after-party . Included in the special features is the \u201cVisual Glossary,”an excellent guide to picking up Godard\u2019s layers upon layers upon layers<\/em> of details, wordplay, and references.\u00a0 Also recommended is\u00a0Agn\u00e8s\u00a0Varda\u2019s silent comedy, Les Fiances du Pont Mac Donald, <\/em> which stars ze master himself: Jean-Luc Godard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Nitsa Pomerleau. Viewed on DVD. What could I say? \u201cA few words chosen at random\u2026 Three weeks earlier. A pile of money. An English class. A house by the river. A romantic girl\u201d Godard\u2019s overture. Anna Karina. Michel Legrand’s “final” score. The film came out before Bonnie and Clyde was made. Before Stranger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":796,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/796"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}