Tournées Film Festival: "Pierrot le Fou"

October 19, 2016
06:45 PM - 08:45 PM
Hoyt Auditorium, River Campus

Synopsis
Pierrot le Fou (1965) is arguably the masterpiece of Jean-Luc Godard's glorious first period, that extraordinary burst of creativity that extends from his landmark debut Breathless to the political films of the late sixties. In recounting the whirlwind romance between wealthy Ferdinand (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and his babysitter Marianne (Anna Karina), followed by their escape to the south of France with gangsters on their trail, Godard walks the thin line between sixties liberation and nihilism. Indeed, Pierrot le Fou is full of Godardian dialectic: it is his sunniest film, but possibly his darkest, his most romantic, yet also his most disillusioned, a discombobulating combination of pop sensibility, boy's own adventure, and trenchant critique of decadent European society and American intervention in Southeast Asia. This is a film of legendary moments—tough-guy director Samuel Fuller telling Ferdinand that, "film is a battleground. Love, hate, violence, action, death. In one word, emotions"; Marianne turning her seaside indolence into musical comedy by coming up with the charming song "Ma Ligne de Chance"; and Ferdinand painting his face blue—but what is most striking is its constant freshness, its ability to surprise and seduce no matter how many times you've watched it. A feast of primary colors, Pierrot le Fou is simply one of the greatest films ever made, the quintessence of cinema's pleasures and challenges.

Director
Jean-Luc Godard

Screenplay
Jean-Luc Godard

Cast
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Anna Karina

Details
French
110 min.
France, 1965

Distributor
Rialto Pictures

Sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, the Film and Media Studies Program, and FACE Tournées Film Festival. Tournées Film Festival is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US, the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC), the Franco-American Cultural Fund, the Florence Gould Foundation, and Highbrow Entertainment.

Links:
Tournées Film Festival (Fall 2016)
"Pierrot le Fou" trailer (YouTube)

Category: Film Screenings