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Bande à part (Band of Outsiders)

Bande à part (Band of Outsiders) (1964)

tomatometer

100

Average Rating: 7.7/10
Critic Reviews: 14
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 0

No consensus yet.

audience

90

liked it
Average Rating: 4.2/5
User Ratings: 11,741

My Rating

Movie Info

One of pioneering director Jean-Luc Godard's most accessible films is this French spin on Dolores Hitchens' novel Fool's Gold. It tells the tale of three disaffected youths who plan a burglary, leading to deadly results. The alienated young trio is marvelous, particularly Anna Karina, and the early scenes of their clearly overdeveloped fantasy lives are splendidly handled. Something of a companion piece to Godard's classic À Bout de Souffle, its young characters have the same odd mixture of

Unrated,

Art House & International, Drama

Jean-Luc Godard

Jan 7, 2003

Royal Films International

Cast

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All Critics (44) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (46) | Rotten (2) | DVD (13)

This 1964 feature remains one of Godard's most appealing and underrated films, relatively relaxed and strangely optimistic.

March 3, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

One of Godard's most open and enjoyable films.

February 11, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
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As charming as seasoned film buffs remember and as refreshing as initiates expect.

January 17, 2002 Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News
Dallas Morning News
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Delivers one clever idea atop another.

January 4, 2002 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
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It's as if a French poet took an ordinary banal American crime novel and told it to us in terms of the romance and beauty he read between the lines.

December 8, 2001 Full Review Source: The New Republic
The New Republic
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The structure of the film feels like freedom. And truth.

December 7, 2001 Full Review Source: Denver Post
Denver Post
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So polished and assured it casts the supremely difficult illusion of being easy to make.

May 22, 2013 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis
Movie Metropolis

Jean-Luc Godard's most deliberately frivolous film remains a light-touch slice of New Wave romanticism.

May 17, 2013 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

The film sees Godard parsing out his feelings for Karina, then his wife, and meditating on the mercurial nature of his own preoccupations.

September 7, 2011 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

Band of Outsiders is the celebration of amateur cinema that Godard had been reaching for since Breathless but hadn't been able to reach yet because - to modify a line from Elvis Costello - he kept on getting in the way.

August 20, 2011 Full Review Source: Cinemania

An early masterpiece from Godard, trail-blazing, involving and charmingly enjoyable.

March 3, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

It offers 10 times more pleasures than the average picture.

March 3, 2008 Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor
Christian Science Monitor

One of Godard's most accessible pictures. A good place to learn how much of a debt modern cinema owes him.

December 30, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

Grave, light-hearted and quietly poetic.

October 21, 2006 Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Sydney Morning Herald

One must remember that even a lesser Godard is likely to be much more stimulating than another director's better films.

August 29, 2006 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A pair of set pieces -- the trio dancing in unison in a bar and their famous 9-minute, 43-second run through the Louvre -- make the movie worthwhile alone, but the disjointed, meandering, and somewhat random narrative isn't anything to write home about.

August 29, 2004 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com
Filmcritic.com

For movie lovers, it's pure joy.

July 8, 2004

A fun film.

November 29, 2003 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

An eminently watchable and charming film.

October 8, 2003 Full Review Source: About.com
About.com

An exhilarating experience.

July 22, 2003 Full Review Source: Film and Felt
Film and Felt

Audience Reviews for Bande à part (Band of Outsiders)

Many critics sees Band of Outsiders as one of Jean-Luc Godard's most relaxed and playful films, but i found it every bit of self-important and artsy as any other of his politically charged propaganda films.
Breaking cinema's rules does not necessarily mean that director is reinventing something new or should be taken as a great visionary. While Band of Outsiders does have playful rhytm and jazzy editing, it still feels like it's more improvised tone is calculated. To call Godard as a visionary poetist is going way too far. For me he is less visionary than average Hollywood director who at least does not pretend to be anything more than he is.
Those who love Godard's artsy fartsy films will obviously enjoy Band of Outsiders, but others be warned; this is a worst kind of French art house cinema which turns into parody itself. My advise, avoid!
September 2, 2012
emilkakko

Super Reviewer

Two young would be criminals obsessed with old Hollywood B-movies compete for the affections of the same woman, and also try to get her to help them commit a robbery...in her own home in this breezy adaptation of the novel Fool's Gold. It's Godard once again giving the world a hip, cool, and jazzy tale involving crime and disaffected youths, yet doing so in a very fun and stylish way that tweaks conventions and expectations, and gets all kinds of praise and proves very influential to many a viewer, namely Tarantino.

I dug this film, and found it to be quite enjoyable, and while it is more accessible than Breathless, it's also kinda underwhelming and struck me as somewhat overrated. There's some fun and memorable sequences, including the world record-breaking run through the Louvre, the "minute of silence", and the infectiously fun dance scene, but the film didn't really strike me as gut punchingly lasting. There's perhaps a bit more substance than maybe I picked up on, but maybe I was just too preoccupied with all the style, aesthetics, and the beauty of Anna Karina to notice.

Do I recommend it? Yeah. I don't think it's a masterpiece, but I am glad I saw it, and think it's a passable way to spend some time, especially if you want to be more familiar with one of the most revered directors in all of cinema.
April 16, 2007
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Bande à part (DE)
  • Band of Outsiders (Bande a part) (UK)
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