Bande à part (Band of Outsiders) (1964)
Average Rating: 7.9/10
Reviews Counted: 43
Fresh: 41 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Critic Reviews: 14
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
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
Mar 15, 1964 Wide
Jan 7, 2003
Royal Films International
Cast
-
Anna Karina
Odile -
Claude Brasseur
Arthur -
Sami Frey
Franz -
Louisa Colpeyn
Mme. Victoria -
Michel Delahaye
Doorman at School -
Danièle Girard
English teacher -
Ernest Menzer
Arthur's uncle -
Georges Staquet
Legionnaire -
Jean-Luc Godard
Narrator -
Claude Makovski
Pupil
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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.
One of Godard's most open and enjoyable films.
Top CriticAs charming as seasoned film buffs remember and as refreshing as initiates expect.
Delivers one clever idea atop another.
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.
The structure of the film feels like freedom. And truth.
So polished and assured it casts the supremely difficult illusion of being easy to make.
Jean-Luc Godard's most deliberately frivolous film remains a light-touch slice of New Wave romanticism.
The film sees Godard parsing out his feelings for Karina, then his wife, and meditating on the mercurial nature of his own preoccupations.
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.
An early masterpiece from Godard, trail-blazing, involving and charmingly enjoyable.
It offers 10 times more pleasures than the average picture.
One of Godard's most accessible pictures. A good place to learn how much of a debt modern cinema owes him.
Grave, light-hearted and quietly poetic.
One must remember that even a lesser Godard is likely to be much more stimulating than another director's better films.
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.
For movie lovers, it's pure joy.
A fun film.
An eminently watchable and charming film.
An exhilarating experience.
Audience Reviews for Bande à part (Band of Outsiders)
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.
Super Reviewer
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Foreign Titles
- Bande à part (DE)
- Band of Outsiders (Bande a part) (UK)
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!