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Movies / On DVD / Pierrot Le Fou
Pierrot Le Fou

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Pierrot Le Fou (1965)

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Reviews Counted:34

Fresh:28

Rotten:6

Average Rating:7.7/10

Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Synopsis: French auteur Jean-Luc Godard continues his fascination with the crime genre--after BREATHLESS and BAND OF OUTSIDERS--with PIERROT LE FOU. After escaping his stale, bourgeois marriage, Ferdinand... French auteur Jean-Luc Godard continues his fascination with the crime genre--after BREATHLESS and BAND OF OUTSIDERS--with PIERROT LE FOU. After escaping his stale, bourgeois marriage, Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a man on the run, encounters a captivating woman, Marianne (Godard's then-wife, Anna Karina). Striking up an immediate connection, the two begin a freewheeling affair that leads them to the Mediterranean Sea. There's one slight problem, though. Marianne is being pursued by a group of bloodthirsty mobsters who have chased her out of Algeria. Making matters worse for Ferdinand is the unfortunate fact that she turns out to be as much of a headache as his wife was, constantly referring to him as "Pierrot," much to his disdain. As their relationship reaches its boiling point, the hit men arrive, threatening to terminate both their relationship and their lives. Based on Lionel White's OBSESSION, PIERROT LE FOU is an example of a filmmaker's lack of preparation actually working to his benefit. Godard has said that he had no script on which to proceed, forcing him to make up the film as he went along. It is this seemingly improvised, brisk pacing--in addition to the performances of Belmondo and Karina--that makes the film such a fresh and original twist on an oft-mimicked genre. [More]

Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Jean-Pierre Léaud

Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Jean-Pierre Léaud

Director: Jean-Luc Godard

Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Screenwriter: Jean-Luc Godard
Composer: Antoine Duhamel

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Nov 24, 1998

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Reviews for Pierrot Le Fou

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An idiosyncratic work by a filmmaker trotting out his obsessions of the moment and committing them to film without much regard for actual meaning.

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment Comment
09/30/09
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

And then there´s the color. As much as anything, "Pierrot" is a film about red and blue, as well as a little bit of yellow and green.

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
09/26/09
Christopher Long
Christopher Long
DVDTown.com

Theirs is, in their own words, 'A story,' 'All mixed up,' and their self-construction mimics that of their true Creator, the ever-experimental auteur Jean-Luc Godard. [Blu-ray]

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
09/21/09
Peter Canavese
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews

At its worst, in some of its improvised rambles, it demonstrates the value of a well-thought-out screenplay. At its exhilarating and poignant best, it proves that a film can play all sorts of postmodern games yet still touch its viewers’ emotions.

Full Review Source: Sunday Times (UK) | comment Comment
05/28/09
Edward Porter
Edward Porter
Sunday Times (UK)

This sparkling, anarchic 1965 thriller is vintage Godard.

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
05/28/09
Philip French
Philip French
Observer [UK]

A wild-eyed, everything-in-the-pot cross-processing of artistic, cinematic, political and personal concerns, where the story stutters, splinters and infuriates its way to an explosive finale.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
05/22/09
David Jenkins
David Jenkins
Time Out

An eye-poppingly vivid exercise in genre-busting filmmaking. Here is one of the most persistently intriguing directors of the 1960s at his most watchable and entertaining.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
05/22/09
Jon Fortgang
Jon Fortgang
Channel 4 Film

Godard opens up his box of tricks and tips it all over the screen in a flurry of improvised, postmodernism that takes scattergun shots at consumerism, cultural imperialism and the Vietnam and Algerian wars.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
05/22/09
Ed Potton
Ed Potton
Times [UK]

Engaging and beguiling - perhaps in spite of itself - and a vital part of film history.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
05/22/09
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]

Godard and his great cinematographer, Raoul Coutard, translate the ideas into some of the most visually exuberant French cinema of the Sixties.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
05/22/09
Tim Robey
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph

As a simple on-the-road crime thriller, it works well enough although parts of it don't make a lot of sense.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
05/22/09
Sky Movies

At times infuriatingly indulgent but is also an intoxicating, wildly inventive picaresque fantasy.

Full Review Source: Financial Times | comment Comment
05/22/09
Karl French
Karl French
Financial Times

Pierrot is a mess, no matter how many times you see it, but it’s a brilliant mess. Death of love, (re)birth of cinema.

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Jeffrey Gantz
Jeffrey Gantz
Boston Phoenix

Pierrot Le Fou was [Godard's] way of wrapping up the past before stepping forward into his next phase of overtly political filmmaking -- a magnificent mash-up before the manifestos to come

Full Review Source: Las Vegas CityLife | comment Comment
03/17/08
Matt Kelemen
Matt Kelemen
Las Vegas CityLife

... plays like Godard's formal farewell to his past films, a last play with his old toys before putting them into storage and moving on to more serious concerns

Full Review Source: Turner Classic Movies Online | comment Comment
02/21/08
Sean Axmaker
Sean Axmaker
Turner Classic Movies Online

It's one of Pierrot's unique charms that Godard doesn't regard Ferdinand and Marianne's situation with emphatic mockery or inordinate reverence.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
02/17/08
Eric Henderson
Eric Henderson
Slant Magazine

Pierrot le Fou is a movie in love with movies, but mostly it's a movie in love with itself.

Full Review Source: Las Vegas Weekly | comment Comment
01/24/08
Josh Bell
Josh Bell
Las Vegas Weekly

... endlessly charming and entertaining ...

Full Review Source: Los Angeles CityBeat | comment Comment
09/11/07
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat

Provencal scenery is pretty, the movie-star chemistry is potent and Karina (then Mrs. Godard) has never looked more stunning.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
08/30/07
William Arnold
William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

So challenging and prolific has been Godard's 53-year career that virtually all of his films are as deserving of revival as Pierrot le Fou.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
08/09/07
Kevin Thomas
Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times
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