Band of Outsiders - Criterion Collection

Starring:Claude Brasseur, Louisa Colpeyn, Chantal Darget, Michel Delahaye, Sami Frey, DaniÃ¨le Girard, Monsieur Jojot, Anna Karina, Claude Makovski, Ernest Menzer, Jean-Claude RÃ©moleux, MichÃ¨le Seghers, Georges Staquet
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

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Described by its maker, Jean-Luc Godard, as "Alice in Wonderland meets Franz Kafka," this 1964 film noir stars Anna Karina as a naive woman who takes up with couple of would-be bad guys (Claude Brasseur, Sami Frey) in a disastrous effort to rob her aunt of a fortune. Along the way, the motley group joins the Godardian (and Hollywood gangster) tradition of characters who walk a line between reality and invention, in this case distracting themselves by running around the Louvre, taking a stab at learning English, stumbling through some dance steps, and reenacting the death of Billy the Kid. A uniquely spontaneous work in Godard's canon, Band of Outsiders also continues the Brechtian strain in the director's merged relationship with Karina, his then-wife and artistic muse. Yet it is also more buoyantly unpredictable in its sense of romantic doom than any of the director's movies since his seminal debut, Breathless (also a gangster film, not coincidentally). --Tom Keogh

Description

Two restless young men (Sami Frey and Claude Brasseur) enlist the object of their desire (Anna Karina) to help them commit a robbery--in her own home. French New Wave pioneer Jean-Luc Godard takes to the streets of Paris to re-imagine the gangster genre, spinning an audacious yarn that's at once sentimental and insouciant, romantic and melancholy

Customer Reviews:

Light, playful with a gray undertone.......2007-06-28

Even though I haven't gotten around to finish watching Jean-Luc Godard's celebrated Breathless (1960) despite trying a couple of times, I'm pretty sure I like Band of Outsiders better. Main reason: Anna Karina. I have little doubt that most women would prefer Breathless since it stars Jean-Paul Belmondo who, as cinematic history has it, anticipated Richard Gere's performance in Truffaut's American Breathless (1983).

What I love about Karina's Odile is her incredible naivete. Although 20-years-old playing perhaps an 18-year-old, Karina, then Godard's wife, manages the complete and total personality of someone say 12-years-old. It is her naivete that makes the film work as two petty, would-be criminals, Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and Franz (Sami Frey) seduce her into helping them rob a surprisingly large number of francs from her Aunt's house. At least they think they're going to score. We'll see how the fates feel about that.

They meet in a beginning English language class. Obviously it is not just Godard who admires American culture, our three beginners in life do as well. Appropriately enough the film is adapted from Fools' Gold, an American novel by Dolores Hitchins. In a sense this is a French film imitating not an American film but an American attitude toward life, a free and easy world in which riches are liable to just fall into your lap, where it's chic to be young and run with the wind and drive your convertible onto the sidewalk when you feel like it and in crazy circles for no reason at all, and it is especially fun to jump into the vehicle without opening the doors while it is moving. It is an existence in which you feel spontaneous and uninhibited and can dance the Madison without looking at your feet.

Well, Odile and Franz can. Arthur watches his continuously. And this tells us something about Arthur, who is a bit mean and a bit shallow, but intent on getting his and getting it right. It is he with whom Odile falls into puppy love. She is attracted to his confidence and his crude masculinity, and his interest in her, nothing more. She is further seduced by the joy of finding friends and something exciting to do. She hasn't a clue about who they are or who she is, and that in part is the charm of the film.

She has lovely limbs that we do not see. She runs gracefully, stretching her legs out like a colt. She delights in sitting in the front seat of the Simca, the men on either side of her. Steal the money she has spotted in her uncle's closet, money that she herself would never think of stealing? Okay. And then we go to England or better yet, South America like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Childish, very childish and charming because Odile is so pretty, just that, pretty as every young girl should be. But surely something tragic is going to happen. Surely this is a cautionary tale about how innocence is lost.

There are gray day shots of Paris and the suburbs now covered with concrete and asphalt. There's a nine-minute run through the Louvre, young people just having fun; and then the denouement and tragedy. Of some sort. And then the fantasy life returns as the film ends.

Godard's story, his plot, isn't to be taken seriously, but his characters are. Arthur is the bad guy, the primitive, just an animal acting out his animal life. But Franz is sly, reflective, reads books, is well-mannered, is finding himself. Odile is a child who will be a woman soon.

The Criterion Collection DVD is nicely presented with some of the usual extras, including excerpts from interviews with Godard and Anna Karina. The subtitles are excellent. There's a booklet with a review by Joshua Clover and part of an interview by Jean Collet from 1964 entitled, "No Questions Asked: Conversations with Jean-Luc Godard."

Band of Outsiders.......2007-06-27

Like Godard's "Breathless," the exhilarating "Outsiders" is one of the director's most accessible and enjoyable outings from the 1960s. Part buddy film, part crime-gone-wrong drama, it tells the story of three disaffected friends whose ill-advised adventure in armed robbery is really a way for Godard to capture their devil-may-care youthfulness. Tracking the trio's romp through the Louvre (to beat the nine-minute record of an American tourist!) or staging a cool, dazzling three-way dance (the Madison) next to a café jukebox, Godard is at his most invigorating here. In all, "Outsiders" is atmospheric, free-spirited, and fun.

A Good Example of a Bad French New Wave Film. .......2007-05-16

While "Band of Outsiders" exemplifies French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard's philosophy of overturning traditional filmmaking to bring a New Wave of cinema to France in the 1960s, it does not possess the charisma that spontaneity and natural environments lent the best of Godard's films. This is the underside of the New Wave, a lesson in why doing things simply because they have not been done before does not make good art. "Band of Outsiders" takes inspiration from American crime films of the 1940s and applies it to aimless youth of the 1960s to create a sort of lackadaisical caper movie. Best friends Franz (Sami Frey) and Arthur (Claude Brasseur) know pretty young Odile (Anna Karina) from English class, where they halfheartedly compete for her attentions. When Odile lets slip that the boarder at her Aunt's house keeps a large stash of cash, Arthur jumps at the chance to steal it, coaxing a passive Franz and reluctant Odile to take part in his plan.

Claude Brasseur is good as shameless, domineering Arthur. Anna Karina, who was married to Jean-Luc Godard at the time, gives an annoying stilted performance, however, as the witless Odile. The only emotion she does convincingly is fear. Beyond that, we have an endless stream of allusions to other films and literature, gimmicks that draw attention to themselves, and a wholly superfluous voice-over narration spoken by the director himself. There was hardly a scene in the first hour of the movie that didn't have me waiting impatiently for it to end. In Godard's defense, the interminable and often unnecessary scenes may be the result of the minimum feature film requirement of 90 minutes in France at the time. But I would suggest that he write a film with more substance in order to meet that requirement instead of padding a simplistic storyline with junk.

"Band of Outsiders" improves in the last half hour, as the need for filler decreases. But there is not enough depth of character or intricacy of plot to support a feature-length film. I'd like to be able to call it an exercise in style, but I think a project in self-indulgence would be more accurate. Maybe the reflexive elements such as removing the sound for 2 minutes or having actors speak to the camera were eye-openers when "Band of Outsiders" was released in 1964. But audiences are more sophisticated now. They're conscious of cinema's contrivances and their own complicity in them. If you show audiences that films are fake and manipulative, you insult their intelligence. Directors of the French New Wave are part of the reason that this is true today. But there were better examples of reflexive filmmaking in the 1960s than "Band of Outsiders". The film gets 2 stars. My 3 stars are for the Criterion Collection disc. In French with optional English subtitles.

The DVD (Criterion Collection 2003): "Visual Glossary" (18 min) explains the many allusions and references in the film. "Godard 1964" (5 min) features interview clips with Jean-Luc Godard from a 1964 French television documentary, in which he defines the Nouvelle Vague, as well as behind-the-scenes footage from this film. "Anna Karina" (18 min) is a 2002 interview with the actress. She talks about how she got into film, how Godard worked with actors, and the character of Odile. "Raoul Coutard" (11 min) is an interview with the cinematographer of "Band of Outsiders", who supervised the Criterion Collection transfer. He talks about Godard's "reportage" shooting style and camera and lighting challenges on the film. All interviews are in French with English subtitles. "Les Fiances du Pont Mac Donald" (3 min) is a short silent comedy by Agnes Varda featuring Karina, Frey, and Godard. (French & English intertitles) There are 2 trailers (2 min each), one original and one for the 2001 re-release.

essential godard.......2007-02-18

If one film could some up the ouevre of Jean Luc Godard it would probably be 'band of outsiders'.. It is a great example of French New wave.. As in many godard pictures the plot is not that important - its like he is saying - yeah, yeah, we've seen this plot a million times before lets just use it as a means of improvisation.. With Raoul Cotard's cinematography we see Paris in all its glory - filming the streets like no one else.. Yet despite all this playfulness 'band of outsiders' plays as one of Godard's most wistful, melancholic films.. Maybe it is the score by Legrand (who is capable of much better) - but everytime i see this movie the combination of music and image never fails to make me get extremely tired and actually doze off - and i like this movie! Yet this is what makes me hesitate from calling it Godard's best (though it contains some of his best moments).. So I would say this is a must for Godard fans.. my personal favorites of Godard are 'Breathless' and 'Pierrot le fou' - although it is hard to beat the minute of silence...

A Great Movie...Don't Miss It.......2007-01-28

"Band of Outsiders" is the epitome of a great film and embodies, for me, exactly what a film should be. The film has inspired, at least partly, a large number of films over the year. Most famously a few scenes in "Pulp Fiction." It is also the film that Quentin Tarantino named his production company after (A Band Apart). If you've seen Pulp Fiction, as many times as I have, you'll notice a lot more inspiration than the casual viewer will. "Band of Outsiders" was released in 1964 and doesn't follow the typical movie formula. It's completely spontaneous, strung together, and fresh after all these years. The film is about two budding criminals named Franz (Sami Frey) and Arthur (Claude Brasseur), who conspire to rob the aunt of the beautiful Odile (Anna Karina, "My Life to Live"). Both men are in love with Odile, but much more preoccupied with getting the money. In a review I read for the film it called the script "incoherent" while another review said the film felt "strung together quickly and without much thought." Both of these reviews are incredibly inaccurate. The plot does feel strung together, but that's what is so great about it. We meet Franz and Arthur as they're driving a car, they talk about Odile, they reenact the death of Billy the Kid, they take a stab at learning English before meeting up with Odile and putting their plan into motion. In one scene (at a coffee shop) the three stand up and dance in one continuous take. A movie does not have to have a coherent plot to be great. A great movie was once defined by Howard Hawks as being "three great scenes, no bad scenes." This film has no bad scenes and more than three great ones. Jean-Luc Godard, a director whose work I've only recently discovered (the other Godard films I've seen are "Weekend" and "My Life to Live"), directed films that have a timeless quality to them. Movies that still feel new today and will continue to do so until the world looks like an episode of "The Jetsons." This film (and his others) have aged better than films like "Citizen Kane" (which isn't to say this is better). His movies feel so fun and spontaneous; it's hard not to be sucked in. The Criterion Collection has, once again, done a magnificent job with the DVD. The sound and picture quality is superb and the bonus features are good, although one wishes for more, but they're still interesting. Any person who likes unique films or liked "Pulp Fiction" and wants to see a film that inspired it should check this out. It's one of the great movies.

GRADE: A

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