Les Carabiniers)

Starring:Jean-Luc Godard 3pak
Studio: Fox Lorber
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

One of the most unique, moving, and poetic science fiction films ever made...
thought provoking science fiction
Brainwashed Drones
Hollywood action and SFX it ain't....
A French Film.

Alphaville - Criterion Collection
Starring: Eddie Constantine , Anna Karina , Akim Tamiroff , Jean-Louis Comolli , and Michel Delahaye
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Manufacturer: Criterion
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Band of Outsiders - Criterion Collection
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Weekend

ASIN: 0780021541
Release Date: 1998-10-27

Amazon.com essential video

As the French New Wave was reaching its maturity and filmgoing had evolved as a favorite pastime of intellectuals and urban sophisticates, along came Jean-Luc Godard to shake up every convention and send highfalutin critics scrambling to their typewriters. 1965's Alphaville is a perfect example of Godard's willingness to disrupt expectation, combine genres, and comment on movies while making sociopolitical statements that inspired doctoral theses and left a majority of viewers mystified. Part science fiction and part hard-boiled detective yarn, Alphaville presents a futuristic scenario using the most modern and impersonal architecture that Godard could find in mid-'60s Paris. A haggard private eye (Eddie Constantine) is sent to an ultramodern city run by a master computer, where his mission is to locate and rescue a scientist who is trapped there. As the story unfolds on Godard's strictly low-budget terms, the movie tackles a variety of topics such as the dehumanizing effect of technology, willful suppression of personality, saturation of commercial products, and, of course, the constant recollection of previous films through Godard's carefully chosen images. For most people Alphaville, like many of the director's films, will prove utterly baffling. For those inclined to dig deeper into Godard's artistic intentions, the words of critic Andrew Sarris (quoted from an essay that accompanies the Criterion Collection DVD) will ring true: "To understand and appreciate Alphaville is to understand Godard, and vice versa." --Jeff Shannon

Description

A cockeyed fusion of science fiction, pulp characters, and surrealist poetry, Godard's irreverent journey to the mysterious Alphaville remains one of the least conventional films of all time. Eddie Constantine stars as intergalactic hero Lemmy Caution, on a mission to kill the inventor of fascist computer Alpha 60. Criterion's edition of this seminal film features a new digital transfer.

Customer Reviews:

One of the most unique, moving, and poetic science fiction films ever made..........2007-04-04

This film really doesn't get as much attention as it should. I was recently watching clips of this on youtube, and was struck by a couple of comments. Someone wrote "how does Godard do it? He uses very old fashioned techniques here (dissolves, fades), yet, makes one of the most profound films ever made?". Another wrote "because he's an artist". This is so true. This is one of most challenging, complex, cerebral science fiction films ever made. Despite the fact that it was shot in current day Paris when it was made (with no futuristic sets or anything like that), it still feels like it's futuristic. People live well, but live without heart and soul, which seems to be Godard's point (or one of many...Godard's films are amongst the most complex ever made). There are too few science fiction films like Alphaville. It belongs in a very select category along with 2001, Solaris (the original), A Clockwork Orange, THX 1138, Twelve Monkeys, Stalker, Blade Runner, and A.I.. It is among the sci-fi films that appeal to the mind and soul rather than overwhelm your senses with lots of fast cuts, CGI graphics up the wazoo, and a completely soulless approach to character and ideas. This is one of Godard's classics, which is really saying something considering how brilliant the man is...

thought provoking science fiction.......2007-01-29

Hmm. . . Decisions, decisions . . . To get the full-screen French version on DVD, or the widescreen English on VHS. Much as I despise subtitles, I still recall a smattering of French and it might be nice to brush up with a movie I remember fairly well in English. Alphaville (A Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution) is one of those sci-fi movies about a society where a computer runs everything. And anything that makes humanity human, in any meaningful sense of the word, is relentlessly quashed. Kind of a cross between Orwell's 1984, Clarke's 2001, and at least a half dozen Star Trek episodes, although with the advantage of being made when it was still a new idea, and before we began living in a society like it ourselves. But I digress . . . Really, this is an enjoyable movie to me still. Its being dated only increases its charm. And I still find myself driven to determine from the poetry, ideas, images, et al, depicted in it, what it really means to be human. I'm not sure how "leftist" it is to want to blast away at the heart of an anti-human society, though, but I never was very political. But wouldn't it be nice if all we had to do to be free of tyranny was to destroy the Big Computer? Pure escapist fantasy: Highly recommended.

Brainwashed Drones.......2007-01-17

Lately I have been interested in watching films that have a strong leftist political feel to them. In the realm of Japanese film I have been viewing and purchasing films from the 1960s that have connections with the leftist theatrical troupes and student and social movements. Of course directors like Oshima Nagisa, Imamura Shohei, and Susumu Hani play an important role during this movement so I have picked up a number of their films. Anyway, I am slowly, but surely, developing an interest in films from America, France, etc. that also deal with this same time period and it is quite interesting to compare both diverse and intermingling themes within these films.

In the realm of French cinema, especially that of French New Wave Cinema, the director who has some of the strongest leftist sensibilities is Jean-Luc Godard. I have been trying to watch quite a number of Godard's films and some of them have left me completely cold, but perhaps that is due to general lack of interest on my part when I attempted t view said films, while others I enjoyed quite a bit. Band of Outsiders is still my favorite Godard film. Anyway, the most recent Godard film that I watched is Alphaville (1965).

Alphaville is a Sci-Fi mystery film that honestly has very few elements that can label it a Sci-Fi film. There are no futuristic settings and one does not witness any spectacular scientific inventions. However, there is one glaring exception to this, and that is the presence of Alpha 60: a massive, sentient computer with a nearly omniscient mind about the happenings with Alphaville and with a voice that might remind one of a French Hal who has smoked way too many cigarettes. Whatever its purposes might be, Alpha 60 represents the ultimate in mind control. Basing everything on logic, Alpha 60 eliminates anyone who displays emotion, including a man who cried after his wife died. Such a lovely place to live, isn't it? Well for most of the people who live in Alphaville this is the only world that they know. A world in which words are constantly being eliminated, such as tenderness, because they call up emotions and one in which the dictionary, which is always changing because words are constantly being changed, has replaced the bible as the key "holy" book.

However, in the Outlands people still have that own thoughts and feelings and the spy Lemmy Caution, disguised as the reporter Ivan Johnson, has received orders to find his fellow spy Henri Dickson, a Dr. Von Braun, who he is either to return to the Outlands or liquidate, and destroy Alpha 60. Around forty-five, dressed in a beat up trench coat, and a chain smoker, Lemmy Caution looks more like a gumshoe than a spy from the future, but he is highly capable: At least, until he meets Natasha Von Braun, the daughter of Dr. Van Braun and an example of someone who might possibly be extricated from the power of Alpha 60.

The first fifteen minutes or so of Alphaville were hard for me to watch because I had a hard time getting into the right frame of mind for a Sci-Fi film that looked like it was filmed in the backstreets of Paris, which it was, but I was able to get drawn into the film a bit more as it continued. Godard's film is not only an attack on Communist policies, i.e. Stalinist policies, but it is also an attack on Capitalism as well. While brainwashed, most of the residents of Alphaville material desires are satiated by the system. However, can material items truly replace deeply engrained human emotion? Hopefully not, but Godard's film shows how an oppressive government attempts to mold the minds of its citizens. A must for fans of New Wave cinema and recommended for casual foreign movie fans, Alphaville might not be an enjoyable movie experience, but it will at least get the brain juices flowing.

Hollywood action and SFX it ain't...........2006-12-01

This film has inpsired several later films, like Brazil and Logan's Run. What I found so unique with this film, however, is that it did draw me in, but not in a passive way. Rather, it, in contrast to most other films, it actually helps the imagination, and forced me to be an active viewer and interpreter: it does not serve ready made experiences.This film demands attention from its viewer. What immediately struck me when I watched this film was that over half the story is told by the photography. Both the imagery and the dialogue intentionally leave gaps, which have to be filled in by the imagination of the viewer, and interpreted by each individual viewer.
The imagery tells us about a city built completely logically. No attention to artistic expression or human comfort has been paid. The humans are all given roles as servants of the order. There are obvious allusions to the police collaborators during the German occupation.
Outside of the city there is the semimythical and chaotic Outside. It is from here a hired assassin arrives to find the scientist responsible for the computer that runs the city. He is also an observer. He, being from Outside, is able to see the absurd and bizarre results of this "logical" society. He is also able to see how vulnerable the city really is...

A French Film........2006-10-01

Our hero is Lemmy Caution. He loves gold and women, yet never seems to like the women he gets. He has a gun which he uses and a lighter which is always lighting fresh cigarettes. He says he is a reporter, he does have a camera, but in fact he is an agent from the Outlands. He has come to either kidnap or kill the scientist, who invented Alpha 60, a computer that runs the city of Alphaville. A society where emotions and certain words have been removed and logic rules. The computer, like 18th Century humans who wished to dominate nature with reason and logic, wants to rule mankind with logic and rational thinking. Yet why do people who live there like to bat at light bulbs and take drugs?
HA! What is logically about women in swimsuits killing people in a pool with knives? None of the film really makes that much sense. Of course it could be that a computer's logic is not the same as mankind's. The film had French actors and is a film which was filmed in black and white, so it is a French film released in 1965 in black and white. MST3K would have had problems with this flick - it is surreal but also, I think, badly edited. It is science fiction without any special effects. It is many themes that just don't seem to mix well. Even the sound clues, which should tell us when something important is about to happen, were clueless. The music would swell up and become all dramatic when somebody was riding an elevator or lighting a cigarette. At one point the female character was blind, then seemed normal, then was blind again.
Now I still enjoyed it in a bad B-movie kind of way and some scenes really seemed to work for me. Such as when the computer is questioning Lemmy, with the blinking lights and moving microphones, it really looks like something out of a dystopian future. And how a computer's voice told you if the room was empty or not when you passed it. And the women in the film are pretty cute if underused.
But in the end all you can say about it is that Lemmy smokes too much and that love and art is important in any culture. 99 minutes of something but I'm not too sure what that something was. When it comes to the Criterion Collection I should stick to the Japanese or American films.

Average customer rating:

Mashed Potatoes and the Revolution of the Earth around the Sun
Not good.
Classic French New Wave Film, Bad for General Audiences
a nice film with excellent music.
The innocence of sex

Masculin Feminin - Criterion Collection
Starring: Jean-Pierre Léaud , Chantal Goya , Marlène Jobert , Michel Debord , and Catherine-Isabelle Duport
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000A88ERS
Release Date: 2005-09-20

Amazon.com essential video

Juxtaposing images of pristine, romantic innocence with ones of mute, meaningless violence, Godard's Masculin-Féminin first lulls with a hypnotic, disjointed story line and then stuns with scenes of tremendous depth and meaning. This outrageous film follows the somewhat ineffectual courtship of Madeline, an aspiring pop singer, by Paul, an erstwhile journalist and interviewer but mostly groundless searcher. As in most Godard films, plot mechanics are secondary to elements such as dialog (generally marvelous, but sometimes a bit too pointed), lighting (bizarre and oversaturated, but never less than fascinating), shot framing (extraordinarily thoughtful), and performance. Godard allows his camera to linger on single faces, without cutting, for what seems by modern standards to be extremely long segments--perhaps even excruciatingly long--but the remarkably subtle cast members never disappoint, particularly the fantastically adept and frequently hilarious lead actors, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Chantal Goya. The filmmaker has little to add to our collective understanding of the relationship between masculine et feminine writ large; in fact, most of the female characters are uncomfortably stereotypical, framed as either willfully oblivious to the world or subtly (or overtly) deadly. But as an examination of a young generation faced with the prospect of war in Vietnam and the vagaries of French socialism, Masculin-Féminin proves remorselessly and chillingly trenchant. A towering influence, it would seem, on Whit Stillman's similarly themed Barcelona--but while Stillman lacks the conviction to follow his instincts to their logical, violent conclusions, Godard faces his uncompromising story with elegance and courage. In French, with subtitles that are occasionally difficult to read. --Miles Bethany

Description

With Masculin Féminin, ruthless stylist and iconoclast Jean-Luc Godard introduces the world to "the children of Marx and Coca-Cola," through a gang of restless youths engaged in hopeless love affairs with music, revolution, and each other. French new wave icon Jean-Pierre Léaud stars as Paul, an idealistic would-be intellectual struggling to forge a relationship with adorable pop star Madeleine (real-life yé-yé girl Chantal Goya). Through their tempestuous affair, Godard fashions a candid and wildly funny free-form examination of youth culture in throbbing 1960s Paris, mixing satire and tragedy as only JLG can.

Customer Reviews:

Mashed Potatoes and the Revolution of the Earth around the Sun.......2007-05-23

Maybe I am just a sucker for punishment. Over the last few months I have watched quite a handful of Jean-Luc Godard's films, but, besides a couple such as Breathless and Band of Outsiders, I have really not enjoyed my time delving into his films. I am by no means stating that Godard is a bad filmmaker for I respect the body of work that he has created overall and the changes that he made in film and his desire to use film as a tool to change society and maybe even spark revolution amongst his film viewers, but for the most part I find many of his films to be too "arty," in my opinion Pierrot le fou is a prime example of this, and this sense of art for art's sake detracts from the films often leaving them as little more than pedantic schlock.

Well then. After my introductory paragraph it might come as bit of a shock that I enjoyed the film Masculin, Féminin quite a bit not only the first time that I watched it but the second time as well. Masculin, féminin stars Jean-Pierre Léaud as Paul, a young man with literary aspirations and a very strong communist bent and the ye-ye girl Chantal Goya as Madeleine, a photographer who is embarking on her career as a pop singer. Like many of Godard's films there is no one underlying plot within this film, unless you consider Paul's desire to sleep with the lovely Madeleine as an underlying plot, so it comes off as being very episodic. We are treated to the typical anti-America propaganda that is common within Godard's body of work during this time period, but we are also introduced to Godard's disillusionment with socialist movements as well. These disillusions come out brilliantly within interviews conducted by Paul in which the "oppressed" are more concerned with the small bits of happiness than can be found in life and not in some vague socialist plot that offers fewer concrete awards than the America based capitalist system. Outside of political agenda, one of the most enjoyable aspects of this film is the music. Throughout the film we are treated to French ye-ye girl songs, Chantal Goya, of course, and they definitely give the film a bit of energy where it is lacking in several other Godard films.

Another aspect of the film that should be mentioned is the sexuality within the film itself. There, of course is no hardcore or even soft-core action, but the topic of sexuality is quite prominent and the characters continuously talk about their love making episodes in relation to love and it even the subject of birth control is prevalent. This, of course, seems tame by today's standards, but at the time this content was racy enough to give the film an eighteen and over ranking.

Masculin féminin was created the same year that Godard also created Alphaville and Pierrot le fou. The former two often garner more praise, but in my opinion this film shines in comparison to the other two.

Not good. .......2007-03-12

Most of the time I love French films. 400 Blows, Breathless, etc. This one caught my eye so I bought it. Waste of $$. Horrible. I never did really get the plot becuase there was not much of one. It was just like a homemade movie with really bad sound. I looked around the room and the other two people watching it with me had fallen asleep.

Classic French New Wave Film, Bad for General Audiences.......2006-04-03

I watched this film as part of my history studies in Post-War Europe and before everyone docks me because I gave it two stars, hear me out. I'm no Godard fan so I may not be able to appreciate this film as a fan of The New Wave might. I'm just your regular Joe Movie-Watcher.

Masculin Feminin is about Paul, a 21-year-old French citizen that just retired from his 16 months in the Army. Paul is a believer in Marxism and throughout the film promotes the Worker's Party while denouncing US involvement in Vietnam, the Du Gaulle government and most forms of Westernism such as condoms, psychadelic rock (many songs in Masculin Feminin have a style similar to The Kinks, Jefferson Airplane etc) and even Coca-Cola... yet Paul is often seen playing pinball and that mini-bowling game you see at an arcade. Paul seems to be the pro-French identity kind of guy as he often eats cheese and drinks wine. The preserver of the romanticized French culture.

However, Paul's friends and interviewees (Paul works for the IFOP, the major French polling agency at the time) seem to not care about the change towards a quasi-American consumer state. Paul's girlfriend Madelein is a rising pop-singer, her room mates are materialistic consumers, one who owns a car, and the people Paul interviews seem to only care about themselves. This is very accurate in terms of how the 'baby-boom' generation of French youth began to rebel against the traditionalist governments in Europe. Like the teens in the 1950s in the US, the teens began to form their own demographic.

However, this is where my fascination ends. Godard apparently never heard of music editing and film editing. In many parts in the movie, Godard fixed the camera on one person's face in a portrait shot and kept it there for minutes at a time even though the scene was a 15-minute back and forth conversation. The volume in the music went from very high to very low instantly in many parts during dialogue, making it very annoying if almost distracting to the audience.

In a few parts when Paul was whistling, the recording of the whistling obviously overloaded the sound buffer as I heard static in the speakers. I thought this was a volume problem on my end so I turned it down, nope... it was the sound editing. This is just poor recording and editing. Furthermore, the sound editors had this fascination with using the same gun-noise sound (which sounded more like a cartoon car noise) over and over and over again and in very unlikely times.

Other times, ambiant noises would drown out the dialogue such as vehicles from outside a cafe or even drinking noises. Sometimes the sound didn't kick in for up to five seconds into the scene.

Because this is a French New Wave film, I won't attack how there is virtually no plot and has random scenes that are just plain silly. However, I strongly recomend not getting this film if you're just in the general audience and not a New Wave fan. Otherwise, you might like this New Wave classic but I'm no expert on the subject. I was just extremely disapointed with the lazy filming, recording and editing.

a nice film with excellent music........2006-03-13

this review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

"Masculin Feminin" is a film about a group of teenagers in 1960's Paris who go on outings together. Movie theatres, dance clubs, and love affairs.

The film is set against the beginnings of youth culture in France and got the equivelant of an NC-17 rating when it was released in France but would most likely get a PG or PG-13 rating by today's standards.

The film has some very nice 1960's French pop music which I really liked and would watch the film solely for the music.

The DVD has an archival and a new interview with main actress Chantal Goya along with new interviews with other cast and crew. There is also a discussion of the film between two film experts Freddy Buache and Dominique Païni, Swedish TV footage of the production of the fictional Swedish film featured in the movie, an original theatrical trailer and a new trailer for the re-release.

The innocence of sex.......2005-11-06

Excellent movie. Jean-Pierre Leaud is playing the same insecure but dogmatic, innocent but manipulator, sex-obsessed but sex-ignorant character that he played so well for Truffaut, and he fits perfectly in this story as well. He as Paul falls crazily in love with Madeleine, who is insecure but open-minded, innocent but risk-aware, sex-interested but also sex-ignorant enough to be afraid about being - and to get - pregnant.

The script of the 60s is there: the young discover affluence and idealism, light entertainment with the heavy duty of changing the world, and exploration of sexual freedom. Boy-meets-girl and discover a new, uncertain world together.

Simply delicious...

A Woman is a Woman - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

A Woman is a Woman
terrible musical screenplay
One of Godard's most fun
What a Woman Wants...
Angela est tres mignon!

A Woman is a Woman - Criterion Collection
Starring: Jean-Claude Brialy , Anna Karina , Jean-Paul Belmondo , Nicole Paquin , and Catherine Demongeot
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Manufacturer: Criterion
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ASIN: B0001ZIYDO
Release Date: 2004-06-22

Amazon.com essential video

One of the landmark early films of the French New Wave, director Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless) weaves a tale of desperation and deceit. Anna Karina (Vivre Sa Vie) plays a stripper determined to have a child in the hopes that it will better her life. She tries in vain to convince her rough, selfish boyfriend (Jean-Paul Belmondo) to father the child, but he refuses. In desperation and sparked by anger she turns to his best friend to father the child, setting off a new round of recrimination and betrayal. Une Femme Est une Femme is one of Godard's first films and essential viewing for fans of the Nouvelle Vague, to chart the beginnings of the detached mood and style that influenced a coming generation of films. --Robert Lane

Description

With A Woman Is a Woman (Une Femme est une femme), compulsively innovative director Jean-Luc Godard presents "a neorealist musical, that is, a contradiction in terms." Featuring French superstars Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean-Claude Brialy at their peak of adorability, A Woman Is a Woman is a sly, playful tribute to - and interrogation of - the American musical comedy, showcasing Godard#s signature wit and intellectual acumen. The film tells the story of exotic dancer Angéla (Karina) as she attempts to have a child with her unwilling lover Émile (Brialy). In the process, she finds herself torn between him and his best friend Alfred (Belmondo). A dizzying compendium of color, humor, and the music of renowned composer Michel Legrand, A Woman Is a Woman finds the young Godard at his warmest and most accessible, reveling in and scrutinizing the mechanics of his great obsession - the cinema.

Customer Reviews:

A Woman is a Woman.......2007-06-27

Half musical, half madcap New Wave romantic comedy, Godard's highbrow take on a beloved Hollywood tradition remains dazzling not because of the musical sequences, which are jokey and deliberately amateurish, but because of Karina's refreshingly impetuous presence. Brialy and Belmondo play well against her chippy airs, coming off as adorably hip, chain-smoking straight men. With visual and sound gags galore, Godard's playfulness is at its peak in this French valentine to Bob Fosse, Cyd Charisse, and all those fickle, mercurial femmes.

terrible musical screenplay .......2007-04-27

only with watchable pretty actress. this early french movie is a typical clueless french deadbeat. the whole movie is like a randomly patched up work, every scene is independently separated with one another, the sound track and the musical scores are simply terrible, off and on abruptly without any logic connection. you don't need director or editor to make this movie, because it never looks like having both important key persons doing it. you must got high french fever to appreciate such junk and would say anything french is good.

One of Godard's most fun .......2007-03-05

Before the 'umbrellas of choubourg' there was a 'woman is a woman' a film which uses the format of the hollywood musicAL to explore the very nature, at its most abstract, of cinema.. This is some of jean luc godard's best commentary on the art of film-making... It is ablaze in color and glamour, making it one of Godard's most accesible films.. It is unique, however, to the point of questioning its own validity.. This is the first film to fully realize the potential of the new wave to capture the visual imagery of the popular hollywood musical and to turn it against itself.. it is also an introduction to the magic of Anna Karina - an actress with very revealing eyes.. Jean paul belmondo reunites with godard to create a fine companion piece to 'breathless' - they would later come together again in the incompareable 'pierrot le fou'.. One of the top new wave films..

What a Woman Wants..........2007-01-31

"Une femme est une femme" (1961) is the second Goddard's film - his dissection of a traditional Musical and Comedy. It may seem silly and naïve at times but it is a funniest and most enjoyable of his films that I've seen so far. A pretty stripper Angela (Anna Karina) wants a child. She decided to become a respectable bourgeois mother and wife but her dear husband Emil (Jean - Claude Briali) is categorically against her decision. He loves his wife but he loves his freedom even more, and the child means the end of freedom. Angela turns for help to Emil's friend, Alfred (Jean - Paul Belmondo). He is ready to do anything for Angela because he's been deeply and desperately in love with her ...But a woman is a woman and blessed is he who truly knows what she really wants.

3.5/5 or 7/10

Angela est tres mignon!.......2006-06-26

Reading the plot of this film is not going to be helpful to you in gaining a sense of it. It's not about the plot. If film is exclusively about narrative for you, I would suggest that you not buy this film. This film is about the characters, the incredibly adorable Angela in particular, the images, the playfulness and cleverness of the direction, and the music/audio.

Angela is winsome, irresistable. I've been trying to bat my eyelashes to such effect as hers, but with limited success. She pouts, she prances. She tells Emile and Alfred that she will go out with whomever does the most extraordinary thing. At this, Emile and Alfred take turns shadow boxing and generally behaving in a delightfully absurd manner.

We are aware that this is a Godard film from the beginning. The music strangely stops and starts in the opening scene, for apparently no reason. Godard also will focus on a character (Emile) and then do a very slow pan across the room to Angela, and then have some sort of textual explication at the bottom of the screen. In between scenes, he might do a rapid montage of one character's scenes throughout the movie, also for no apparent reason. And of course, his film often refers to film. For example, Alfred, on entering Emile's and Angela's apartment, tells them to make it quick, because "Jules and Jim" is on that night. All of these devices suggest a playfulness that, for me, defines the film. Everytime I see this film (and I have seen it many, many times) I am reminded that great art, and life in general, need not be staid and heavy-handed. We can have a lighter touch, to great effect.

Jean-Luc Godard Collection (Breathless / Le Petit Soldat / Les Carabiniers)

Average customer rating:

3 Disc Collection...

Jean-Luc Godard Collection (Breathless / Le Petit Soldat / Les Carabiniers)
Starring: Jean-Luc Godard 3pak
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
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Masculin Feminin - Criterion Collection
A Woman is a Woman - Criterion Collection
Band of Outsiders - Criterion Collection
Weekend
Francois Truffaut's Adventures of Antoine Doinel (The 400 Blows / Antoine & Collette / Stolen Kisses / Bed & Board / Love on the Run) - Criterion Collection

ASIN: B00005YR3V
Release Date: 2001-12-11

Customer Reviews:

3 Disc Collection..........2004-12-02

The 3-disc DVD set includes Breathless, Le Petit Soldat, and Les Carabiniers.

Average customer rating:

You have to love Godard
Great movie...
Good one
Power
Great 1972 Post Weekend Godard

Tout Va Bien - Criterion Collection
Starring: Yves Montand , Jane Fonda , Vittorio Caprioli , Elizabeth Chauvin , and Castel Casti
Director: Jean-Pierre Gorin , and Jean-Luc Godard
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Masculin Feminin - Criterion Collection
Weekend
A Woman is a Woman - Criterion Collection
L'Eclisse - Criterion Collection
Band of Outsiders - Criterion Collection

ASIN: B0006Z2NAO
Release Date: 2005-02-15

Description

In 1972, newly radicalized Hollywood star Jane Fonda joined forces with cinematic innovator Jean-Luc Godard and collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin in an unholy revolutionary artistic alliance. Tout va bien tells the story of a wildcat strike at a sausage factory, as witnessed by an American reporter (Fonda) and her has-been New Wave film director husband (Yves Montand), culminating in a free-ranging assault on consumer capitalism and ineffective leftists. The Criterion Collection is proud to present this masterpiece of radical cinema, a caustic critique of society, marriage, and revolution in post-1968 France.

Customer Reviews:

You have to love Godard.......2007-02-21

This is not a great Godard film, it feels like it is running on ideological vapors without the ballast of irony that drove a film like Sympathy for the Devil (One on One). In hindsight, however, it is refreshing for actively engaging issues of class struggle. When I watched the DVD, I threw up my hands in a hallelujah-- that yes, indeed, films can be part of social and politcial debate, based on ideas more than the cardboard characters hired to represent them. As in the later CHINA SYNDROME, Jane Fonda plays a reporter literaly captured by the story she is covering, and in both films she is given a priveledged view and insight that she utterly fails to convey to her putative audience. Similarly this film tries to convey the excitement and promise of 1968 and doesn't deliver. I love it (particulrly using the chapter breaks)for two gorgeous full camera magazine dolly shots; a pan back and forth of a cutaway set of a sausage factory (similar to the boat set and dolly work on THE LIFE AQUATIC), and a pan back and forth for ten minutes of the check out stands of what must have been the prototype for super-Kmarts. As a guerilla filmmaker and political person, this DVD was a must for my collection.

Great movie... .......2006-10-02

Great, political Godard film. People need to think about the economic issues it deals with, especially in these days of an essentially oligarchical america. But whatever your politics, it is an excellent film.

Good one.......2005-12-08

Jean-Luc Godard's follow-up to the ultra-Maoist Weekend, featuring Yves Montand as a former New Wave filmmaker and his wife Jane Fonda, as they become active in a factory takeover. The film is of course very sympathetic to Marxism and perhaps Leninism, but it's certainly toned down from the blood fest that is Weekend, perhaps regrettably. Godard insists on reinterpreting and imposing entirely new ideas about what a film can and ought to be, in this case an intellectualized espousal of the working class struggle. A few moments of daring misce-en-scene are worth mentioning; fist, Godard includes an awesome cutaway of the factory to reveal the power-dynamics of the uprising within, and an elaborate tracking sequence in a supermarket to reveal the gross stupidity of capitalist consumerism. Tout Va Bien is clearly a step-down from Godard's brilliant features of the 60's, but it's still provocative and worth any cinephile's time.

Power.......2005-10-11

After more than thirty years of being done, I have to see some other feature that goes straight to the core of the workers' struggle better than this one (of course I wasn't even borne then, but DVD and video exists for a reason, as also my beloved Tel Aviv Cinemateque). Godard and Gorin succesfully use reflexive techniques to avoid the classic didactism or demagogy of political film and show how and why workers must take control of their workplace (and this doesn't mean to fall into bureaucratic soviet-style communism!). The arguments for all sides are expertly presented in a series of half-interviews (because we only listen to the answers give, the questions remaining off-screen) and reflexivity allows for freedom in the depiction of the beggining of a possible revolution.
The film can be seen and understood in many levels, but I'm afraid that today's workers conciousness is far away from that of the French factory ones after May 1968. Still, if you're going to take to your political movie the mega-stars of the period (Jane Fonda!) this is the way to do it. For Americans: Carrefour is the WalMart of France (and many other parts of the world). The same system, the same faults.
The Criterion edition included an excellent analysis (50 min) of a famous photograph of Jane in Vietnam, plus some excerpts of a Godard interview (explaining his position against naturalism in cinema) and a longer interview to Gorin (the co-director). It is an excellent edition as it is, but an introduction to the May 1968 events and/or to Nouvelle Vague would have been a good bonus for those that are not so into the subject, maybe as PDF-text so as not to take many space on the DVD (C'mon, with only 10 Megs you could include a lot).

Great 1972 Post Weekend Godard.......2005-08-13

This movie follows the path set by '2 or 3 things', 'La Chinoise' and 'Weekend'. You'll see Godard trademarks such as a LONG tracking shot, actors delivering monologues straight into the camera as-if-being-interviewed, non moving camera even when someone outside the frame is doing the talking or voiceover-thinking, etc...

While the movie was made during the final stages of Godard's Dziga Vertov period it actually contains a plot revolving around the relationship of a couple. He (Montand), once a New Wave movie director who now makes comercials for tv; and She (Fonda), an american correspondant in Paris. Both of them get kidnapped for 2 days inside a sausage factory during a strike and we see how their relationship changes due to them becoming aware of the historical context they exist in.

It's weird to see both movie stars being used not for acting skills but for what they represent: 'international vedettes'; as the opening scene makes perfectly clear. To make a film you need money (even if you are JLG) and to get your money back you need stars.

The Dziga Vertov group made one more film before calling it quits ('Letter to Jane') and since that 'essay' has a direct connection with 'Tout va Bien' Criterion wisely decided to include it inside this DVD.

While this may not be the place to start if you haven't seen much of Godard (Breathless, A Woman is a Woman, Contempt or Band of Outsiders would be more like it) if you've followed JLG's path up to Weekend, they you will certainly enjoy this one and all the extras this edition includes.

Criterion Crime Wave 6-Pack (High & Low/Tokyo Drifter/The Honeymoon Killers/Branded to Kill/Alphaville/Man Bites Dog) - Amazon.com exclusive

Average customer rating:

Criterion Crime Wave / IFC crossover promotion
Great movies, strange price
Great movies, silly collection

Criterion Crime Wave 6-Pack (High & Low/Tokyo Drifter/The Honeymoon Killers/Branded to Kill/Alphaville/Man Bites Dog) - Amazon.com exclusive
Starring: Valérie Boisgel , Jean-Louis Comolli , Eddie Constantine , Michel Delahaye , and Jean-André Fieschi
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Manufacturer: Criterion Collection
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00015WMP0
Release Date: 2004-01-11

Amazon.com

The six films in the Criterion Crime Wave 6-Pack were shown together on on the International Film Channel in January 2004.

Although best known for his samurai classics, Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa proved himself equally adept at contemporary dramas and thrillers, and 1962's High and Low offers a powerful showcase for Kurosawa's versatile skill. The great Toshiro Mifune stars as a wealthy industrialist who receives a phone call informing him that his son has been kidnapped, and by unfortunate coincidence the ransom demand is nearly equivalent to the amount Mifune has raised for a corporate coup. What follows is both a tense detective thriller, as the police attempt to track down the kidnapper, and a compelling illustration of class division in Japan--the "high and low" of the title. Far be it from Kurosawa to make a mere thriller, however; this loose adaptation of the Ed McBain novel King's Ransom provides the director with ample opportunity to develop a visual strategy that perfectly enhances the story's sociological themes. --Jeff Shannon

In Toyko Drifter, Seijun Suzuki transforms the yakuza genre into a pop-art James Bond cartoon as directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The twisting narrative takes hitman "Phoenix" Tetsu (Tetsuya Watari) from deliriously gaudy nightclubs, where killers hide behind every pillar, to the beautiful snowy plains of Northern Japan and back again, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. Suzuki's extreme stylization, jarring narrative leaps, and wild plot devices combine to create a pulp fiction on acid, equal parts gangster parody and post-modern deconstruction. --Sean Axmaker

There's Bonnie and Clyde--then there's Martha and Ray. One-shot writer-director Leonard Kastle set out to make a film about lover-murderers that was everything Arthur Penn's movie was not. He succeeded. Consequently, The Honeymoon Killers, based on the Lonely Hearts Killers case of 1949, may be too lurid for some. But there's a heart beating inside its (tawdry) chest and Kastle clearly cared about these two crazy, mixed-up kids who should never have met. But met Martha (Shirley Stoler) and Ray (Tony LoBianco) did and proceeded to fleece several widows before doing them in. The film isn't graphic in its violence, but each murder is increasingly disturbing. Dramatic lighting and dark passages from Mahler keep the mood close and clammy throughout. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Seijun Suzuki's absolutely mad yakuza movie Branded to Kill bends the hit-man genre so out of shape it more resembles a Luis Bunuel take on Martin Scorsese. Number three killer Goro Hanada (Jo Shishido) is a hired killer who loves his work, but when he misses a target, he becomes the next target of the mob. Goro is no pushover and easily dispatches the first comers, but the rat-a-tat violence gives way to a surreal, sadistic game of cat and mouse. The legendary Number One mercilessly taunts his target before moving in with him in a macho, testosterone-laden Odd Couple truce that ends up with them handcuffed together. Kinky? Not compared to earlier scenes. The smell of boiling rice sets Goro's libido for his mistress so aflame that Suzuki censors the gymnastic sex with animated black bars that come to life in an animated cha-cha. --Sean Axmaker

1965's Alphaville is a perfect example of Jean-Luc Godard's willingness to disrupt expectation, combine genres, and comment on movies while making sociopolitical statements that inspired doctoral theses and left a majority of viewers mystified. Part science fiction and part hard-boiled detective yarn, Alphaville presents a futuristic scenario using the most modern and impersonal architecture that Godard could find in mid-'60s Paris. A haggard private eye (Eddie Constantine) is sent to an ultramodern city run by a master computer, where his mission is to locate and rescue a scientist who is trapped there. As the story unfolds, the movie tackles a variety of topics such as the dehumanizing effect of technology, willful suppression of personality, saturation of commercial products, and, of course, the constant recollection of previous films through Godard's carefully chosen images. --Jeff Shannon

The Belgian satire Man Bites Dog is dark, dark, dark--but also right on the money in its sly sendup of the media's fascination with violence and its complicity therein. This mock documentary has a trio of filmmakers shooting a cinéma vérité feature about a garrulous serial killer who lets the film crew follow him around as he selects victims and then dispatches them. But at what point does filmmaking become participation? These hapless documentarians soon find out as their subject eventually pulls them into his world, including a gun battle with a rival film crew and their own criminal star. Gruesomely hilarious, with a deadpan wit that's hard to resist. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews:

Criterion Crime Wave / IFC crossover promotion.......2004-01-20

From the other persons reviewing this 6 DVD bundle there seems to come confusion as to why Amazon would group said discs. The reason is for cross promotion with The Independent Film Channel (IFC) who will show all six movies on January 30th and 31st of 2004. Of course, all are Criterion titles as well, and the budding collector may feel compulsion to buy all of these at once to achieve a discount (an extra 5% PER title above individual prices here at Amazon) and saving on S&H. Aside from the tie-in to IFC, Amazon is supporting a contest with prizes to be given away and you can register here at this site.

All that being said, there is no other reason these titles would form a cohesive box set, but then again, it is not being sold as such. Unlike other Criterion box sets (which to this point have always showcased a single director), this is working off of a theme and not someone's body of work. There is no mention of a "box" to house all these DVDs, but instead are just bundled together in a group. Each of these films though are solid titles, with Man Bites Dog being far and away my favorite and the two Suzuki films probably being the least appealing (though, still good films).

If your first introduction to the Criterion Collection is from watching these films on IFC at the end of the month, you will come to find the company to be the Rolls Royce of DVDs. From film restoration to bonuses to retrieval of obscure cellulite, Criterion is unparalleled in the retail field and is a must for any serious film students or lovers of great cinema.

Great movies, strange price.......2004-01-17

This is a great collection of classic films. I have all
but one on DVD or Laserdisc.

I am confused on the pricing. ..

Great movies, silly collection.......2003-12-16

Each and every one of these films are fantastic...from the police procedural of Kurosawa's High & Low to the cinema verite nastiness of Man Bites Dog to the goofiness of Suzuki's Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill. That being said, they are all different one from the other and have little in common (with the exception of Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill...both by Suzuki), and other than an at times tangential relationship to the crime genre (Godard's Alphaville is "crime" film only to the extent that a private investigator is used as a plot device), it's strange why in the world these films are grouped together. Well, all of them are issued by the Criterion Collection...but even Criterion Collection boxed sets have a stronger kinship, as in the Hitchcock and Kurosawa boxes.

Product Description

SHarlota i ee ZHjul' / Charlotte et son Jules (1958 g., 13 min.) ZHan-Pol' Bel'mondo ("Na poslednem dyhanii"), ZHerar Blen, Anna Kolet v jekscentrichnoj komedii ZHana-Ljuka Godara "SHarlota i ee ZHjul'". Na vsem protjazhenii jetoj umoritel'noj zarisovki s posvjaweniem ZHanu Kokto samovljublennyj student pojeticheskoj naruzhnosti raz#jasnjaet svoej devushke, pochemu ona vernulas' k nemu. Nakonec, SHarlote udaetsja vstavit' frazu, kotoraja vse perevorachivaet. Ljubov' suwestvuet / L'Amour existe (1961 g., 22 min.) Hroniko - dokumental'nyj fil'm Morisa Piala ("Sorvanec") - "Ljubov' suwestvuet". Social'nyj reportazh, snjatyj pojeticheskoj kameroj v manere Alena Rene. V centre vnimanija - rabochij klass poslevoennoj Francii, obrechennost', niweta, tragizm neravenstva, gorodki kartonnyh korobok na pustyrjah i massovaja strojka, rastuwaja iz ruin. Hronika Evropy, zhivuwej pod gruzom nelegkoj pobedy. "Venecianskij lev" i premija brat'ev Ljum'er (1961).

First Films Collection / Kollekciya. Pervye filmy. Patrice Leconte. Laboratory of Horror. Le Laboratoire de l'angoisse. Jacques Doniol-Valcroze. Tired. Les Surmens. Jean-Luc Godard. All the Boys Are Called Patrick . Charlotte et V?ronique, ou Tous les gar?ons s'appellent Patrick. Jean-Pierre Melville. 24 hours from clown`s life. Vingt-quatre heures de la vie d'un clown

Average customer rating:

First Films Collection / Kollekciya. Pervye filmy. Patrice Leconte. Laboratory of Horror. Le Laboratoire de l'angoisse. Jacques Doniol-Valcroze. Tired. Les Surmens. Jean-Luc Godard. All the Boys Are Called Patrick . Charlotte et V?ronique, ou Tous les gar?ons s'appellent Patrick. Jean-Pierre Melville. 24 hours from clown`s life. Vingt-quatre heures de la vie d'un clown
Director: Jean-Luc Godard. , Jean-Pierre Melville , Patrice Leconte , and Doniol-Valcroze
Manufacturer: Karmen Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

Laboratorija uzhasa / Le Laboratoire de l'angoisse (1971 g., 28 min.) Marianna Di Vettimo, Marsel' Gotlib, Mishel' Sush v ironicheskom trillere Patrisa Lekonta "Laboratorija uzhasa". Mademuazel' Klara - edinstvennaja osoba zhenskogo pola v kollektive himicheskoj laboratorii. Beznadezhno vljublennyj uborwik Antuan rad ljuboj vozmozhnosti prodemonstrirovat' devushke svoi chuvstva. No ona ostaetsja bezuchastnoj, poka rasstroennyj uborwik ne razlivaet opasnye reaktivy... Utomlennye / Les Surmenes (1957 g., 21 min.) ZHan-Klod Briali ("Ljubov' pod dozhdem"), ZHan-P'er Kassel' ("Sekret Sahary"), JAna Barri v social'noj melodrame ZHaka Doniol'-Val'kroze "Utomlennye". Molodaja parizhanka zhivet s razvjaznym i frivol'nym molodym chelovekom. Ona chuvstvuet, chto takaja zhizn' ee utomljaet. Ves'ma kstati proishodit vstrecha s tihim i nezametnym, no vernym i celeustremlennym muzhchinoj, ubezhdajuwim ee izmenit' svoju zhizn'.

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