Pouty: Pierrot Le Fou
10 April 2012
While undoubtedly influential, Godard’s tenth film - a road movie that pairs a bored, middle-class man (Jean-Paul Belmondo) with his pouty, free spirited ex-girlfriend (Anna Karina) - isn’t a patch on his best work. There are tingles (the first time Belmondo calls Karina "Marianne"). And natural shocks (the first time Karina looks straight to camera). But they soon give way to hi-brow hi-jinx.
Godard, famously, wanted to have Jean Seberg pick the pockets of her dead lover at the end of Breathless (he was persuaded not to by Truffaut). Left to his own cinematic devices, he serves up a conventional femme fatale and blows our minds with boredom.
Pierrot Le Fou
Cert: 15
