Band of Outsiders
July 7th, 2016

Courtesy of The Criterion Collection:

Four years after Breathless, Jean-Luc Godard reimagined the gangster film even more radically with Band of Outsiders (Bande à part). In it, two restless young men (Sami Frey and Claude Brasseur) enlist the object of both of their fancies (Anna Karina) to help them commit a robbery—in her own home. This audacious and wildly entertaining French New Wave gem is at once sentimental and insouciant, effervescently romantic and melancholy, and it features some of Godard’s most memorable set pieces, including the headlong race through the Louvre and the unshakably cool Madison dance sequence.

Tidbits:

• Locarno International Film Festival – 1964

“A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end… but not necessarily in that order.”

Courtesy of The Criterion Collection:

A pioneer of the French new wave, Jean-Luc Godard has had an incalculable effect on modern cinema that refuses to wane. Before directing, Godard was an ethnology student and a critic for Cahiers du cinéma, and his approach to filmmaking reflects his interest in how cinematic form intertwines with social reality. His groundbreaking debut feature, Breathless—his first and last mainstream success—is, of course, essential Godard: its strategy of merging high (Mozart) and low (American crime thrillers) culture has been mimicked by generations of filmmakers. As the sixties progressed, Godard’s output became increasingly radical, both aesthetically (A Woman Is a Woman, Contempt, Band of Outsiders) and politically (Masculin féminin, Pierrot le fou), until by 1968 he had forsworn commercial cinema altogether, forming a leftist filmmaking collective (the Dziga Vertov Group) and making such films as Tout va bien. Today Godard remains our greatest lyricist on historical trauma, religion, and the legacy of cinema.

Filmography:

• Film Socialisme (2010)
• Our Music (2004)
• In Praise of Love (2001)
• De L’Origine du XXIe Siecle (2000)
• Histoire(s) du cinema (two chapters) (1997)
• For Ever Mozart (1996)
• Jlg/Jlg (1995)
• 2 X 50 Years of French Cinema (1995)
• The Children Play Russian (1994)
• Helas Pour Moi (1993)
• Contre l’oubli (1992)
• Germany Year 90 Nine Zero (1991)
• Nouvelle Vague (1990)
• Aria (1988)
• King Lear (1987)
• Soigne ta droite (1987)
• The Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company (1986)
• Hail Mary (1985)
• (“Je-Vous-Salue-Marie”) Détective (1985)
• Passion (1983)
• First Name: Carmen (1983)
• Every Man For Himself (1980)
• Ici et ailleurs (1976)
• Comment ca va? (1975)
• Numero Deux (1975)
• A Letter to Jane (1972)
• Tout va bien (1972)
• One American Movie/1 A.M. (1971)
• Vladimir et Rosa (1971)
• Pravda (1970)
• Le gai savoir (1970)
• Wind From the East (1970)
• Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1970)
• Sympathy for the Devil (1 + 1) (1969)
• The Oldest Profession “Anticipation” (1968)
• Far From Vietnam (1968)
• Six in Paris “Montparnasse-Levallois” (1968)
• Pierrot le fou (1968)
• La Chinoise (1968)
• Weekend (1968)
• Les carabiniers (1968)
• Le petit soldat (1967)
• Masculine Feminine (1966)
• Band of Outsiders (1966)
• Made in U.S.A. (1966)
• Alphaville (1965)
• The Married Woman (1965)
• A Woman Is a Woman (1964)
• Contempt (1964)
• Reportage sur Orly (1964)
• Seven Capital Sins “Laziness” (1963)
• My Life To Live (1963)
• Ro.Go.Pa.G. “Il Nouvo Mondo” (1963)
• Breathless (1961)
• Operation Concrete (1954)

Here is a curated selection of links shared on our Facebook page for additional insight/information:

• 6/15/16 – “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.” Pauline Kael, The New Republic – link
• 6/29/16 – “French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard reimagines the gangster film in Band of Outsiders. The film, which Godard has referred to as “Alice in Wonderland meets Franz Kafka,” deals with the dissonance between fantasy and reality. The characters live in a wonderland of gangster films and romantic literature, but when they commit a crime like one they saw in the movies, the consequences are real. Godard uses nostalgia as a device, placing his characters in dreamlike scenes and then cutting the air with metafilmic self-awareness.” Meghan Gilligan, ScreenPrism – link
• 6/30/16 – “That narration [in Band of Outsiders by Jean-Luc Godard] is somewhat akin to the way James Joyce aimed to ennoble human experience in his novel Ulysses, heightening it through a diversity of prose styles while essentially chronicling a regular day in the life of a group of otherwise humdrum characters. Godard adds another layer to Joyce’s artistic vision, however, with his encyclopedic cinephilia, with cheeky references ranging from Fritz Lang’s obscure 1950 noir House By the River to Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (a musical number from the latter is heard over a café loudspeaker).” Kenji Fujishima, Movie Mezzanine – link
• 7/7/16 – Three reasons to watch Band of Outsiders from Criterion: