|
| Bande A Part |
|
 (10/10)
|
Runtime: 97 m |
| Public Rating: 10.00 (2 votes) |
Director: Jean-Luc Godard |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Foreign Drama |
Year: 1964 |
| Writer(s): Jean-Luc Godard |
| Reviewed by: Goatdog |
| |
This is Jean-Luc Godard's masterpiece. Filmed five years after his breakthrough but somewhat off-putting "Breathless," he achieved just about all one can achieve with this kind of movie. It's the story of two thugs who browbeat a beautiful young woman into helping them rob her rich uncle. It's a love triangle too, as Odile, played by the beautiful Anna Karina (who looks uncannily like Audrey Hepburn), tries to choose between the dark and morose Arthur (Sami Frey) and the nervous and suspicious Frantz (Claude Brasseur).
A lot of the film is what lesser directors of more traditional suspense fare would consider "down time." The trio meet in a cafe to discuss life and the job, all the while doing a sort of musical chairs as each man tries to outmaneuver the other to sit next to Odile. They perform an extended, silly dance sequence, while Godard's flatly hilarious voice-over provides us insight into their characters. This just after he remarked something along the lines of "Here is a good time for us to provide insight into the characters of our leads." At another point, he remarks, "Like in most B movies, they decided to wait for dark to come before entering the house." The leads cavort around, fail to establish an even halfway decent plan for the robbery, and of course are foiled in their attempts.
All through the movie are comments on the genre and about movies in general. Godard is fascinated with the structure of movies, and of the suspense genre in particular. Here, he dismantles the genre, leaving only the youthful naivite of the leads, their energy, and their foolishness. At the very same time he is pointing out the illogical and unrealistic aspects of the genre, he is making one of the best examples of it around. How many other heist movies created such likeable and dynamic characters and managed to be exciting films as well? Most of them have to concentrate on one or the other.
In the tiny, arty theater where my friends and I saw this film, it seemed to grow to fill the entire room. It's been a while since I have left a theater so jazzed up about a movie (although only two in our party felt like that). I'm sure Shawn and I sounded like starstruck kids as we gushed about how great the experience was. I know we got a lot of grumpy looks when we laughed out loud several times during the movie. I guess they all missed the fact that, in addition to being arty, important, groundbreaking, and serious, it found time to be one of the best comedies I have seen lately.
The film (as many of Godard's) was incredibly influential. As I commented in my review of Godard's debut, "Breathless," Godard and the rest of the French New Wave changed film forever. Quentin Tarantino, for example, paid homage to Godard and this film by naming his production company A Band Apart, a play on the French title of this film.
|
 Printable Version
|
Do you agree/disagree with this review of Bande A Part? Let your opinions be heard in our forum.
|
Buy the Poster of Bande A Part (Click Here)
|
|
|
|
