Pierrot Le Fou

Rating:
Summary: About the DVD...
Review: My exposure to Godard films were through VHS tapes. I was too young to watch his 60's films in their original formats. The transfer is not too great but good enough. The colors are right, it is thankfully letterboxed, etc. even if there are a few image distortions, artifacts and the sharpness and overall quality leaves a lot of room for improvement. There is something very wrong, however, with the sound especially towards the fifth chapter (that's the 5th access in the chapter search of which there are only 6 - thanks to Fox/Lorber!) Thankfully, this is a subtitled film (can't be switched off/on, they're pasted on the screen) otherwise, even the French won't understand the French dialogue. The noise distortion is terrible, but could it be Godard's deliberate way to convey sound since it is the part in which the CB radios or walkie-talkies were being used in the scene? My impression is that the technician in charge was probably asleep or didn't care when this noise distortion was taking place and the DVD didn't go through quality control which could have fixed it. I haven't seen the original so I don't know but since this is a Godard film, anything goes. But then the distortion continued even after that scene so any reasoning to defend Fox's negligience on this matter proved futile. I found it terribly distracting and I thought it pulled down the quality all the more of this already mediocre DVD transfer. Is this the best version yet? How does the VHS version rate? Fox/Lorber is hit and miss with DVDs. They did good with Seven Beauties, Last Year at Marienbad, and the already LD Criterion-restored Umbrellas of Cherbourg and 400 Blows but did very poorly with A Woman is a Woman, several Truffaut films and even the relatively recent Padre Padrone. What a shame that a company like Fox/Lorber gets the rights to release these great Foreign films but doesn't have the interest to come up with quality transfers. I think this is a waste of our hard-earned money to buy the DVDs that they produce. Next time you buy from Fox/Lorber, read the reviews... otherwise just rent or wait for a better re-release in the future.

Rating:
Summary: IT WAS GREAT
Review: Pierrot le fou is the most beatiful movie, i have ever seen.

Rating:
Summary: pitiful joy
Review: The five stars go to the movie, not to the dvd edition.This is a joyful, playful, charming movie by Godard, of course. But the dvd edition is simply infamous and shows and amazing contempt for the viewer.The picture quality is poor, the sound is even worse and half of the subtitles can't be read. Although the letterbox format has been respected, no one has bothered to place the subtitles in the lower black fringe. When the white letters happen to be on white and pale colours you can't read a thing. Godard does not seem to be much fancied at Fox/Lorber quarters: they haven't spent a dime on this edition.

Rating:
Summary: Godard's Most Mirthful Movie
Review: This film explodes Hollywood conventions, while praising its auteurs,and in the process transcends all of its literary, cinematic, and artistic influences. I should caution, however, the casual observer who is not a fan of Godard's. This film is definitely not for some people. That statement has less to do with the content of the flick and more to do with its form, although if you think literary allusions are pretentious you might be as equally put off by the content. For the Godard fan, this is one of his finest efforts, carefully balancing emotion with intellect. The ending scene has to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen on screen. As for Belmondo, the screen has never been visited by a cooler presence since the days of Bogart. Anna Karina, on the other hand, seems to have the ability to swallow the earth and all it contains through her magnificently large eyes.

Rating:
Summary: O Criterion Where Are You
Review: This is a five-star movie with a deduction for the DVD release. It may be that this movie will never look or sound that good technicallly, but a restoration would surely help. Even if Fox Lorber gave us only a commentary track, I would give the extra rating star; this is a bare-bones production effort of a movie that deserves the red-carpet treatment.

Rating:
Summary: O Criterion Where Are You
Review: This is a five-star movie with a deduction for the DVD release. It may be that this movie will never look or sound that good technicallly, but a restoration would surely help. Even if Fox Lorber gave us only a commentary track, I would give the extra rating star; this is a bare-bones production effort of a movie that deserves the red-carpet treatment.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant film - terrible transfer
Review: This is a great movie, probably Godard's best. But I'm afraid that the transfer to DVD by Fox Lorber is very poor. It's got a very soft, almost pixillated look with a lot of strobing on panning shots. At the cinema, Pierrot le Fou is one of the most colourful, vibrant films ever , but this DVD has a sad washed-out, de-saturated, dirty look and the sound level is also very low. All in all, it's a great shame that one of the classics of modern cinema has been treated with such a lack of care... I would recommend that you wait for a decent label to release this film properly. I have to say that it's made me wary of all titles on Fox Lorber now.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant film - terrible transfer
Review: This is a great movie, probably Godard's best. But I'm afraid that the transfer to DVD by Fox Lorber is very poor. It's got a very soft, almost pixillated look with a lot of strobing on panning shots. At the cinema, Pierrot le Fou is one of the most colourful, vibrant films ever , but this DVD has a sad washed-out, de-saturated, dirty look and the sound level is also very low. All in all, it's a great shame that one of the classics of modern cinema has been treated with such a lack of care... I would recommend that you wait for a decent label to release this film properly. I have to say that it's made me wary of all titles on Fox Lorber now.

Rating:
Summary: Get a new print out now!
Review: This is just a plea to anyone from fox-lorber: Please re-print this film on dvd or sell the rights over to criterion. Someone needs to give this film a new transfer and release. Why is it so hard to get hold of films by one of the 20th Century's greatest film artists? Someone get off your ass and release these films: Pierrot le Fou, Weekend, Masculine/ Feminine, La Chinoise, and every other Godard film that is virtually impossible to see. Thank you for your time.

Rating:
Summary: 'Pierrot' is great, but Look what an intellectual I am!
Review: Very annoying, what a show off reviewer from London is, he just can't wait to show what an intellectual he/she thinks he/she is. It's very easy to be oppositional, but more difficult to take that further by suggesting solutions. Just claiming 'Pierrot' was the opposite of the dominant ideology of Hollywood cinema is conceptually easy. He/she trivalises Godard's films, how cinematically serious is he/she? WHAT FILM HAS HE/SHE ACTUALLY MADE? Review should be more appropriately named "look what an incredible (not "incredibly") intellectual I am."