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Pierrot Le Fou

Pierrot Le Fou

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent visual essay encouraging existential expressions
Review: I first viewed this great work with Jose Fernandez, who was delivering a series of lectures here in Southern California, where he alleged that many film directors use archive footage of Popitekus for dermatophytic purposes. He highly recommended "Pierrot le Fou" as a key example of a director who strives to accomplish just the opposite. Jean Luc Godard presents a dithyrambic forage that successfully quenches any student's thirst for a portrait of jaspoid intrusion, brimful with jessant heraldry, yet not lacking in brilliant Manichean humor.

Don't get me wrong; Jean Luc-Godard is no René Cardonas. This bold attempt at cinematic brilliance merely mimics the magasame visions that Cardonas acheived from the late 1950s through 1965. While I must praise Godard for presenting a message in which the main protaganist strives for something greater than his mundane existence, certain portions of the film bear the propensity to contrive the real message. By throwing in the melodramatic suggestion of gangsters attempting to thwart the heroine's means, the thesis becomes overstated. I find it sad to think that perhaps Godard, deep inside, feels he lacks what great directors like René Cardonas and Doris Wishman possess. This film is well worth purchasing until the films of the late Cardonas become available on DVD. In the meantime, "Pierrot le Fou" is worth your time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Yehh.... New Yoork..... Shoore..... Communeest...."
Review: I must say that of all of Godard's films, this must be one of his most coherent and most "accessible" (if that is at all relevant, which is probably is to the casual viewer. By this I mean that if you were bored by the political spiels in Weekend, you would not necessarily tire of this.) Which is not to say that this film conforms to traditional cinematic standards, but judging against some of his other works, Pierrot le Fou is a much "gentler" movie. Nonetheless, it contains two of the most fabulous scenes I have ever seen: the ever-amusing Vietnam reenactment and [of course] the supremely satisfying ending. Additionally, development of character seems to play a larger part in Pierrot le Fou (and in such others as Contempt) than in many of JLG's others.

And to think that I never understood the lyrics of Sonic Youth's "Heather Angel" until several months ago...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Wild and wonderful Godard. Washed out lousy transfer
Review: I saw a print of this film in NYC in the late 80s. It was pristine, colorful and a great experience. Along with Truffaut, Godard epitomized the French New Wave of the '50s and '60s, and this film along with "Woman is a Woman," was one of his best. The use of color is amazing. Sadly, the source print for this DVD is oddly washed out, contains a few tears and pops in the sound track. It's hard to believe there wasn't a better copy available for Fox Lorber to use.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: forever magic
Review: I tell you one thing- either you'll love godard or you'll hate him. This was the first movie I saw of Godard without knowing anything about French Cinema. And I fell in love with it just after 15 minutes of watching. I am a big Godard fan now.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Five Stars for the movie, but Zero Stars for this Print
Review: I think its about time for Fox Lober to stop releasing art movies as profound as this one, and let other companies (i.e. Criterion, Kino, etc.) put these films out on the market.

Pierrot le Fou is a true classic, and along with Breathless, My Life to Live, Band of Outsiders, Alphaville, and Weekend (another classic Godard movie that should be on DVD in a perfect print) Jean-Luc Godard become the leader of the French New Wave, (Francois Truffaut was just as famous, but to me, Truffaut spoon fed his answers and logic to a moviegoer where as Godard challeged you more and more in each film)

With this movie, and other Godard films, you can see him pointing the way for filmmakers like Scorsese, DePalma, Stone, Tarantino, and to be honest with you, look at Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" and you see a film that owes a lot to Pierrot le Fou and Weekend when it comes to the narrative.

Maybe one day a company like Criterion or Kino will re-release Pierrot le Fou and Weekend on DVD that will please cinephiles like myself and others.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Pseudo-intellectual, modernist, french, subtiteled film
Review: If you enjoy thinking too much about bad B-movies you'll love this film

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Another Take on the DVD Edition
Review: If you have only seen PIERROT on VHS/Pan & Scan, the letterboxed version here is automatically welcome. In terms of picture quality, it just may be possible that this is how the film was meant to look: a little rough in spots and with a few idiosyncrasies in the sound. Godard's film is deliberately self-aware as a 'put-together' work and is probably not meant to be conventionally beautiful. Nonetheless, several sequences are striking and aethetically pleasing.

Since the packaging currently available is different from a previous DVD incarnation, could it be possible that the disc represents a newer, improved mastering? This is suggested only because to this viewer, the film looks mostly terrific. The sound is another story: mastered at a low-level, it does not come across as well as might be expected. As for the walkie-talkie scenes, they are surely meant to sound the way they do.

4 stars as a rating, because there are no trailers or extras worth mentioning.

An acceptable, if not ideal, DVD of a one-of-a-kind film experience

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Buy from Amazon.Fr instead!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: It shouldn't take me to tell you this is a great film. Essential Godard: the perfect balance between politics and entertainment -the two opposing forces at play in his work. But don't waste your money on this version -buy the Gallimard English-subtitled DVD from Amazon.fr for about $40.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Anglais" in French means "English"
Review: Its amazing how certain people considers themselves know-it-alls in film, but really don't know anything. First of all, one person said this was Raoul Coutard's method in making the film look this way... Umm, wrong. And the reason why I know because I just bought a perfect print of Pierrot le Fou from Amazon's French website. The print and sound is so perfect, you'd think Criterion did it. So this horrible Fox Lorber version just doesn't cut it. They did a lazy job in restoring this masterpiece, so there's no excuses for its horrible print. And it makes me ponder as to why anyone would defend Fox Lorber and its not-so-good track record.

The beautiful version I bought (must have a multifuction DVD player to play it. And it comes with English Subtitles) totally unliminated that irritating sound where the scene with the walky-talky came up. (Trust me, if you have the Fox Lober version, you'll know what scene I'm talking about).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Music, Guns and Books
Review: Karina decides to sing twice in this film. Both times she does so live to camera. See? In Godard's films art meets reality without a fuss. If you want a song, then you get one in the middle of whatever Karina happens to be doing at the time (be it a scissor-murder or a stroll in the forest). Wasn't UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME a musical in disguise? Where were the songs? Well you get two of them here in PIERROT LE FOU. (But if you want to see Karina dance you have to watch VIVRE SA VIE.)


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