Bande à part

Plot synopsis:
Odile (Anna Karina) meets a man named Franz (Sami Frey) in an English language class. She has told him of a large pile of money stashed in the villa where she lives with her aunt, Madame Victoria and a man named Monsieur Stoltz in Joinville, a Parisian suburb. Franz tells his friend Arthur (Claude Brasseur) of the money – and his nascent romance with Odile – and the two hatch a plan to steal it.
Meanwhile, Franz and Arthur try to seduce Odile. Ultimately, Arthur wins Odile, and they spend the night together.
Arthur's uncle learns of their plot and wants a cut of the money. Franz, Arthur, and Odile now must commit the robbery the night before they had planned, the night they knew M. Stoltz would be away from home. Moreover, M. Stoltz grows suspicious, and he hides the money and changes the locks.
When they arrive, Franz and Arthur tie up Mme. Victoria and lock her in an armoire. They only find a small amount of cash in the house, and when they open the armoire, to interrogate Mme. Victoria about the rest of the money, she appears to be dead. Franz, Arthur, and Odile flee the scene at once, until suddenly, Arthur declares he will return to the home, to verify that Mme. Victoria is in fact dead.
This is a ploy: Arthur knows where the rest of the money is hidden, and he plans to take it for himself. But on the highway, Franz notices Arthur's uncle heading in the direction of the villa; he and Odile turn around to follow. There, they witness Arthur being shot by his uncle repeatedly after finding the rest of the money in the doghouse. As he breathes his last, Arthur shoots his uncle in return. Odile rushes toward the body, but Franz pulls her away as M. Stoltz pulls up to the house. M. Stoltz gathers up the pile of money that is on the ground and walks up the stairs of the house. This is also where we learn that Mme. Victoria is alive, as she appears in the doorway and meets M. Stoltz as he enters the house.
Odile and Franz drive off with a small stack of money from the robbery. Odile, crestfallen, declares, "I'm disgusted with life." The two decide to flee to South America, and the narrator declares his story has ended here, "like in a pulp novel," and promises a technicolor sequel chronicling Odile and Franz's tropical adventures.

Tags: psychedelic, atmospheric

Review:
Acting wise, the film is stolen by the lovely Anna Karina (who was Godard's wife at the time) as the sweet, vague woman at the centre of the trio.
Godard himself does the voice-over narration relating the story.Filmed on the cold, de-glamorised streets of urban Paris, the film has a spontaneous feel that adds a lot to the exhilarating feel of the whole work.This film is a charming, fun and suspense filled picture from one of the world's most interesting film-makers..
Unlike in his debut, Breathless, here the characters - two young men Arthur (Claude Brasseur) & Franz (Sami Frey) and the young woman Odile (the beautiful Anna Karina) - are quite accessible (at the least watchable) to those who aren't used to Godard's treatments of his main players.
That, along with a style including artful but elegant and, in opposition, gritty and 'cool' cinematography by Raoul Coutard and a striking, upbeat musical score by Michel Legrand, gives Jean-Luc Godard the edge in creating one of the most influential films of the new-wave.
What makes Band of Outsiders a great film is not just the last act, but that the lead up to it, the filler, is rather extraordinary in its good grace to keep the audience entertained even as they know they're watching an art film (a good analogy is that Godard narrates much like Cocteau narrated over Blood of a Poet, except that here it's over a crime instead of a series of surrealistic events).
There are also little moments that are funny and/or fascinating, and they go to show there's more emotion in this triangle than would usually be found in any kind of conventional film-noir.After now seeing four of his films (Breathless, Contempt, Week End, and Band of Outsiders), this is my favorite.
Wheeler Winston Dixon, in his book _The Films of Jean-Luc Godard_, a rather good exploration of Godard's cinema, devotes a single paragraph to Bande a part, having written several pages each for such other Godard films as Breathless, My Life to Live, and Une femme est une femme.
He doesn't say it, but it is just as easily said that it is also a repitition of Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player and Jules and Jim.Why would Godard, who has just expanded into making a film, a major film, like Contempt (and will go on to make Pierrot le fou (which I haven't seen yet, though I will in the next few days) and Alphaville) go back to a cheap crime movie?
The three main characters, Arthur, Odile and Franz do this great dance (kind of a proto-line dance, although a lot more attractive) to a great jazz piece (the music is great throughout, like it is in all of Godard's other films; he has quite the ear for it).
And its greatness escalated steadily as the film progressed, until it ended.Let's discuss for a moment the acting of Anna Karina, at the time Godard's wife and obsession.
The leads, including Jean-Luc Godard partner Anna Karina, are young and charming and their quick dialogue keeps things light.
Fantasizing and discussing Hollywood B-movies and pulp literature, they decide to rob the house with the help of Odile.Godard goes to even further extremes in "violating" traditional storytelling with his voice-over narration, giving the viewer information during the action and letting his characters talk to the camera.
It might not be Godard's most innovative release, compared to let's say BREATHLESS, CONTEMPT and TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER, but is probably more entertaining and accessible to modern audiences than almost any other pre-1970 film he made (his later work is difficult to grasp for any audience).
When Anna Karina jokes that Stolz probably made his loot from cheating on his taxes, then repeats it again in the final scene- this time as stated fact, it shows you how deeply these characters are entrenched in the fiction of it all, how the wisecracking becomes a way of living.
Godard's overwrought, sickly poetic narration is obviously a gag, as is Arthur's hilariously overacted death scene; the minute of silence at the soda shop where Godard cuts the soundtrack completely is great, and the synchronized (well, almost) dancing is just precious, and I loved it.
Band Of Outsiders is definitely worth seeing if you like Godard's way of filmmaking; to me, it falls a little short of greatness, but it does have its moments.
Regardless of the brilliant avant-garde cinematic techniques that pepper the Band of Outsiders, one is also stuck with the characters, an aimless lot without a lot of talent, charm or magnetism, rootless folks who ignore others completely as long as they can run about and steal and make noise and act like unruly children.
He also makes reference to this films famous dance scene in 'Pulp Fiction' and he supposedly showed the scene to Uma Thurman and John Travolta so that they could be inspired.All of these reasons inspired me to watch this movie and I was slightly disappointed with what I saw.
Jean-Luc Godard's 1964 film "Bandè a part" (sometimes titled "Band of Outsiders") is an adaptation of an American crime novel that transcends its pulp origins through Godard's cinematic invention.
The young lady Odile (Anna Karina), who isn't very bright, meets lowlife Franz (Sami Frey) in an English course and makes the mistake of telling him that the home in which she lives with her aunt holds a large amount of cash.
There is also dancing, as in the film's most famous scene Odile, Franz and Arthur interrupt their plotting for an amusing line dance in a café, over which the narrator tells us their unspoken thoughts.And then there is Godard's many references to the film canon.
Jean-Luc Godard has long been the darling of the French New Wave, beginning with the 'stereotypical' nouvelle vague film, "Breathless."  While "Breathless" is the film that everyone regards as 'the one,' the true beauty in Godard's filmmaking is expressed with "Band of Outsiders."   Once again featuring Godard's beautiful wife Anna Karina, "Band of Outsiders" is the kind of crime film that you're not entirely sure if you like or not.
But at the same time, Godard is letting his imagination run wild, filling our minds with life's little pleasantries and random absurdities.While Truffault's films as a whole are more widely recognized around the world, Godard truly is the grandfather of the French New Wave.
Jean-Luc Godard, who chattered before the arrival of the color widescreen, talked about the trembling lights in the cold fog and Shakespeare in the translation class, a minute of silence and a nine-minute record, and a third-rate story ending in the cold-blooded narration.
Director Jean-Luc Godard shows his talent for visuals and there are a number of scenes in the film that really stay in your mind.
Sometimes French films are actually extremely (Wages of Fear, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Tall Blonde Man with One Black Shoe, City of the Lost Children) but I feel like most of the French movies I've seen in my life were exactly what I hate about Godard.So, how is Band of Outsiders for someone who hates Godard?
But there is an interesting silent flirtation that starts up during the reading that is rather fascinating.So this movie gives me some understanding of what Godard is trying for in his films, I think.
And it makes me understand why Hal Hartley, who I love, has said Godard is a major influence (Hartley's films also have long conversations with people talking at each other, but his dialog is quirky and fascinating, which is very un-Godard.The story involves a love triangle and planned robber featuring a dumb woman and two men, one a major creep and one a minor creep (predictably she likes the major creep better).
Like most French new wave films that pay tribute to genre film making, Godard has drained most of the energy and suspense out of the crime genre in this film, so the story is never particularly compelling and the movie's slight twists are poorly done and seem like an afterthought.
Jean-Luc Godard, creator of the quintessential New Wave film, 'Breathless' directs and once again shows that if a film has style and energy, plot and characters can take a backseat without too many problems.
Band of Outsiders is muddled and doesn't seem to know exactly what it wants to do; but it doesn't matter, because the life that Godard injects into it more than makes up for it's lack of direction and even though many of the scenes have nothing to do with the actual plot; the film manages to work, and work very well.
The crime at the centre of the plot is so petty that it feels wrong to put this in the same genre section as films such as 'Rififi' and 'The Asphalt Jungle'; but then again, that's Godard's intention with this film.Band of Outsiders continually mocks convention, and scenes such as the impromptu dance in a cafeteria (Pulp Fiction, anyone?) show that Godard just wants to break convention, even if it comes at the expense of the plot.
Why he did this is unclear, but thank God he did, as, in my opinion, it's an ultimately better film.Shy student Odile (Anne Karina), is befriended and by two partners in crime, the quirky and silent Franz (Sami Frey), and the confident and reckless Arthur (Claude Brasseur).
In using the title for Macado de Assis's novel as my summary for this particular Godard film, i'm trying to bring up the fact that this is a post-modern narrative, with the narrator (Godard himself) constantly breaking into the action to give us (the audience) not just an idea of what's going on, but to clue us into feelings and ideas that his characters (Franz, Arthur and Odile) can barely express.
It may not be as technically dazzling as ALPHAVILLE or WEEKEND, but BAND OF OUTSIDERS is a contradictory movie: photographically, the black-and-white images of the suburbs of Paris are often delicately mournful, and Michel LeGrand's music is wistful, yet it's a film filled with love, love for movies, love for its leading lady, Anna Karina, and love for the audience, whom Godard is always addressing..
The character study is a lot more effective than that in "Breathless" and makes a good social commentary.The first hour of the film sustain a light tone of romantic-comedy, which appears to be about a weird love-triangle.
However, you may not be too bothered about what is going as you are more concern about what the characters are thinking and feeling.This great film change my viewpoint of Jean-Luc Godard and makes me more willing to see his other works.P.S. My vote for "Breathless" is 8 out of 10..
A joy to watch as always, running through the Louvre, the Madison dance scene in the café, the sleazy Arthur, the beautiful young Odile, the slightly hapless Franz who loves Odile but is being bested by Arthur, the plan to rob the money in her aunt's house.
Very much a French New Wave film but also a Film Noir which pays homage to B Movies.Imho it's Godard's best or at least most accessible film..
There's a good deal of adolescent knockabout fun; the two men delight in play-acting as gangsters and reliving scenes from their favourite American movies, all three characters get up and spontaneously dance 'The Madison' in a cafe and the poor Simca sports car in which they drive around is repeatedly and mercilessly thumped over kerbs and pieces of scrap-yard junk.
The cafe-culture is more centred around Traditional Jazz than Rock-and-Roll and even the way the characters dress appears to be from a time as yet untouched by the very youth-quake that Godard and his fellow New-Wave film makers helped to promote.
Bande a part or Band of Outsiders, directed by Jean-Luc Godard is one of the most important films of the French New Wave.
Band of Outsiders might be a little hard to understand if one's unfamiliar with Godard's own influences: Robert Bresson, b-class film-noir, neo-realism and especially Jean Rouch.
Jean-Luc Godard clearly builds his films around this philosophy of film; the combination of reality and fiction - both of which can never be separated from each other.Band of Outsiders is both a tribute to American b-class crime films and a poetic description of Parisian suburbs.
In the middle of the encounter and the heist, the group of three has time to dance, chit-chat, act crime scenes, sit still and quiet for one minute and run through Louvre in a new record time.Jean-Luc Godard himself called Band of Outsiders a "suburb western" and to my mind that's maybe the best description one can give about it.
Band of Outsiders is perhaps the biggest tribute to cinema from all of the films by the Nouvelle Vague directors.The film is part of a certain era in Jean-Luc Godard's career.
So the one who seeks for a political message or a deep study of humanity from Band of Outsiders will find oneself in a dead end and I think that's exactly what happened to me on my first viewing, but after a few years times have changed and I've become much more aware of the French new wave and Godard.This certainly doesn't mean that Jean-Luc Godard wouldn't be political but during the 'Anna Karina' era his films were playful, light and joyful with the exception of Alphaville.
It's a real eye-opener for all of who are interested in French New Wave, Jean-Luc Godard's work, his relationship with Anna Karina or poetic narrative..
"Band of Outsiders" is a pulpy crime flick with great wit, fun characters, good performances and a well-told story, and that's all it is.
Bande à part (1964) **** out of **** Directed by Jean - Luc Godard With Anna Karina, Sami Frey and Claude Brasseur Brilliant, poetic film about a Karina being the desire of Frey and Brasseur while their dances, sing, play and travel in Paris drifting stole Colpeyn's money.
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.)Even though I haven't gotten around to finish watching Jean-Luc Godard's celebrated Breathless (1960) despite trying a couple of times, I'm pretty sure I like Band of Outsiders better.
It is her naivete that makes the film work as two petty, would-be criminals, Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and Franz (Sami Frey) seduce her into helping them rob a surprisingly large number of francs from her Aunt's house.
And then the fantasy life returns as the film ends.Godard's story, his plot, isn't to be taken seriously, but his characters are.
"Bande à part" is one of the main movies of "Novelle Vague", the French cinematic movement between the end of the Fifties and the Sixties.This films belongs to the best Jean-Luc Godard period, when his movies still had a strong story and were not politicized yet.Arthur, Franz and Oldile form a band different from the other ones...
One of the many installments in the New Wave (in fact, Nouvelle Vague appears on a cinema marquee), it portrays small-time crooks Arthur and Franz - both fans of B-movies about gangsters - enlisting young foreign language student Odile to help them pull off a crime.My interpretation is that the movie has many aspects.
But also, Godard likes to imitate some of the tricks used in film noir B-movies - as well as with the storytelling - without getting silly.
But to be successful it's important that you commit crimes with fake tattoos, a noticeable limp, and an Irish accent.Unfortunately, the thieves in this heist movie decided to go with their native French tongue.Taking an English class together, three disfranchised Parisian youths, Odile (Anna Karina), Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and Franz (Sami Frey), decide to fleece a houseguest of Odile's aunt of his fortune.Attracted to Odile, both Arthur and Franz agree to the heist; however, their plan is expedited after Arthur's uncle gets wind of the available cash.Forced to rob the visitor at once, the trio's simple plan becomes a problematic bloodbath.A subtle stick'em up, imbued with director Jean-Luc Godard's New Wave vision, Bande à part is an unconventional love story amid an unprofessional heist.Besides, don't French robbers have a reputation of surrendering their arms if you saw you're German?
In and around Paris, beautiful ex-model (and director Jean-Luc Godard's young lover) Anna Karina (as Odile) attracts two criminally-minded young men in her English language class - attractive Sami Frey (as Franz) and aggressive Claude Brasseur (as Arthur).
Very much in the same vein as his break-out hit Breathless, Band of Outsiders works just the way it is supposed to, an homage to the pulp crime novels and B- movies of America.
Band of Outsiders (1964) *** (out of 4) Jean-Luc Godard film about two friends (Claude Brasseur/Sami Frey) who love "B" crime films and hope to one day pull off their own heist.
What strikes me most about the film now (and, really, about all of Godard's crime movies) is the humor.
Bande a Part deserves praise as one of the finest achievements of the French New Wave and represents a great doorway into that style of film-making for the uninitiated..
Well Overall, Not as important to the history of the French New Wave, like Godard's other movies, but surely a treat for his fans.
Therefore on this weekend, after finishing a big research paper, I decided to finally watch a Godard film: Band of Outsiders.Band of Outsiders tells the story of Franz and Arthur two young men who are out to make a quick buck so they can live the easy life.
Narrated by Godard himself, Band of Outsiders is almost like a novel on film when Godard delves into the minds of the characters and reveals their thoughts.
Many of Godard's films, while loved by the lovers of the French New Wave, are not particularly approachable to the average viewer.