Band of Outsiders (1964)

 Jean-Luc Godard's "Band of Outsiders"

When people think of the French New Wave movement, they typically think of something like Jean-Luc Godard's 1964 film "Band of Outsiders." Perhaps this is because "Band of Outsiders" is Godard's most accessible film or because it carries all of typical institutions of the New Wave format. Even famed Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino mimicked this film and its New Wave sentiments for his early films. He even went as far as calling his production company "A Band Apart." Through all the influence and homage it has caused, it stands as one of Godard's most accessible and recognized films. 

The film details a series of circumstances in which a young, sheltered woman meets a group of troublemaking bandits hatch a plan to steal a large sum of money from her aunt and uncle. Through the interactions with the men, the young woman 'lets her hair down' and experiences some impromptu shenanigans after being under the thumb of her guardians for so long. The trouplet attend a café, dance, and go to the Louvre amongst other mundanities while they wait for the moment when their plan unfolds. However, when they are forced to attempt the robbery a day early, their plans completely fall apart.

As is the case with most Godard films, the narrative theme of the film involves a complete disillusionment with expectations. Throughout the film, the two men, Franz and Arthur, think they can pull off this heist due to their knowledge of Hollywood B-thrillers and American novels. They base their entire personality and expectation for what they can accomplish on art and media they've consumed. However in the end, they're expectations end up unrealized. Real life is not a Hollywood movie or an American novel. 

The film as described by Godard is "Alice in Wonderland" meets Franz Kafka. I found this to be an adequate representation of the film, as our 'Alice' does down into a rabbit hole and down a whirlwind adventure only to end up in a dark and confusing place at the end. As noted by film critic Ignatiy Vishnevetsky notes, there is a certain double-edged sword presented in the film through this intoxication of a youthful spirit. Vishnevetsky says it "contains some of the medium's most sublime images of the anything-goes possibility of youth, but it also captures the hopelessness and loneliness of being youth with nothing to do. Whether they're planning a crime or performing an impromptu dance routine, the trio is mostly motivated by boredom, and everything carries a tinge of personal darkness." This thematic drive works throughout all of Godard's work. The media and consumer fueled youth spend their time in a state of nihilistic boredom and create unwelcomed outcomes to their restless desires. Godard creates an observation of modernity through this idea.

Through this restless meandering to satiate a restless boredom, the activities being partaken by the youths create scenes that are iconic in the history of cinema. These scenes remind me fervently of Jean Vigo's moments of creativity through the expressions of his respective youths in his 1933 film "Zero for Conduct." Vigo uses visual cues and abstractions to iterate the creative expressions of the children, like making a ball disappear in frame and having a drawing come to life through animation. Godard does some things with the same sense of youthful spirit with his creative expressions. In "Band of Outsiders," the group notes how long a minute actually lasts and Godard then creates utter silence as all ambient noise cuts out and the three of them sit in absolute silence (along with the viewer) for what feels like almost a minute. The three of them then do an impromptu dance routine. These are examples of the character exhibiting a sense of restless boredom and all the while, Godard acts creatively against the traditional narrative of cinema storytelling to compose the meandering yet youthful restless spirit that composes it. With these scenes, we get iconic moments that have been replicated endless with plenty of homage paid. It is in these moments that Godard expresses his restless boredom with the state of cinema and its traditional structures, just as the characters are attempting to rebel against the stagnation of their lives and the formal authorities that exert themselves in reality. 

"Band of Outsiders," to me, is definitely not Godard's highest echelon of work. In fact, I would call it a more middle-of-the-road film for Godard's oeuvre. That being said, "Band of Outsiders" stands apart from many of Godard's film and even films from the 1960s as something filled with a sense of spirit and creativity. Its characters, filled with the exuberate expectations, are met with utter disappointment at the reality of the world and must settle for undesired results. It is a film that encapsulates the 1960s and all its youthful arrogance. However, amongst this arrogance lies something completely creative and transformative.