Pierrot le Fou (1965)

Jean-Luc Godard's "Pierrot le Fou"

When you look back over the career of Jean-Luc Godard, the film that many would immediately go to would probably be his 1960 directorial debut, "Breathless." Perhaps this would be the more revolutionary choice, but after watching his unique 1965 film "Pierrot le Fou," I feel as though it embodies Godard, his work, France, and the New Wave movement as a whole. It perhaps even brings the New Wave movement to something of a close, despite some films that followed that would still be categorized as such.

"Pierrot le Fou" is not a very complex film as far as basic plot. A man named Ferninand, tired of his quaint bourgeois existence with his wife, runs away with a young woman named Marianne after getting fired from his job at a TV broadcasting company. The remainder of the film follows Ferninand and Marianne in the throws of love as they attempt to evade capture from the police and OAS gangsters. 

To me, there are several different ways you could approach the film. The first thing I noticed about the film is its palpable sense of nihilism. The characters are surrounded by the leftover effects of the Algerian War, the ongoing Vietnam War, and the escalating Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. This, combined with the characters' behavior that I would describe as 'challenging,' results in an overall sense of despair. This despair is not quiet, however, but rather loud. The characters steal vehicles, act out impulsively, and continue to grasp at feelings of, well...anything. This nihilistic tone creates a sense of freedom, yet this freedom is not fulfilling. In fact, this nihilism results in the death of both of the characters, with Ferdinand even wrapping his head in dynamite and blowing himself up.

As these characters act out in rebellious and nihilistic ways, Godard makes certain to include his technicolor cinematography with stark colors coming from the three colors that represent the French flag: Red, White, and Blue. Godard makes full use of these red, white, and blue colors and infuses the whole film with them. We as an audience are fully aware of this inherent French identity in the very fabric of the frame. I suppose Godard is demonstrating the current state of mind of France itself in direct relation to this overall sense of nihilistic rebellion. 

On top of the connection to this national temperament, Godard infuses his editing and realization with a sense of...not necessarily nihilism, but it does seem like he's grasping at just about anything, much like his characters are doing. Characters break the fourth wall, editing choices that are utterly unique, seamless cuts to unrelated images, and an array of other choices that seem hyper and desperate. Many of these choices are understandably related to some of the central themes of the story, like the connections Godard makes to contemporary France and the isolation and violence that seem so connected to modern concepts of happiness. But with these choices, there is also such a sense of searching; attempting to make some sort of connection to something. Throwing everything at the wall in the hopes that something good will come out of it. This completely resembles the restless searching by our characters within the story.

In regards to Godard 'throwing everything at the wall,' there is also a sense of personal connection that is built between Godard and the story itself. Despite being adapted from a source material, namely Lionel White's 1962 novel "Obsession," the film is somewhat autobiographical by Godard. In a very similar vein to his 1963 film "Contempt," Godard uses an adapted story to fully utilize as a narrative form that connects with his own life and struggles. In this particular case, Godard and his ex-wife Anna Karina had just divorced in early 1965, just before production began. Our protagonist, Ferdinand, is a failed intellectual with literary ambitions who attempts to fulfil his artistic desire through his adoration of Marianne, played by Godard's ex-wife, Karina. Throughout the film, the protagonist searches desperately how to communicate himself through the medium of art. This desperation is paralleled with Marianne's continued disconnect with Ferdinand. Ferdinand recounts a story in the film about an artist who attempts a portrait of a woman and believes it will usher in a new era of art. When his two friends believe it to be a mess, he kills himself. Similarly, Godard himself was doing just that with this film, and makes a point to make this connection throughout the film with not-so-subtle metatextuality. American art critic Richard Brody notes that Godard was attempting his "own search for another kind of cinematic art, one that goes beyond the visual presentation of objects and characters." Through the rendering of "Pierrot le Fou," Brody believes it to be a "self-portrait of the artist on the verge of pushing a philosophical inquiry into form, or rather formlessness, to an extreme that destroyed not only himself but also his wife." 

When you watch "Pierrot le Fou," you see this boundary pushing endeavor, this formlessness, that Brody references. There is nothing that is comparable to this film. It is challenging, it is uncertain of even itself, it is restless and rebellious. It's contemplation on the very means and expression of art goes above and beyond its own reach. One of the forms of art it even muses about just happens to be a burgeoning artform in the 1960s: pop art. Through this technicolor marvel, Godard infuses his whole film with pop art stylings. Visual aesthetics using primary colors, the film comes out of the screen like a comic book. Through these pop art ventures, Godard uses text, particularly preexisting text, to comment on its own story and ideas. This method of visual storytelling isolates and highlights the extradiegetic information that is normally semiconsciously absorbed. Godard uses commercial text in the film and recontextualizes it within the story. Another element of this employment of the art pop style is demonstrating an idea that pop art also exemplifies: consumerism. Consumerism and mass media are explored heavily in the film. Characters are constantly surrounded and being influenced by commercials, advertising, media, literature, and film. The influence of this media has become so integral to the characters that they become a part of this media themselves. They even comment multiple times that they are characters within a film itself, even directly referencing the audience watching the film, even by looking directly at the camera and addressing us. This full-scale integration of consumerism goes hand in hand with the utter nihilism the film expresses, fully showcasing the full-scape malaise of the contemporary, modern landscape.

This explosion of creativity by Godard fully employs the very ideas of the French New Wave movement. So much so, that there is really nowhere else that can be truly traversed. The film's utter uniqueness and complete 'throw everything at the wall' style filmmaking completely packs itself with any and every idea it could employ. I believe "Pierrot le Fou" makes itself a staple of the French New Wave movement and perhaps even takes it to its final central themes in the most creative and explosive ways possible. It is possibly Godard's best work, one of France's greatest films, and a complete embodiment of the French New Wave.