Pierrot le Fou

Godard continues his fascination with the American crime genre in a film that reunited the director with stars Jean-Paul Belmondo (Breathless) and (ex-wife) Anna Karina.

Ferdinand, aka Pierrot (Jean-Paul Belmondo), dissatisfied with his professionally-stalled life and listless marriage in Paris, sets off on a picaresque journey across France, towards the warmth of the Mediterranean, with the incandescent Marianne (Anna Karina) – the couple’s babysitter. Pierrot’s fantasy idyll is upended when he realises they are being pursued by Marianne’s shady brother and criminal gang connections.

Curator's Note

Godard’s arresting study of personal and global violence uses colour in a dramatic and symbolic manner. In many ways Pierrot le Fou is a watershed film in which Godard calls his whole work in the cinema into question. It is also a summation of his work up to this time, an unclassifiable film of abrupt changes in mood, combining the diary form with pulp fiction and romantic tragedy, and experimentation in modes of narration, all heavily laden with cultural and political references. Look out for fellow iconoclast, director Sam Fuller, who makes an uncredited appearance.