This was a delightful surprise - Godard having a lot of fun and making a charming, jazzy, noirish, poetic and humorous film. Anna Karina is at her most delightful, reminding me at times of Audrey Hepburn. I miss Belmondo but the two male leads do a fine job. Arthur (as in Rimbaud - "I was named after my father") and Franz (who looks a bit like Kafka). There are several scenes that are just plain fun (Possible Spoilers) - including the dictation/recitation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to an English class where no one seems to be paying any attention, except for the one student who asks the teacher how to say in English, "I want to make a million-dollar film;" the famous dance sequence in the bar (think Pulp Fiction and Simple Men dance scenes); the minute of silence (was that really a minute?); and the hilarious run through the Louvre to beat the record set by "an American." Godard's voice-over narration is poetic, brilliant, silly, bizarre and very funny. There are some intense moments, especially during the robbery, but all in all this is a fairly light-hearted (as light-hearted as JLG probably gets) homage to classic noir films.
Try to avoid the Hen's Tooth video release as the print is awful. Hopefully this wonderful film has been remastered and worked on for the DVD - it certainly deserves it.
Try to avoid the Hen's Tooth video release as the print is awful. Hopefully this wonderful film has been remastered and worked on for the DVD - it certainly deserves it.