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Oh My Godard!

Need I say more? Well maybe I’ll state the fact that there are endless combinations of Double-Bills you can arrange out of the many movies from this man’s filmography. Even if you play Alphaville back-to-back with Alphaville, it’ll make a very exciting Double-Bill.

So without further delay, commencing Day 2 of the Double Bill-a-thon- here’s the very special Jean-Luc Godard Double-Bill.

BREATHLESS (1960)

The film that started it all! With its notorious storyline, its notorious jump-cuts,and even more notorious Jean-Paul Belmondo, the film kick started the French New Wave, the cinematic equivalent of the French Revolution several hundred years earlier. Although the movement brought Liberty, Equality etc. into the film world, it was more important in the terms that it proved that filmmaking is not just the indulgence of the rich and the privileged.

‘Breathless’ follows the radical adventures of Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who is a self-acclaimed noir hero on the lines of Bogart-esque charm. His obsession with American Film Noir and his ‘this world is my playground’ attitude land him in trouble after he shoots a policeman for following him. Now with a price tag on his headshot and no francs in his pockets, he goes to visit his muse- an American girl Patricia, who sells copies of the New York Herald Tribune on the streets of Paris hoping one day she’d become a full-fledged journalist. Michel goes all around Paris trying to get a check that belongs to him and then when he sees that it has been crossed, he seeks someone to substitute for him and draw the cash. In true playboy fashion, he fills his time between his financial engagements with spending time with Patricia trying to persuade her to elope with him to Italy where he’ll be safe from the French police.

The film goes round and round like a carousel following back and forth between Michel and Patricia as they constantly flirt, challenge, frustrate, enlighten and love each other. The typical Godard-esque playfulness between the two characters perhaps took its birth here and was taken to new levels in his subsequent films. With one of the best endings in the history of cinema added by the unexplained aspect of how we even got there is not to be missed and for the sake of the ones who haven’t yet seen the film (even after 47 years!) it will not be revealed here.

BAND OF OUTSIDERS (1963)

Unanimously acclaimed as Godard’s most accessible film to date, ‘Band of Outsiders’ is well known for a few unforgettable events within it. First and most important of all is the famous Madison dance. Secondly, a very school girl-ish looking Anna Karina (in her woolen sweater and her plaid skirt). Thirdly and finally, this film presents us the record-breaking run through the Louvre museum by the films three lead actors.

‘Band of Outsiders’ introduces us to Franz, Arthur and Odile. The three ‘outsiders’ are students of an English class in Paris. Franz and Arthur form a fluctuating love triangle around Odile and convince her to join them in a plot to rob Odile’s guardian. Most of the film follows the three lovable (though questionably) characters as they drive around Paris, visit cafes and drive around even more as Franz and Arthur try hard to convince Odile to join them in their diabolical heist-plan. Once again, the typical playfulness of Godard’s characters comes up with humorous and sometimes child-like exchanges between the three protagonists. When the film finally gets to the point of the heist (although earlier than planned in the context of the story), the story takes on a fresh tone leading to a very Hollywood-like ending where the bad guy falls and the hero takes his beloved away from the realms of the ordinary. The question of who is the bad guy remains debatable between the three leading roles.

In my opinion, ‘Band of Outsiders’ is not only the most accessible Godard film but it is also the most lovable (a large part of that owed to the presence of Anna Karina).