Band of Outsiders
d. Jean-Luc Godard, 1964
Band of Outsiders is just further proof that Jean-Luc Godard was the coolest director of the 60's, if not of all time. This is my favorite of his films, a glorious fusion of crime, melodrama, and the freedom the French New Wave came to be known for. This film works as comedy, drama, satire, irony, all at once. It is certainly one of the most audacious films I've ever seen.
The film revolves around three characters. Arthur and Franz are the ones first introduced to the audience. They are driving around prior to arriving at their English class. There, the third major character, Odile, is introduced. By then there have been some clues into the nature of their relationship. Arthur, Franz, and Odile are planning a robbery. It will take place at Odile's own house, and the first hour of the film is the preparation for it.
However, the film, to me, is not necessarily about the plot dealing with the robbery. Band of Outsiders is so great because of Godad's inventiveness and the way he is able to provide one genius sequence after another. There's a certain magical quality to the way he holds his shots. Consider the magnificent extended sequence that takes place at a cafe. The whole scene probably covers close to 20 minutes (I was reminded of the bedroom scene in Breathless). Nothing extraodinary happens in the 20 minutes, but it is a scene that I will always remember. Throughout that sequence, the seating arrangements change, every possibly combination of conversation is explored (all three characters leave at some point, leaving the other two by themselves), and the three even dance to a record.
Every scene in Band of Outsiders is fantastic. Some of the best are when they try to beat the record of how fast someone ran through the Louvre (and they do), when they decide to have a minute of silence at the cafe and the soundtrack actually goes completely silent, and all of the scenes with Anna Karina (Odile). What Sami Frey (Franz), Claude Brasseur (Arthur), and Anna Karine (Odile) are able to bring to these characters is something unmatched by any other film.
The way Godard is able to comment on film while the movie is going on is ingenious. He narrates, not so much to provide useful information about the movie, but to voice his own opinion, almost like a fourth character. Consider a voice-over narration early in the film when he says, "a few clues for the late-comers: several weeks ago...a pile of money...an english class...a house by the river...a romantic girl." He is summarizing the film up to that point, but, as with most of his narration, it serves a deeper, emotional purpose. Nobody writes like this anymore. Maybe because subconscious art-films are out, maybe because they can't write like that anymore. Who knows?
On a technical level, Band of Outsiders is astonishing. The beautiful black-and-white cinematography by Raoul Coutard (who shot a lot of Godard's films as well as Truffaut's Jules and Jim) is both reminiscent of the crime films Godard is drawing inspiration from and innovative in its post-modernist style. The music by Michel Legrand is also great.
If I'm not able to articulate a lot of the reasons I love this film, it's because it is beyond conventional description. Godard was able to bring to Band of Outsiders pretty much everything I love about movies. And, 42 years after it's release, it's still the cinematic definition of "cool."
