Dissatisfied in marriage and life, Ferdinand (Jean-Paul Belmondo) takes to the road with the babysitter, his ex-lover Marianne Renoir (Anna Karina), and leaves the bourgeoisie behind. Yet this is no normal road trip: genius auteur Jean-Luc Godard’s tenth feature in six years is a stylish mash-up of consumerist satire, politics, and comic-book aesthetics, as well as a violent, zigzag tale of, as Godard called them, “the last romantic couple.” With blissful color imagery by cinematographer Raoul Coutard and Belmondo and Karina at their most animated, Pierrot le fou is one of the high points of the French New Wave, and was Godard’s last frolic before he moved ever further into radical cinema.

With: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Graziella Galvani.

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Detective Lemmy Caution finds himself in Alphaville, a city in a futuristic totalitarian state, ruled by a computer known as Alpha 60. Science has replaced humanity and Lemmy seeks to discover who is responsible for the supression of individuality and love. When he falls in love with a woman, who has no notion about the concept of love and rendered robotic in the dystopian city, his determination to ruin the dictatorship is further strengthened.

With: Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim Tamiroff.

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One of pioneering director Jean-Luc Godard’s most accessible films is this French spin on Dolores Hitchens’ novel Fool’s Gold. It tells the tale of three disaffected youths who plan a burglary, leading to deadly results. The alienated young trio is marvelous, particularly Anna Karina, and the early scenes of their clearly overdeveloped fantasy lives are splendidly handled. Something of a companion piece to Godard’s classic À Bout de Souffle, its young characters have the same odd mixture of fatalism and starry-eyed naïveté that is, by turns, appealing and tragic.

With: Anna Karina, Danièle Girard, Louisa Colpeyn.

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Set during the Algerian War, Le Petit Soldat follows Bruno Forestier, a disillusioned young deserter who becomes involved in the French nationalist movement. He is ordered to kill an Algerian sympathizer, and although he does not hold deep political beliefs, commits the murder and undergoes torture when captured. At the same time, he meets and falls in love with a woman (Anna Karina) who he does not know is fighting for the other side. Godard’s controversial follow-up to Breathless, Le Petit Soldat was originally banned from release in France because it refers to the use of torture on both sides, during Algeria’s struggle for independence.

With: Michel Subor, Anna Karina, Henri-Jacques Huet, Paul Beauvais, László Szabó.

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With UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME, French director Jean-Luc Godard pays tribute to American musicals in much the same way that his debut feature, the critical and commercial smash hit BREATHLESS, did to
American gangster films. The story follows the beautiful Angela (Anna Karina), a strip-tease artist who wants nothing more than to have a baby. Her live-in boyfriend, Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy), doesn’t want to refuse and risk sparking major friction between the two. However, fed up with her constant pleading, Emile finally suggests that she shack up with his best friend, Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo), and much to Emile’s dismay, she eventually takes his advice. Godard’s second feature employs jump cuts and jarring sound mixing–most notably during Karina’s strip-tease performances. UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME is Godard at his most affectionate and good-natured. He also makes several cinematic in-jokes, including one in which Belmondo’s character mentions that he wants to hurry home to watch BREATHLESS, the film that turned Belmondo into a megastar just one year before. Featuring a magnetically cute performance from Karina, who soon after the film became Godard’s wife, this loving romantic comedy is a dazzler.

With: Jean-Claude Brialy, Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo.

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