Pierrot le Fou

An escapist road trip without destination by a man who wished he was born a misunderstood poet but was instead an average bourgeois, played around by the least believable femme fatale in movie history. Rather than being a coherent movie, “Pierrot le Fou” is more like a fragmented collection of surreal tongue-in-cheek skits, meta-commentary, literature quotes, paintings, and other references to fine arts. The aim is to make a statement and, at the same time, shake up the status quo by breaking all the conventions of fine cinema. However, I would lie if I said I didn’t get bored halfway through. There are some amusing scenes and a few visually striking moments, but overall it felt a little too long, repetitive, and on the nose.

Godard seems to always draw me in with his subversive genre elements, but I leave feeling disappointed by the hollow pretentiousness of the movie's attempts at philosophy. His work never feels to me like it adds up to anything substantive and it's frustrating--clearly there's something there, but it doesn't connect with me. Anna Karina is always and forever a revelation, though.