Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard)

[pro-bassoonist]

Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le fou (1965) has received a preliminary released date for the UK market: February 15th. Courtesy of Optimum Home Entertainment.

Pre-order

Variety:

Insider jokes, the use of objects to comment on a situation, and a mingling of the serious and comic - Jean-Luc Godard uses all of these devices here but the result is repetitive and precious rather than inventive and fresh.

A bored young man (Jean-Paul Belmondo) married to a rich woman one night goes off with the baby sitter (Anna Karina) after a boring party. A dead man is found in her flat and they are soon on the run. After an idyllic time at the seashore, they get bored and hit the road and live by stealing, only to run into friends of hers.

Two gangs, repping Arab gun-runners and perhaps Israeli forces, fight it out and he gets embroiled. A cache of money is taken by the girl, who runs off with it and her socalled brother.

There is brilliant use of color in spots to mark the mood. There are also some seemingly spontaneous scenes of the two living off the land that are topflight Godard. But there is too much padding, and interspersed songs and fabricated scenes make up a compendium of all his stylistic tricks rather than a more coherent offbeater. [Pic is based on Lionel White's novel Obsession.]

Belmondo has the usual rugged verve as the bored, but dynamic, young man. Karina is delightful as an unpredictable, beguiling but finally deadly female.

Pro-B

[pro-bassoonist]

Pro-B

[The Driver]

Yes, very nice, thanks for the update

[Matt865]

*Sigh*... Got this today from Amazon. Unbelievably, the disc is printed with the artwork for 'Pierrot le fou'... as is the packaging. The disc label, however, is...



...and the movie on the disc? The delayed À bout de souffle. They have burned the wrong movie onto the disc. Optimum have done it again.

I see Amazon are out of stock now. All I can do is return for a refund.

Anyway, here's the disc/packaging/booklet:


Disc Menu:


-----

For those interested, the disc is, as the packaging says, locked to both A and B. I guess this applies to both Pierrot le Fou and À bout de souffle.

[neo_reloaded]

Originally Posted by Matt865

*Sigh*... Got this today from Amazon. Unbelievably, the disc is printed with the artwork for 'Pierrot le fou'... as is the packaging. The disc label, however, is...



...and the movie on the disc? The delayed À bout de souffle. They have burned the wrong movie onto the disc. Optimum have done it again.

I see Amazon are out of stock now. All I can do is return for a refund.

Anyway, here's the disc/packaging/booklet:


For those interested, the disc is, as the packaging says, locked to both A and B. I guess this applies to both Pierrot le Fou and À bout de souffle.

Wow, that is really something.

I have the French 'A bout de souffle' on the way from Amazon.fr - I sure hope I don't get Pierrot le fou on the disc!

[dallywhitty]

Optimum need to get their act together. I wish to collect all the StudioCanal Collection releases (at the moment I've got The Elephant Man), but the pitch problems with The Deer Hunter, the controversial Ran transfer, the will-they-or-won't-they-be-released situation with À Bout de Souffle and Senso, and now this, are beginning to put me off.

[skinnyboy]

looks like the studio canal master isn`t the same as criterion:

http://www.dvduell.de/artikel/screen...an-luc-godard/

wich one is betteR?

[Matt865]

It's been officially recalled by Optimum now and rescheduled for 15th of March.

[jacobsever]

Originally Posted by skinnyboy

looks like the studio canal master isn`t the same as criterion:

http://www.dvduell.de/artikel/screen...an-luc-godard/

wich one is betteR?

I haven't seen this yet, but these seem to be some pretty big differences between the two :





and

[Matt865]

There's some drastic differences in colour and brightness/contrast in those. The Criterion release is brighter/less blue in one shot, yet completely green when the others have no tint at all. I wonder which is to be correct (as per the director's intent), or if either of them are entirely "right".

[PGW]

That's pretty dramatic.

In the first example, it looks like Studio Canal forgot the green tint (which is on the Criterion), but on the second example, it looks like the Studio Canal is tinted as a night shot, and it's the Criterion that's lacking the tint.

Weird!

[KENTA]

As the Criterion Blu is approved by the cinematographer, that one is likely to be the correct version of the film