Movie Review – Pierrot le Fou

Pierrot le Fou is directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Pierrot means a sad clown, and le Fou means the fool in French. The film is a selective adaptation of Lionel White's 1962 novel Obsession.

A bourgeois married man Ferdinand(Jean-Paul Belmondo) met his former lover Marianne(Anna Karina) as a new babysitter for his daughter. His bourgeois life has led him to depression. He lost his passion and purpose. Suddenly, Marianne becomes his object of desire. On impulse, they travel from Paris to the Mediterranean to escape his life. They start an adventure and are going to live a life like the plots written in novels or comic books. For instance, they add oil from the gas station without paying. When the scene is finished, the next scene will seam to a page of a comic book. Previously, He throws a cake to his wife and leaves the party followed by the firework explosion. It is dramatic. They drive the car into the water. They chase different things. He falls for literature and wants to be a writer and poet. He jots down his experience in a notebook during the journey. Literature is heavily used in the film.  Marianne chases for feelings. She still keeps contact with her ex-boyfriend and leaves Ferdinand at the end. Two music players stop playing when the waves come over them. He painted himself a blue sad face like a sad clown. Then he commits suicide by exploding dynamite sticks and wrapping his head. The explosion scene is a long shoot at the cliff. After the explosion, the camera slightly pans to the sea. It is believed that the majority of the audience would call this love-crazy boy a fool. It is a poetic romance for a man. It does not include scenes of sex but it includes passionate scenes between couples. There are lots of implicit signs to show his passion for his lover. The parrot as a songbird on Ferdinand implies his soul falls for her. The gun on Ferdinand’s hand implies a man’s genital. He always holds a book implies that he is dreaming his fantasy. Ferdinand’s descent into Velázquez’s mad world by reading the book to his daughter at the start. Godard shoots more scenes of sexual fantasy than real sex scenes. There are other ordinary dating scenes such as walking through forrest, resting near the beach, and Ferdinand’s death near the cliff. Marianne drives towards each other and then kisses him. The doll she holds shows the girly and child side of a woman. She sings the music from Beethoven to Duhamel. When the couple kiss at the party, he walks by and casts a gas of smoke on them. Moreover, French films contain more nudity than films produced by other countries. A French actress is nude of her upper body or there are nude posters on screen. It is for the benefit of the male gaze solely. 

American director Samuel Fuller debuts as a party guest in the film and defines cinema as follows. Film is like a battleground. There's love, hate, action, violence, death... in one word: emotion. Godard begins his director’s career by writing film critics first in André Bazin’s magazine Cahiers du Cinema. He is famous for his jump cut technique at that time. Godard sees the beauty in absurdity. It is sort of a romanticism. In the real world, everything is organized and logical. Their behaviors do not make sense. You cannot do it in real life. An adventure is supposed to be dangerous. They do something you want to do but you do not dare to do so. It inspires you to do something you want to do subconsciously. The absurdist tone of the film provides fantasy to the audience. They are irrational, want to get rid of logic and order and live their fantasy. For example, Ferdinand cosplays to be a sea captain. The characters would mimic the posture from the painting or pop artworks. In the art world, people would be more sensitive and feeling-oriented. As he is one of the avant-gardes of the French new wave, the protagonists break the four wall by looking at the camera and talking to the audience when they drive. There are bloodshed incidents, burglaries and violent scenes in the film. Gangsters enter their apartment like a video game. They also kill people together. Although the passion during the travel is temporary, it makes you worth living. The married man said life is sad, but it is always beautiful. They fully live in the moment on the trip. A fun fact about this film is that Karina is Godard’s ex-wife. 

Godard has the pop-art sensibilities. There are lots of art paintings or postcards in the film such as Femme à la cravate (1917) by Modigliani, Jeune femme au miroir (1932) by Picasso and Café Terrace at Night (1888) by Van Gogh. Ferdinand falls for the art world more than the real world.

The use of color and visual elements is very appealing and eye-catching. Applying colors in their clothing, and lighting even on the actor’s face helps to express their emotions. At the party at the beginning of the movie, the actors are projected different colors of light. Red refers to anger and excitement. Blue refers to sadness. Yellow refers to joyfulness. Green refers to relaxing. The colors of the French flag are always shown in the film which are blue, red and white. His lover always wears a red dress. Sometimes, the colors in the characters’ outfits match the colors in the painting on screen. 

In closing, although the ending is a tragedy, Ferdinand dares to abandon his bourgeois life and chase his dream life. He finally can write something about people by providing his observations. His perception of life is different than others. He said what lies in between people: space, sound, and color. If people would like to take a break, escape responsibility or be wild for a short time or you are meant to chase your freedom, this film serves as an exit for you. ‘Ten minutes ago I saw death everywhere. Now it’s just the opposite. Look at the sea, the waves, the sky. Life may be sad, but it’s always beautiful!’

Bibliography:

https://books.google.com.hk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=3ExKmREQI9IC&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=Pierrot+le+Fou&ots=TEVAu0wz6W&sig=bX3RaSIPAOZe7yO28rVeXI0N0pA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Pierrot%20le%20Fou&f=false

https://mediamonkeyblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/pierrot-le-fou_analysis_kai-tc3b6lle.pdf