Pierrot le fou (1965)

The effect Jean-Luc Godard's films have on me is a sensation of bugs crawling under my skin. It's not that I am bothered by the lack of story and it is not that his films are too slow or that I prefer "content" over "style". Godard's films make me world-weary and I don't know why I make another effort, watching yet another one of his movies. Maybe because many hold him to be an important director whose films have had a large impact on the history of film. It is foolish to make premature judgements.

So - Pierrot le fou. Nothing in it surprises me. References to American culture - check. Blowing things up or shooting people (A GIRL AND A GUN!) - check. A man and a woman - check. Mort - check, check, check, check. Witty verfremdungseffekts - CHECK! Reminders to the viewer: this is a MOVIE - c-h-e-c-k.

A man and a woman (a dead body seen at the edge of a frame) and a few cars. Crime. Algerian gangsters. Philosophizing. "Don't call me Pierrot, my name is Ferdinand." Ferdinand & Marianne at play (vietnamese&american), on the beach, mulling over the essence of death and the essence of love. Falling out of love.

There were a couple of scenes which didn't irritate me as much as the rest. One of them was the scene in which Marianne & Ferdinand-I-am-called-Ferdinand sit in a car, talking pompously (as usual) while the streetlights are reflected on the windshield.

Arguably, this film is less sexist than, for example, Breathless. Godard toys with the notion of "a woman destroying a man" and the self-indulged intellectual - but also with images of unexpected violence that is not clearly gender-marked (the scene at the gas station).

My opinions on Godard might be too ardent. But really, I don't understand. What is supposed to be so great/subversive about this? Yes, there is innovation in how he uses off-screen dialogue, fragments, intertitles, self-mockery, chapters, colors, filters, pastiche, music - but all these things are employed in a shallow way, it seems to me. Godard makes some witty observations about film-as-experience, but I never feel deeply puzzled by his films, just, "awwright, he wants me to challenge the idea of fiction. Right-o." But Godard's "mastery of genres" leaves me cold. 

Even though there are a few references to contemporary political events (mainly the Vietnam war) I fail to see how these references are to be understood (La Chinoise was more interesting, but only slightly so). The only thought that appears in my head while watching a Godard film is that gosh, this guy hates humanity. Sorry, but I can't for my life find anything interesting in that type of contempt.