Bande à part (1964) - film review

Three young people, Odile, Arthur and Frantz meet up at an English language class and become instant friends.  They share an interest in literature and crime fiction.  When Odile reveals that the house she is staying is loaded with loot, the three friends decide to stage a robbery.  Of course, it all goes horribly wrong...

Jean-Luc Godard’s cheeky homage to the low-budget American thriller genre is not one of his better works but it is a playful and entertaining reworking of a familiar theme.  As would be expected of the subversive film director, the plot is just about the least important ingredient of the film, and its rewards stem mainly from the bizarre interactions of the three lead characters.  The film also has some outrageous set pieces, including the bizarre dance trio and the hilarious nine minute tour of the Louvre gallery.

Godard’s cinematographic inventiveness is as noticeable as in most of his films of this period.  The strongest selling point of Bande à part (other than Anna Karina’s captivating appearance) is its dangerous unpredictability, not just in terms of the plot developments, but also from the way in which the story is told.

Like other great film directors (most notably Robert Bresson), Godard viewed film-making as an art form, not just as a means of reproducing on film a piece of stage theatre.  His experiments at combining sound and image to create a totally new form of art display an uncompromising genius for originality, but were sadly only appreciated by a minority of cinema-goers.   For those who appreciate the great director’s art, Bande à part is a typically  exhilarating Godardesque romp.

© James Travers 2001

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