Jean-Luc Godard is probably one of the most divisive filmmakers on the planet. You either love him or you loathe him. At 80-years-old, Godard continues to make films, but his recent work will always be completely overshadowed by his 1960s work. He and other critics from the famed Cahiers du cinema magazine decided that they were fed up with the system and made their own movies. Godard’s first film was Breathless (1960) and its success, along with Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959) and others, helped the movement get started. Godard followed Breathless up with a few films that were not as successful, even if they were just as brilliant. In 1964, following the extremely serious Contempt (1963), he made Band of Outsiders (Bande a part). The film goes even further than Breathless, dropping so many references to popular culture that the Criterion Collection decided that a ‘visual glossary’ was needed on their DVD release. However, the genius of the film is that you don’t need to pick up all those to see that Band of Outsiders is among the most fun you’ll have watching a foreign film.
Band of Outsiders tells the story of two guys, a girl and a robbery. The guys are Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and Franz (Sami Frey) and the girl is Odile (Anna Karina). All three of them have an interesting relationship. Are they in love with each other? Arthur and Franz both try to seduce Odile, but she likes Arthur a little more. The robbery is of Odile’s aunt’s house. Odile finally gives in to their attempts to convince her to take part in the robbery. Nothing goes as planned though, setting up an amazing finale.
Along the way, though, Godard can’t help himself but make the audience connect with these three characters. For the duration of this film, we see the characters, especially Odile, fully transform from one type of a character to another. The film is also littered with fantastic set pieces. We get a minute or silence (of course, Franz can only stand 36 seconds) and an attempt at a record run though the Louvre. However, there is one sequence that will remain a part of cinematic history forever: “The Madison Dance.”
The acting in this film is also fantastic, with Claude Brasseur and Sami Frey pulling off perfect performances. However, Anna Karina’s performance as Odile is one of her best. Her collaborations with Godard are legendary, from her tearfully dramatic role in Vivre se vie (1962) to Pierrot le fou (1965). Odile is a fantastic character for her, bringing out her amazing beauty and her ability to go from shy schoolgirl to criminal.
Band of Outsiders is the one film by Godard that anyone can like. There is no heavy political message or broken narrative. There are no excruciatingly long sequence sin one room or lengthy narrations (the only narration comes from Godard’s own voice that takes us from scene to scene). It’s just two boys, a girl and a robbery, filled with the style and exuberance that is almost exclusive to the French New Wave.