Pierrot Le Fou

Pierrot Le Fou tells the story of Ferdinand, who decides one day to run away with Marianne the new babysitter and go on a wild ride in a Bonnie and Clyde rip-off adventure. The two become involved in murder, theft, Algerian gangsters, philosophy, lust and violence. This is simply your typical leaving the rat race and realising that the adventure outside of the rat race isn't as fun and glamorous as they think. For those of you, who don't quite get it; imagine the film Falling Down, only not as entertaining. The problem with Pierrot Le Fou is that I get the feeling that Goddard thought we would all get swept up in the freedom of adventure aspect that we would ignore how pretentious this film is and how dull it is. Released two years before Arthur Penn's epic telling of the Bonnie and Clyde story and yet if you watch the two films (which are more or less the same type of story) it is like night and day. Though I can appreciate how the film is constructed and edited, Goddard has simply forgotten that what happens in between should be entertaining and that's one thing this film does not do.
There is nothing worse than a film in which the documentaries are more interesting than the actual film itself. Notable examples are The Godfather Part 3, Alien 3 and now I can add Pierrot Le Fou to this. I know there are many people who worship the ground that Jean-Luc Godard walks on, but I am not one of them. In fact, even watching the work that some put in Top Tens (Breathless and Alphaville amongst others) I find too 'artsy' for me. However, if you enjoy Goddard's work the two documentaries on this disk are fabulous and you wonder why they didn't release this as a 'Goddard' documentary with the film as the extra as I did find these extras very interesting in just what Goddard was trying to achieve. Sadly, this doesn't make me appreciate the film any more than I did... but then I could say the same about Alien 3 too.
For Goddard fans, this disk is a wonderful thing to own, for those who aren't you may find yourself wondering why people raved about this film so much?