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Certainly not for everyone, but this is actually one of my favorite extras on a Criterion release and definitely rewards repeat viewings.

Here's Jonathan Rosenbaum for the defense...

For some time, I’d been lamenting that the highly original manner and method of lecturing on a film inaugurated by Manny Farber as a teacher at the University of California, San Diego and subsequently developed there by Jean-Pierre Gorin had still never been preserved on a DVD, which in some ways may be an ideal place for it. Then, when J-P’s inventive and perceptive remarks on portions of PIERROT LE FOU turned up on the Criterion DVD last year, I was thrilled and gratified to discover that it had finally happened. I even resolved to write about this in my next DVD column for Cinema Scope. But then I somehow managed to forget this resolve (so many DVDs, so little time)–at least until I accessed and started reading Royal Brown’s online review of the DVD in the summer issue of Cineaste, where my eye came upon a reference to Gorin’s “professorial and often rather smug and empty analysis of the film’s first fifteen minutes”. Since none of these three adjectives comes even close to describing my own responses, I regret my failure to note my own admiration for what Gorin has done.

There’s a certain amount of bluster as well as breeziness in Gorin’s jazzy voiceover riffs, and these two adjectives for me describe some aspects of Farber’s style that Gorin has adapted and developed for his own purposes–even though he makes a point of quoting Farber and even reproducing the quoted passage onscreen. But in order to appreciate this particular form of standup criticism, I think one has to adjust and modify some of one’s usual expectations. I think one has to adopt a certain amount of jazz aesthetics, which were certainly basic to Manny’s own ad-lib observations at the lectures of his I attended at UCSD. For all I know, J-P may have written rather than ad-libbed his own remarks–at least he’s credited with “script” as well as narration in the final credits for this feature–but this hardly matters when it comes to grooving with the wit and inflection of his lively delivery in counterpoint to Godard’s images.

But hasn't Rosenbaum heard? It's pretentious!

If only Rosenbaum had watched the film enough times to get what Godard meant the film to be, then he wouldn't need any silly critical approaches. Oh those damnable intellectuals!

Tossing around the word pretentious in any context relating to Godard or Gorin isn't exactly a crime in my book. I would just hope that tajmahal gives the Pierrot Primer another shot at some point because I do think it has real value not only in relation to Crazy Pete, but to Godard's work as a whole. I really appreciate features like this and Tag Gallagher's visual essays for Ophuls and Rossellini where the commentator is afforded the opportunity to use actual footage to illustrate their claims. I only wish that Gorin could have covered more than just the first fifteen minutes. Pretensions and all.

Elmyr wrote:I really appreciate features like this and Tag Gallagher's visual essays for Ophuls and Rossellini where the commentator is afforded the opportunity to use actual footage to illustrate their claims.

I'm with you there. The visual essay has become my favoured form of commentary. That I find the gorin piece pretentious, and others don't, is here nor there. Having viewed the visual essay done well just confirms, for me, why the Gorin attempt fails. I might revisit it, as I enjoyed Pierrot le Fou quite a lot, but two days after viewing the primer, I'm still of the firm belief it is a load of old, bollocks.

Going Out of Print by the End of March. This is the Blu-ray I'm tracking down ASAP.

Shit, and it was just $20 at Amazon. Still cheap now, picking up two, one to watch one to retire on

one to watch one to retire on

Did the same thing. If I ordered through Amazon.ca, what are my chances of receiving the old digipacks instead of the new cases?

Guido wrote: Did the same thing. If I ordered through Amazon.ca, what are my chances of receiving the old digipacks instead of the new cases?

For Pierrot very slim since it was never released in a digipak.

For other titles that were your chances are still very good as retailers still have them in stock.

First of all, this may seem like an odd request, but could someone please post and/or send me pictures of the Blu-ray menu?

Also: I notice that Canal already has a BR of this planned. Absolutely brilliant--a direct comparison. The evidence will back things up...

agnamaracs wrote:Also: I notice that Canal already has a BR of this planned. Absolutely brilliant--a direct comparison. The evidence will back things up...

It's going to be a trainwreck. I have now viewed Contempt and Ran and it's disgusting what this company is doing. I'll hope for the best.

For anyone still looking for the blu it's now in stock on a few sites - i.e. Amazon, DD, DP.

For anyone in LA: Anna Karina will be attending a screening of Pierrot le fou tomorrow at the City of Lights, City of Angels Film Festival.
Did anyone go to the event that Ovader linked to?

EDIT: As it turns out, her flight was cancelled due to the volcano, so. Never mind.

Studio Canal:

Blu-Ray.com

What a bunch of hacks. I'll keep my CC copy, thank you.

Unwrapped my "Pierrot le fou" Criterion BD recently and watched it for the first time (goodbye retirement! ) and then a second time soon after that. My third Godard flick after "Breathless" and "Contempt" (plus countless reading about Jean-Luc's career) and damn if I'm not blown away. The movie is a constant contradiction that seems both proud and ashamed of what it is, a lovers-on-the-run "Bonnie & Clyde"-type road movie, Godard-style. At the height of the movie's 'we're having fun' moment that is the 'My Fate Line' musical number Jean-Luc cuts away to Belmondo sitting on a field (defecating?) waxing all intellectual... shit Godard, you're allowed to have fun making your own movies dude! [-( The constant tussle between lowest-common nods to movie genre conventions (water-boarding torture, lover's betrayal, musical interlude, comic panel transitions, etc.) and intellectual aspirations (all the book reading and pseudo-intellectual pronouncements) is framed with such gorgeous Technicolor-like photography by Raoul Coutard (which just shines on a big-screen high-def TV... those dynamite sticks have never looked more phony and colorfully cartoony) that the aesthetics threaten to take away the one thing I loved most about "Pierrot le fou": the joy of living the moment.

The movie is forever a universal time capsule of Godard's state of mind about his wife (Anna Karina, f***ing gorgeous! ), his vision of himself (personified by suave Jean-Paul Belmondo) and both his adulation & disdain for motion picture technique at the precise moment the movie was made. Rather than feeling dated though it's literally lightning caught in a bottle (like in "Breathless," which means Jean-Luc has caught lightning twice that I know of ), a once-in-a-lifetime chance (OK, twice-in-a-lifetime chance) to be both traditional and innovative. Since I've never seen an Anna Karina movie before (in which I was aware it was her on-scren) I can proudly say that watching her singing 'My Fate Line,' one of the best musical songs I've heard performed in a non-musical musical moment within a non-musical movie (!), is when I fell completely in love with her. A real doll, especially in the bonus 2007 interview. "Vivre Sa Vie" BD is next.

You will love A Woman is a Woman

If you had $20 burning a hole in your pocket, which of these four unseen-by-yours-truly Godard Criterion's would you buy (after seeing and liking "Breathless," "Contempt" and "Pierrot le fou" with "Vive Sa Vie" bought and on tap)? "Woman Is A Woman" is sadly already sold out at the store where they have these:

A.) Masculin, féminin
B.) Band of Outsiders
C.) 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her
D.) Made In U.S.A.

dad1153 wrote:which of these four unseen-by-yours-truly Godard Criterion's would you buy?

"Band of Outsiders," absolutely without hesitation. I confess that my love affair with the maestro's work began with this film, and they're all quite excellent, but this by far one of his most sparkling (in a dour way) and entertaining efforts. There's also a splendid visual glossary in the special features (a swell addition that I seem to recall was duplicated in "Masculin," but could be wrong).

I'd take B, D, A, C, in that order (with a big gap between B and D), but I'd be very surprised if that was even close to a defensible view, and at any rate, no one asked me ... you know what, forget I said anything, I have nowhere near the self-confidence necessary to start throwing opinions around in a Godard thread.

^^^ Ooops, I stepped into it pretty deep, didn't I?

Band is definitely the way to go. My second favorite of his '60s film. MF is also really fun if no where near the film that Band is. 2 or 3 Things is a nice intro to his later work, but mostly comes off as a confused, unfocused proto-Slacker. Made in USA is just terrible. His worst film by a country mile.

knives wrote:Made in USA is just terrible. His worst film by a country mile.

Wha......what? I thought it was his funniest (ie HA HA HA) film ever, in a good way, with the most ingenious soundtrack in film history. (Incl Marianne.) And the ending....oh that ending.....Philipe arrives, the strings billow, they chat, ......LEFT, YEAR ZERO....off they go........"this whole business of yours is not very clear"........left/right........"how then?"......strings still billowing........../FIN. (Exit Karina) It's Maltese Falcon mixed with Warholia. I adore it.