Bande a Part: Breaking Bonds with Boredom
"I'm just talking, I'm fed up, it's impossible to get anywhere", says Arthur, the delinquent leader of the trio of misfits known as the band of outsiders. This sentiment is what resonates throughout a film which suggests that to be truly liberated, one must give in to life; prizing the free spirit over any expectations of success. Jean-Luc Godard is known for his free-spirited and subversive style of filmmaking, as a pioneer in fresh aesthetic techniques that translate to the screen as attempts at trying to wake the audience from a zombified resignation that comes when the expected is delivered.
You may be thinking that Bande a Part is not the kind of film that is going to entertain you on a boring, rainy afternoon because it's just another one of those odd foreign films that makes life more complicated than it needs to be. Well I'll tell you this is not so. For if you want a film experience that is going to make you say things like,"I can't believe that just happened", or "this is brilliant I've never seen anything so absurd", then this is the film for you. Without giving away to much, the smallest gestures from the movement of an arm, to the puff of a cigarette and even the wiggle of a bottom bring a heart-warming sensitivity to the viewer as this is a film that is all about the small things in life; the things we take for granted that cause our restlessness.
Arthur (left), Odile (middle), Franz (right) in the famous Madison Dance scene
You may be thinking that Bande a Part is not the kind of film that is going to entertain you on a boring, rainy afternoon because it's just another one of those odd foreign films that makes life more complicated than it needs to be. Well I'll tell you this is not so. For if you want a film experience that is going to make you say things like,"I can't believe that just happened", or "this is brilliant I've never seen anything so absurd", then this is the film for you. Without giving away to much, the smallest gestures from the movement of an arm, to the puff of a cigarette and even the wiggle of a bottom bring a heart-warming sensitivity to the viewer as this is a film that is all about the small things in life; the things we take for granted that cause our restlessness.
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I agree with you, people look at the cover of an old movie and roll their eyes, preferring the easy-to-digest New Releases.
But Godard can be fiercely entertaining... on the big screen, "Breathless" is delightful...
Cheers guys. Yes this is a classic as is Breathless Godard has a real eye for style when it comes to writing characters.
Nathan