The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, March 2-8
Pierrot le fou (1965)
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Like the majority of Godard’s 60s output, plot takes a backseat to style and irreverence in Pierrot Le Fou. This tale of lovers on the run, played by Godard’s first wife, Anna Karina, and Breathless star Jean-Paul Belmondo, shares a passing resemblance to Bonnie and Clyde, but Godard directs the genre elements with growing disinterest. Instead, the film crackles with energy when it’s being subversive. Classic paintings and literature share screen time with comic books, an impromptu musical number occurs during a stroll through the woods, and the couple performs a minimalist theatrical recreation of the Vietnam War to the delight of American tourists. By the time Godard shot the film, he and Karina had divorced. The resulting depiction of what Godard called “the last romantic couple” bristles with the filmmaker’s pain and humiliation over the breakup. A.J. Serrano (March 3, 4:30pm, 7pm, 9:30pm at BAM, in a new DCP restoration)