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Band of Outsiders (1964, Fr.)
(aka Bande à Part)
In Jean-Luc Godard's quirky, low-budget and experimental Nouvelle
Vague (French New Wave) heist-crime drama (described by the
omniscient Narrator's voice-over pitch:
"A few clues for latecomers: Three weeks earlier... A pile of
money... An English class... A house by the river... A romantic young
girl...") - [Note: the film's title became the name of director
Quentin Tarantino's production company]:
- the title credits: the white letters of the title
were super-imposed at eye level, one-by-one; they appeared in semi-random
order during quick-cutting (or staccato jump-cuts) upon alternating
close-ups of the faces of the three lead characters (sitting next
to each other?), creating a stroboscopic effect, while upbeat honky-tonk
piano music played on the soundtrack
- the film's awkward love triangle between two young,
aspiring low-life Parisian criminals: sad intellectual dreamer Franz
(Sami Frey), vulgar and brutish opportunist Arthur (Claude Brasseur),
and beautiful naive ingenue Odile Monod (Anna Karina), who attended
classes with Franz
- the two men's foreshadowing, play-acting or pantomiming
of a shootout in the street between Billy the Kid and Sheriff Pat
Garrett, after which overacting Arthur rolled around on the pavement
and pretended painful agony
- the scene in a classroom in which the English Teacher
(Daniele Girard) read French passages from Romeo and Juliet and
assigned the students to re-translate back into English - while Arthur
kept slipping a sexy love note poorly mis-spelled and referencing Hamlet to
the flirtatious Odile ("Tou bi or not tou bi - contre votre
poitrine [against your chest], it iz ze question")
- the lengthy sequence in a Parisian cafe:
(1) the three characters shifted and maneuvered their chairs locations
around a table in a highly choreographed manner, to convey their relationships
(2) a "minute of silence"
(a soundless interlude that was actually 36 seconds) (Franz suggested
that they could pass the time by remaining silent for one minute:
"Let's have a minute's silence if you've no other ideas... A minute's
silence can be very long. A real minute can last an eternity";
although Odile called the idea "stupid," she initiated the
countdown for the silence)
(3) and the impromptu playful scene of the trio of characters each
separately line-dancing the non-contact Madison in the half-empty basement
of the cafe-restaurant to the recorded music on the jukebox (copied
in Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994))
- it was a badly executed, hip-swaying dance routine with jumps, turns,
finger-snaps and hand-claps; during the sequence, the music was partly
cut off (reinforcing the sound of their shoe-tappings on the floor),
and the narrator's (Godard himself) voice-over told us what each of
the participants was thinking or feeling: "Parenthetically, now's
the time to describe their feelings. Arthur watches his feet, but thinks
of Odile's mouth and her romantic kisses. Odile wonders if the boys
notice her breasts moving as she dances. Franz thinks of everything
and nothing, uncertain if reality is becoming dream, or dream reality"
Line-Dancing of The "Madison"
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- the sequence of Franz and Arthur reading aloud gruesome
crime stories in a tabloid - ending with an account of tribal slaughter
in Rwanda
Odile's Metro Ride and Musical Poem
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- the impromptu scene of Odile's ride on the underground
Metro when she reflectively observed and asked: "People on
the Metro always look so sad and lonely. Look at him, why does
he make that face?...It reminds me of a song. How did it go?";
then, she half-recited and half sang a song - using words and musings
about isolation by poet Louis Aragon - and put to the music of
Jean Ferrat ("J'entends, J'entends"); the scene was supplemented
with shots of sidewalk cafés, lone and anonymous individuals,
pedestrians, commuters, city lights, her own sad face, and it concluded
with Odile in Arthur's bed:
I saw so many depart like that / All they’d
ask for was a light / They settled for so little / They had
so little anger in them / I hear their steps, I hear their
voices / Speaking of things quite banal / Like things you
read in the papers / Like things you say evenings at home
What are they doing to you, men and women / You tender stones,
worn down too soon / Your appearances broken / My heart goes
out at the sight of you / Things are what they are / From time
to time, the earth trembles / Misfortune only misfortune resembles
/ So deep, so deep, so deep
You long to believe in blue skies / It's a feeling I know quite
well / I still believe at certain times / I still believe,
I must admit / But I can't believe my ears / Oh, yes I'm very
much your peer / I am just the same as you
Like you, like a grain of sand / Like the blood forever spilt
/ Like the fingers always wounded / Yes, I am your fellow creature
- the celebrated scene of the three sprinting through
the Louvre in nine minutes and 43 seconds, breaking the world record
previously set by Jimmy Johnson of San Francisco by two seconds
(repeated in Bertolucci's The Dreamers (2003)) (the narrator
had set up the scene: "Franz had read about an American who'd
done the Louvre in nine minutes 45 seconds. They'd do better. (after
the run) Arthur, Franz and Odile beat Jimmy Johnson by two seconds")
- the sequence of the bungled robbery attempt at the
villa of Odile's adoptive Aunt Victoria (Louisa Colpeyn), when the
two men wore black face-covering masks, and the intense, 90-second,
half-hearted face-off/shootout with drawn guns filmed at mid-distance
on the front lawn - resulting in the shooting death of both Arthur's
uncle (Ernest Menzer) and Arthur (he was shot at least five times
before spinning like a corkscrew to the ground)
- in the conclusion, as Odile and Franz drove away with
some of the money from the robbery, the narrator spoke: "My
story ends here like a dime novel. At a superb moment, when everything
is going right. Our next episode, this time in Cinemascope and Technicolor:
Odile and Franz in the tropics"
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Arthur: White Letters of Opening Credits
Love Triangle: Odile, Franz, and Arthur
Pantomiming of Shoot-Out: Arthur vs. Franz
Parisian Cafe:
"A Minute's Silence"
Sprinting Through the Louvre
Bungled Robbery Attempt
Shoot-Out on the Lawn - Arthur's Death
Ending: Odile and Franz Drove Away
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