Review of Band a Parte by Godard

It took me awhile to appreciate this film. Anna Karina looks awful, like a pubescent girl who got a bad hair cut. And the narrative moves excruciatingly slow. The end is cool. I liked very much the duel between the two men over the money. I also liked the twist of Madame Stolzt coming back from the dead. Those parts were good. The rest of the film were mere scenes stitched together with some very crude voice over which made the film aspire to literary merit rather than aspire to cinematic greatness. Yet, the film does have a Breathless quality to it, and if I remember correctly, this was one of the films Godard tried to make after the success of Breathless. Perhaps this is Breathless 2? If it was supposed to be Breathless 2 it was a poor follow up.

Band a Parte is what Quentin Tarrantino named his production company after which he used to make Reservior Dogs. I don't know why he appreciates this film rather than some other Godard film. I guess I would have to do some research about why he chose this film in particular. Anyway, the film is supposed to be a gangster film, yet it is much too soft. There are dance scenes. The toughest gangster has a literary side which I found very hard to believe, and it has a happy ending which I also find a bit of a stretch.

I found fault with Karina's acting as well. It was way too over the top. She gets hysterical, in fact a little too hysterical. The other plot points, the locked door, the locked window, those were good in that they built tension to the dramatic conclusion. Godard makes these elements of the plot work really well. I enjoyed the last twenty minutes of the film. I just didn't like the setup. Why would gangsters be taking an English class? This was not one of my favorite Godard films. And in fact it was at a low ebb in the French New Wave that the film was released. Godard and Karina were on the rocks and Godard's compatriots in the New Wave were not getting many productions into theaters, even less so onto the International Theater.

Yet, Godard, unlike his fellow critic-director continued to make films and cut deals to get l'argent for his films. Some of his compatriots fell off dramatically in the later 60s which is too bad. Anyway, the film is not his best work. The ending was good.