BAND OF OUTSIDERS

BAND OF OUTSIDERS – 1964
Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard

You can’t really talk about (or read about) Godard without reference to his role as one of the leading directors of the French New Wave, a movement that sought to reinvent the possibilities of cinema. Written on the blackboard during an upcoming scene is the equation, classic = modern, which is essentially Godard’s approach to this film. Band of Outsiders is at its most basic level a crime-caper or gangster film, both of which are very traditional and basically two of the most over-done genres of all time. It even has a number of the most basic trappings: two guys, one girl (i.e. one love triangle), naiveté and betrayal, a plan gone wrong, a chase, a gunshot, etc., etc. Pauline Kael commented, “Godard intended to give the public what it wanted…a sure fire story that will sell lots of tickets [but] he proceeded to make a work of art that sold fewer tickets than ever.” What he gave them was three people, all equally board, who seek the excitement of an existence found in film. Essentially, this is a film about people wanting to live like people in a film.

The film that Godard described as “Alice in Wonderland meets Franz Kafka” played for one week in New York before closing. It was not until much later that Americans began to revisit the film and elevate it to its current level of importance; the fact that it has been reissued as part of the Criterion Collection (the version we will watch) is but one example. Critics of the film often say that it is less inventive or simply a second look at the themes already presented in Godard’s earlier film Breathless, which many consider his best. But, what I find most intriguing about this film is Godard’s patience with his characters as they struggle with a reality that doesn’t quite mesh with the world they want and have invented. The narrator of the film comments, “He wondered if the world was becoming a dream or if a dream was becoming the world." They stumble forward, killing time in a race through the Louvre, falling in love (or at least playing with the idea of it), and dancing in a bar (extra credit if you can learn the dance steps and perform them with Mrs. Dare), all in an effort to keep themselves busy before the big score – when they actually get the chance to act like the gangster movie stars they so want to emulate and do the kind of exciting things people do in movies - however tragic it might be.

Band of Outsiders was shot in twenty-five days for $125,000 using a hand held camera and relying mostly on natural light. It is no mistake that we are watching this film right before you are about to shoot your own films under similar circumstances (i.e. no money, not much time and with limited technical capabilities). What I want you to recognize is that cinema can be unconventional and creative, yet still effective and, at its best, fun as well. For me, there are few moments in film that equal the pure enjoyment of voyeurism found in the dance scene in the café. Godard is having fun; hopefully you will too.

Questions and ideas for your journal (please do not limit yourself to these prompts):
- How does Godard challenge conventional storytelling/film-making?
- What rules of cinema does he brake? Why? To what effect?
- What elements of the crime-caper or gangster film are present? How does this film compare to Howard Hawks' gangster film, Scarface (1932), which we watched earlier?
- How does he challenge our understanding of these genres? What rules of the genre does he brake?
- Write about and describe scenes where Arthur, Franz or Odile act like characters in a movie.