A thief accidentally kills a policeman and needs to collect on debts in order to skip town.
If I was to write my own personal milestones of cinema - and this would be one of them - you might be surprised at some of the names that crop up. Not all the films on my imaginary list would be that good, but all would have a role in forming the cinema that we know and enjoy today.
For example, 1930's horror taught the industry a lot of tension and cinematography tricks that you see today in mainstream productions. Today's thrillers such as Se7en and Silence of the Lambs (to use two obvious names from thousands) have more to do with The Bride of Frankenstein than, say, Kiss Me Deadly.
Another example would be the way that the James Bond series gave heroes the right to casually kill those that opposed him. Starting first with Doctor No.
The French "New Wave" introduced naturalism, honesty and sexual tension to the screen. The subtitles allowing them to get away with things that no Hollywood films would allow at the time.
(However don't think I am blindly championing it - it produced just as much dross as Hollywood.)
Goddard is not actually my favourite French New Wave director because he is too self-indulgent, but he has a lot of courage and he is his own man. If something intrigues him, he holds it in frame until his curiosity is spent. For him the thing is personal and if you say you don't like it his answer would be "well go and make your own film then."
The problem with some people reviewing this film is that they seem to believe that because there are tricks for foreshortening scenes they should have been employed. This is a not a chase film per se, but a look at people under a stressful situation.
It is easy to say that this is a cheap film. However the real Paris is a wonderful set and I prefer it to any of the Warner Brothers cardboard and plywood versions.
The dialogue seems fresh and interesting, but my French isn't good enough to do without the subtitles. The lovers seem questioning of their relationship (they started without the aid of a full script) and Jean Seberg's character is hard to work out from the evidence presented here.
(Obviously a liker of bad boys, but I don't really have enough evidence to make any strong statements about her. Her look is more memorable than her acting which remains hold-it-all-in.)
Belmondo does a good job of portraying the kind of criminal that is under represented on the screen and over represented in real life: Young, stupid and reckless.
This film opened up a new way of making and enjoying films that went against the Hollywood rules - especially to do with sex and sexuality. Even if the sex is actually performed totally off-screen!
If I was to write my own personal milestones of cinema - and this would be one of them - you might be surprised at some of the names that crop up. Not all the films on my imaginary list would be that good, but all would have a role in forming the cinema that we know and enjoy today.
For example, 1930's horror taught the industry a lot of tension and cinematography tricks that you see today in mainstream productions. Today's thrillers such as Se7en and Silence of the Lambs (to use two obvious names from thousands) have more to do with The Bride of Frankenstein than, say, Kiss Me Deadly.
Another example would be the way that the James Bond series gave heroes the right to casually kill those that opposed him. Starting first with Doctor No.
The French "New Wave" introduced naturalism, honesty and sexual tension to the screen. The subtitles allowing them to get away with things that no Hollywood films would allow at the time.
(However don't think I am blindly championing it - it produced just as much dross as Hollywood.)
Goddard is not actually my favourite French New Wave director because he is too self-indulgent, but he has a lot of courage and he is his own man. If something intrigues him, he holds it in frame until his curiosity is spent. For him the thing is personal and if you say you don't like it his answer would be "well go and make your own film then."
The problem with some people reviewing this film is that they seem to believe that because there are tricks for foreshortening scenes they should have been employed. This is a not a chase film per se, but a look at people under a stressful situation.
It is easy to say that this is a cheap film. However the real Paris is a wonderful set and I prefer it to any of the Warner Brothers cardboard and plywood versions.
The dialogue seems fresh and interesting, but my French isn't good enough to do without the subtitles. The lovers seem questioning of their relationship (they started without the aid of a full script) and Jean Seberg's character is hard to work out from the evidence presented here.
(Obviously a liker of bad boys, but I don't really have enough evidence to make any strong statements about her. Her look is more memorable than her acting which remains hold-it-all-in.)
Belmondo does a good job of portraying the kind of criminal that is under represented on the screen and over represented in real life: Young, stupid and reckless.
This film opened up a new way of making and enjoying films that went against the Hollywood rules - especially to do with sex and sexuality. Even if the sex is actually performed totally off-screen!