Stereoactive Movie Club - Ep 5.4 // Pierrot le Fou

Ep 5.4 // Pierrot le Fou

Explicit content warning

03/07/23 • 61 min

Stereoactive Movie Club

It’s Stephen’s 5th pick: Pierrot le Fou, the 1965 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard.

Godard himself said the film was "connected with the violence and loneliness that lie so close to happiness today. It's very much a film about France."

And with its fourth wall breaks, often jarring editing style, and tendency to internally jump among mass culture and/or pop art references in both extremely metatextual and self-referential ways, the film is at once recognizable as a Godard film, a French New Wave film, and in a broader way, a certain type of arthouse film that is at once exciting for many and probably challenging if not off-putting for many more.

As for our purposes, the movie has never actually appeared in the top 10 of Sight & Sound’s critics or directors surveys, but it was tied as a runner up with Hiroshima mon Amour and The Gold Rush on the 1972 list.

In the 2012 polling, it was tied at #42 by critics and #91 by directors. And since we recorded this back in October, it tied for #85 on the 2022 critics list and was not included on the directors top 100 list.

Produced by Stereoactive Media

It’s Stephen’s 5th pick: Pierrot le Fou, the 1965 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard.

Godard himself said the film was "connected with the violence and loneliness that lie so close to happiness today. It's very much a film about France."

Produced by Stereoactive Media

Previous Episode

Special Episode // The Sight And Sound 2022 Polls Revealed!

The 2022 edition of Sight And Sounds magazine’s polls of the “greatest films ever made” were released last week, and since our entire podcast is about movies that have been on these decennially updated lists, we got together to share our reactions to the new ones.

Here is the top 10, as decided by 1639 critics:

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Vertigo (1958)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Tokyo Story (1953)
In the Mood for Love (2000)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Beau Travail (1998)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)

And here is the top 10, as decided by 480 directors:

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Godfather (1972)
Tokyo Story (1953)
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Vertigo (1958)
81⁄2 (1963)
Mirror (1975)
TIE: Persona (1966), In the Mood for Love (2000)
Close-up (1989)

In our discussion, we reference:

Next Episode

Ep 5.5 // Raging Bull

It’s Lora’s 5th pick: Raging Bull, the 1980 film directed by Martin Scorsese.

The film is a character study of boxer Jake LaMotta, who himself is presented as questionable in character but pure in talent. It is considered one of the best films of its decade and quickly became legendary for DeNiro’s feat of gaining weight for the later scenes. It also basically introduced Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty to the world in star-making turns and was, in more ways than one, something of a saving grace for Scorsese.

As for our purposes, Raging Bill has never been in the top 10 of Sight & Sound’s critics survey, but was ranked #3 by directors in 1992 and then #6 in 2002.

In the 2022 polling, it was ranked #129 by critics and #22 by directors – and among the filmmakers who had it on their top 10 lists were Bong Joon-ho, Brett Morgan, Abel Ferrara, Oliver Stone, Richard Ayoade, Kenneth Branagh, Ari Aster, Michael Mann, and James Gray.

Produced by Stereoactive Media