Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25188 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-04-28
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

Special Features
1.33 Full Screen
French
Region 2
An A To Z Guide
Video Interview With Anna Karina
Quentin Tarantino On The Dance Sequence And Pulp Fiction
Commentary By Roland Francois Lack
Interview With Cinematographer Raoul Coutard
Original Theatrical Trailer
Directors Biography
English

Synopsis
Jean-Luc Godard continues his fascination with dime store novels and American crime films with BAND OF OUTSIDERS, a free-spirited romp in the same vein as the director's breakthrough smash, BREATHLESS. The story follows two friends, Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and Franz (Sami Frey), who are searching for a way to make a big score. When Franz meets the beautiful Odile (Anna Karina) and she informs him of a large chunk of cash her aunt keeps hidden in her house, the duo are convinced that this is their lucky break. Odile is a sensitive young woman who, out of fear and guilt, opposes their plan, Arthur and Franz coax her to go along with the idea. When the time comes to pull of the heist, a miscalculation delays the seemingly perfect plan, resulting in a confrontation that has dire consequences. More traditional than BREATHLESS in its technical execution, Godard's film nonetheless sparkles with freshness and originality by using a comical, poetic narration (by Godard himself), as well as Michel Legrand's bouncy score. As the ambiguous threesome, Karina, Brasseur, and Frey each give performances that combine satirical melodrama, overflowing hipness, and moving sincerity, providing the film with its heart, and making it much more than a mere genre reworking.

Customer Reviews

BFI - you should know better!
One of the cool things about DVD is the ability to make subtitles optional. Over in the US, the Criterion release of "Bande A Part" allows you to dispense with the subtitles, allowing you to enjoy a picture uncluttered by text once you're familiar with the dialogue. Great shame then that this BFI release for the UK market doesn't give you the choice - you're forced to always view the film with subtitles whether you like it or not, making it no superior to a VHS copy in this respect. However, the other features and extras (again, fewer than on the Criterion release) are worthwhile. And the film itself, of course, is genius! But the BFI's oversight means I can only award this particular transfer three stars.

Not unlike "Au Bout De Souffle" ...
"Bande A Part" (The Outsiders) is another stylish 1960's Godard film that is rich in characterisation and features some memorable scenes, but for me falls short of the quality of some of the earlier "Nouvelle Vague" films such as "Au Bout De Souffle" and "Jules et Jim". "Bande A Part" shares strong similarities to both of these films; the triangular nature of the love interest, the petty gangsters, the bustling Parisian boulevards and the unexpected finale. The plot is fairly straightforward; pretty student Odile (Anna Karina) reveals that there is a stash of cash hidden away in a room at her foster parents to two male admirers and together with her , they conspire to steal it and flee the country. The main characters are hedonistic, amoral and anarchic, typical existentialists,and they flirt ,chat and dance their way through the film entertaining the viewer most in the famous cafe dance scene and the race through the Louvre. "Bande a Part" is a good film, but for me it lacks the substance and impact of earlier French New Wave productions.

New Wave classic from 1964
Like many films of the French New Wave (Tirez Sur La Pianiste, Lift to the Scaffold), Bande a Part (aka The Outsiders) takes its story from pulp origins and sets itself in the mould of a crime film. Godard is seen visibly getting bored with narrative, the beginnings of his episodic films are evident here- especially in the ironic denoument where the story ends in a typically casual way (predicting the end of Scorsese's Goodfellas in its offhandedness).

A love triangle (of a kind) are the main focus of Bande a Part,we follow Anna Karina & co as they go about their lives- school, cafes, an amusing journey round the Louvre (which was referred to in Pulp Fiction)& a plan to get their hands on money. The film shifts into nouvelle vague inflected noir towards the end, with the typically brilliant use of editing and shots which shows why Godard is so revered. The most famous scene is a brilliantly choreographed, seemingly improvised dance by the menage a trois- one that has since found itself referenced as an influence on dance scenes in Pulp Fiction & Simple Men.

Bande a Part fits very much into the New Wave crime film, alongside such works as Rififi, Lift to the Scaffold, A Bout de Souffle, Shoot the Pianist, & Pierret Le Fou. Godard would shift briefly towards SF (the noir inflected Alphaville) & then move away to a Brechtian form that emphasised politics. Bande a Part remains for me one of his great films, and along with A Bout de Souffle, the ideal introduction to Godard's works and a key film of the New Wave.