Classic Movies: “Bande à part” (“Band of Outsiders”)

One of the inspirations for “Pulp Fiction”

Year: 1964

Director: Jean-Luc Godard (appears as Jean-Luc Cinéma Godard, it’s a joke for the way American directors present their movies)

Stars: Anna Karina, Daniele Girard, Sami Frey, Claude Brasseur

“Bande à part” is a New Wave film by one of the most influential French directors Jean-Luc Godard. Its title derives from the phrase “faire bande à part”, which means "to do something apart from the group." The film is an adaptation of the novel “Fools' Gold” by Dolores Hitchens.

Most Godard’s movies, especially these from the 1960s, are experiments in deconstructing the conventional Hollywood stories. In an interview from 1964 Godard said for “Bande à part”: “This movie was made as a reaction against anything that wasn’t done… It went along with my desire to show that nothing was off limits.” Despite the movie’s role mostly as a critique and exercise in reinvention, it is now considered one of Godard's most accessible films.

The story of “Bande à part” follows two wannabe gangsters - Franz (Sami Frey) and Arthur (Claude Brasseur) when they meet Odile (Anna Karina) in an English class. She is not only the “love interest”, but happens to live with her aunt and another tenant, who has hidden a large amount of cash in the house. The duo’s plan is to persuade Odile to help them steal the money.

By following this plotline “Bande à part” becomes a crime B-movie satire with sometimes poetic and profound insights that contradict its pulp origins and clichéd heroes. A lot of high literary references are in contrast with the source material and the popular culture that the heroes are immersed in. The movie nods to Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, T.S. Eliot, Jack London, Arthur Rimbaud and others. This rich intertextuality helps Godard not just to criticize, but to rethink the clichés of cinema by inventing new imagery from the old. The male duo at the center of the movie often quote pulp novels and movies, even recreate legendary criminals and events (pretending to shoot at each other), dreaming of the romanticized life of crime. Interestingly, their English teacher is just as excited for Shakespeare as they are for crime novels, but just like them has become disconnected with reality.

There are many parallels between the reality and the literature referenced in the movie. Even the book, from which Franz reads to Odile (stating that it’s about a girl just like her) is actually titled “Odile”. The rude way in which Arthur courts Odile is in contrast with the love described in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. The cool and witty criminals described in the books Franz reads couldn’t have planned the disastrous and comical robbery, which takes place in the movie. Similarly, the actions of Vincent and Jules in another unconventional crime film - Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” seem contradictory to Jules’ favorite Bible quotation.

So, what happens if we live by the knowledge we acquired from pop culture? Does art at all have the power to change our ways? Probably not, since Goddard seems to constantly remind us that we’re watching a movie with a very present “auteur” behind the camera (very apparent in the sarcastic voice-over that sometimes breaks the fourth wall). For example, when Franz and Arthur tell Odile that they are going to make a plan for the robbery, for a second she looks straight into the camera asking “Why?” as if to ask us or the director. When she sings a song in the subway and when Arthur tells us a story from Jack London, they are looking at the camera again as to remind us that this is all made-up by emphasizing on the external literary text. It’s like saying: “Here are some fictional stories in our fictional story”. I guess that’s how Goddard would make “Inception”.

Sometimes “Bande à part” can be really funny and full of contradictions, allowing the innocent and foolish Odile and her not so pleasant male counterparts with poor strategic abilities to occasionally provide insightful thoughts and exciting dialogue. The two male characters are actually not the most interesting part of the story, especially the more aggressive and meaner Arthur and I personally wasn’t that invested in their story. But Odile surprisingly gets more and more charming and mysterious as the film progress. For most of the movie, I actually expected her to turn out to be the biggest schemer, but while Godard follows the typical plot for the genre, he still plays with our expectations (in this case making me feel stupid when I realize that I have seen too many modern thrillers with too many plot twists), giving us characters that are not as good at romance and crime as we are used to seeing in the American criminal films. But Anna Karina’s performance is absolutely magnetic and for me the culminating scene of the entire film is somewhere in the middle when Odile starts singing in the subway while observing the lonely people in the train. This was so unexpected and striking moment, emphasized by great editing, that I suddenly started crying without even knowing why.

“Bande à part” actually suggests that there might be some social and economic reasons for the loneliness and anguish that result in the affection for the American culture. Paris in this movie is bleak, lonely and with no future for the poor. Still, we should have in mind that the American noir movies traditionally also have dark tones. The movie beautifully reflects the loneliness and despair of our heroes and their surroundings, which is synthetized in Odile’s song. Here we can see why Godard said in an interview that “Bande à part” is "Alice in Wonderland” meets Franz Kafka." We get a sense of the doom and despair omnipresent in Kafka’s books, as well as the frivolous and playful, childish behavior of the characters. Sometimes they really act like kids and ironically, Franz states that the robbery “will be a child’s play.”

Till the very end of film Goddard doesn’t stop juxtaposing the movie clichés with the reality of the heroes’ actions, thus questioning them and creating his own charming, mysterious and bleak reality. Another example of that is the difference between the “fake” killings in the movie and the “real” one. When Arthur mimics the death of Billy the Kid it looks realistic because that’s what he has seen in many movies. But in the scene when he’s actually shot it looks artificial and intentionally prolonged. Right before the end, after losing her lover Odile states “I’m disgusted with life” and Arthur ponders over “how strange it is that people never form a whole”. But just after that sad conversation they sail away, both in love, happy and full with expectations for their new life, just as the typical Hollywood movies should end. And the sarcastic voice-over promises us a sequel about the tropical adventures of the couple.

There are a few very famous scenes in Godard’s film that may seem quirky and random, but give “Bande à part” a feeling of freedom and playfulness that pleasantly surprises. The first scene features the trio, sitting in a coffeehouse, drinking Coke and smoking. Out of boredom, Franz suggests for a minute of silence and then suddenly not only the heroes become silent, but the sound of the movie is completely cut off, until Franz interrupts it ("Enough of that.") and we hear all the noises from the café again. This comical and memorable scene is probably the best example for the use of silence on film. The quiet minute could also be the basis for the “uncomfortable silences” that Mia and Vincent talk about in “Pulp Fiction”.

The second infamous scene is in the same café and includes the “Madison” dance that the three of them do, while the voice-over interrupts the music to describe their feelings. This scene inspired the famous dancing scene in “Pulp Fiction” and Tarantino actually named his production company “A Band Apart Films” after Goddard’s movie. There are even more similarities between the two films, which are in no way devaluating “Pulp Fiction”. In both we are introduced to a conventional crime story that has many surprising twists and turns. Both movies are parodies of the genre (and in a way homages, too) and both achieve wondrous moments of profundity between the romancing and the crime-doing. They also have a main character reading a cheap crime novel (Vincent and Franz) that falls in love with the wrong girl.

The third well-known scene from “Bande à part” shows our heroes, childishly storming through the Louvre, trying to break the record for fastest viewing of the museum, set by American, as the voice-over points out. In review for the movie I read that this could symbolize the brainwashing effect of the (american) pop culture on the youth unable to notice the rich cultural landscape around. But with the intertextuality of the film this scene could also represent cinema and art as a whole. New art is always influenced by previous works (signified by the hallways of the Louvre) and as Picasso said “Good artists copy, great artists steal”.  Still, Godard tells us that big percentage of the popular art runs like a child through the corridors of cultural legacy, blindly following the established commercial formula without stopping to reinvent its aesthetic and moral values. The Louvre scene could also simply mean that in most cases art doesn’t really change our lives; it hangs beautifully, yet quietly on the walls, while life passes way too fast through the endless corridors… 

As a whole, “Bande à part” is an interesting film to analyze and search for clues, especially for anyone who wants to know more about the history and development of cinema. It puts contemporary movies in context, while still enchanting the audience. However, while not long (about hour and a half) the movie might feel a bit slow at times. But this is also a result of what conventional cinema has thought us and it’s nice to challenge yourself sometimes. Finally, although I loved a lot of things about it, “Bande à part” didn’t become one of my top movies, but I still think that it’s an intriguing piece of inventive cinema that deserves attention.

Here’s translation of Odile’s song “J'entends, J'entends” and the entire song performed by Jean Ferrat:

I saw so many depart like that
All they’d ask for was a light
They settled for so little
They had so little anger in them
I hear their steps, I hear their voices
Speaking of things quite banal
Like things you read in the papers
Like things you say evenings at home

What are they doing to you, men and women
You tender stones, worn down too soon
Your appearances broken
My heart goes out at the sight of you
Things are what they are
From time to time, the earth trembles
Misfortune only misfortune resembles
So deep, so deep, so deep

You long to believe in blue skies
It’s a feeling I know quite well
I still believe at certain times
I still believe, I must admit
But I can’t believe my ears
Oh, yes I’m very much your peer
I am just the same as you

Like you, like a grain of sand
Like the blood forever split
Like the fingers always wounded
Yes, I am your fellow creature

The movie has 7,9 on IMDB - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057869/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

95% on RottenTomatoes  - http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/band_of_outsiders/

7,6 from users and 88 from critics on MetaCritic - http://www.metacritic.com/movie/band-of-outsiders