Pierrot le fou 1965 Criterion Collection
Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot Le Fou is not a film largely concerned with plot, but the story follows Ferdinand (Jean-Paul Belmondo) as he leaves his bourgeoisie lifestyle and wife behind him to go on the run with ex-lover, Marianne. The couple somehow get involved in murder and arms-dealing along the way as well as spending some time alone on an uninhabited island. Eventually though it all comes crashing down and the road trip ends in disaster.

Yet this is no normal road trip: genius auteur Jean-Luc Godard’s tenth feature in six years is a stylish mash-up of consumerist satire, politics, and comic-book aesthetics, as well as a violent, zigzag tale of, as Godard called them, “the last romantic couple”. With blissful color imagery by cinematographer Raoul Coutard and Belmondo and Karina at their most animated, Pierrot le fou is one of the high points of the French new wave, and one last frolic before Godard moved ever further into radical cinema.

Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Graziella Galvani
Country: France, Italy
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance

BD50 + 2xDVD9 | 1080p AVC, NTSC | 01:50:19 | 44.9 Gb + 13.3 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Francais
Subtitles: English

Extras:

Anna Karina - in this interview, recorded for Criterion at the Brasserie Lipp in Paris 2007, celebrated actor Anna Karina recalls working with her former husband director Jean-Luc Godard and her role as Pierrot le fou's Marianne Renoir. (15 min, 1080i)

A Pierrot primer - this segment, with commentary by filmmaker and educator Jean-Pierre Gorin (Tout va bien, Letter to Jane, My Crazy Life), presents an introduction to Pierrot le fou. (36 min, 1080i).

Belmondo in the Wind - in the following excerpted program, Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina comment on Belmondo's role in Pierrot le fou and his easy desposition as an actor and collaborator. The interviews were recorded during the film's production by journalist Mario Beunat, for the television series Panorama, and originally aired on June 18, 1965. (10 min, 1080i).

Venice Film Festival, 1965 - Pierrot le fou premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Golden Lion award. During the event, Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina were interviewed by Maurice Seveno and Christian Durieux for a French TV news segment on the festival that originally aired on September 2, 1965. Excerpts from the segment are presented here. (4 min, 1080i).

Godard, L'amour, La poesie - a fifty-three minute documentary created by French filmmaker Luc Lagier in 2007, tracing Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina's marriage and films, from Le petit soldat through Pierrot le fou. The documentary also includes interviews with Karina and Godard collaborators Charles Bitsch, Raoul Coutard, Jean Douchet, and Jean-Paul Savignac. (53 min, 1080i).

Trailer - (2 min, 1080i).

Pierrot le fou (1965) Criterion Collection Reissue 2020
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BD50 | 1080p AVC, NTSC | 01:50:50 | 45.3 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Francais
Subtitles: English

The following text appears inside the booklet that is provided with this release:

"This new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution from the 35mm original camera negative at Scanlab in Saint-Cloud, France. A previous digital master approved by cinematographer Raoul Coutard was used as a color reference. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from a 35mm optical soundtrack positive using Avid's Pro Tools and iZotope RX.
Colorist: Reginald Gallienne/Scanlab."

The rest of the package mimics the 2009 Criterion Blu-ray with the duplicate supplements.