gavin6942 Two crooks with a fondness for old Hollywood B-movies convince a languages student to help them commit a robbery.Godard described it as "Alice in Wonderland meets Franz Kafka". That may be suggesting it is a bit stranger than it is. Heck, after watching "Alphaville" this comes across as about as normal as it gets.Although it is not obvious, the dance scene here influenced the dance scene with Uma Thurman and John Travolta in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction". Tarantino loved this film so much, in fact, he named his production company after it. (Although a big fan of B-movies and Hong Kong, Tarantino has his finer tastes, too.) Pauline Kael described Bande à part as "a reverie of a gangster movie" and "perhaps Godard's most delicately charming film". A nice compliment. Others have said it is his most accessible. I liked it, but would not call it my favorite.

capone666 Bande à partCriminals come in many forms. But to be successful it's important that you commit crimes with fake tattoos, a noticeable limp, and an Irish accent.Unfortunately, the thieves in this heist movie decided to go with their native French tongue.Taking an English class together, three disfranchised Parisian youths, Odile (Anna Karina), Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and Franz (Sami Frey), decide to fleece a houseguest of Odile's aunt of his fortune.Attracted to Odile, both Arthur and Franz agree to the heist; however, their plan is expedited after Arthur's uncle gets wind of the available cash.Forced to rob the visitor at once, the trio's simple plan becomes a problematic bloodbath.A subtle stick'em up, imbued with director Jean-Luc Godard's New Wave vision, Bande à part is an unconventional love story amid an unprofessional heist.Besides, don't French robbers have a reputation of surrendering their arms if you saw you're German? (Green Light)vidiotreviews.blogspot.com

Charles Herold (cherold) Band of Outsiders has been described as a "Godard film for people who don't care much for Godard." As it happens, I can't stand Godard, who for me represents the worst of French Cinema. I hate most French films because they seem to just be two hours of people dully philosophizing and talking at each other. Sometimes French films are actually extremely (Wages of Fear, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Tall Blonde Man with One Black Shoe, City of the Lost Children) but I feel like most of the French movies I've seen in my life were exactly what I hate about Godard.So, how is Band of Outsiders for someone who hates Godard? Kind of a mixed bag. There are wonderful sequences in this movie. One in which the three main characters decide to have a minute of silence, another where they dance while the narrator tells you what they're thinking. And there are other moments that involve long, boring conversations that have no interest to them.Sometimes you get a little of both. There is a scene where a teacher endlessly reads Shakespeare, and at first it seems dull and like it's going to go on forever. But there is an interesting silent flirtation that starts up during the reading that is rather fascinating.So this movie gives me some understanding of what Godard is trying for in his films, I think. And it makes me understand why Hal Hartley, who I love, has said Godard is a major influence (Hartley's films also have long conversations with people talking at each other, but his dialog is quirky and fascinating, which is very un-Godard.The story involves a love triangle and planned robber featuring a dumb woman and two men, one a major creep and one a minor creep (predictably she likes the major creep better). Like most French new wave films that pay tribute to genre film making, Godard has drained most of the energy and suspense out of the crime genre in this film, so the story is never particularly compelling and the movie's slight twists are poorly done and seem like an afterthought. But there is some interest generated in the interaction between the three protagonists.This movie is sort of Godard lite, which is why I found it pretty watchable. I would say it's worth watching, even though ultimately it's still far inferior to the handful of French films I have loved.

bobsgrock Very much in the same vein as his break-out hit Breathless, Band of Outsiders works just the way it is supposed to, an homage to the pulp crime novels and B- movies of America. Here, however, it is all set to the gorgeous and timeless scenery of Paris along with three very bright and engaging people. Sami Frey and Claude Brasseur play Franz and Arthur, two young men who seem to be going nowhere in life except the occasional English class and cruising around in their speedy black, American car. They meet up with a girl they both admire, Odile, played wonderfully by the beautiful Anna Karina, and soon are setting up a plot to steal money from her aunt's boarding house.This is about all the plot there is and about all the plot there needs to be. Since this is based on a dime-store novel by Dolores Hitchens, Godard knew that the climax would be the actual crime. However, what to fill the rest of the time with? Perhaps a fantastic dance number right in the middle of a Parisian restaurant, or the famous scene of the three characters running through the great halls of the Louvre. There are also some very interesting dialog scenes, such as when Arthur and Odile discuss why they like each other, or Arthur and Franz exchanging morbid stories from the newspaper.Like most of Godard's other work, many people will be turned off by his eccentric, offbeat cinematic version of the human condition. Indeed, although he was heavily inspired by American crime tales such as Orson Welles' Touch of Evil, there is a definite French twist here which is all the more entertaining for us. Still, this is certainly one of Godard's best work; completely original and though-provoking as well as shot in beautiful, stark black-and-white cinematography that captures the rough and rugged era of Paris. Keep your mind open to the possibilities and you may just learn something... or nothing.