Pierrot le Fou

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Pierrot le Fou

1969

1h 45m

Drama

Comedy

Mystery & Thriller

Musical

Romance

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

88%

Tomatometer

51 Reviews

86%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

Uninterested in his wife (Dirk Sanders), Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo) wearies of his stagnant life. But when the couple hires an enigmatic babysitter, Marianne Renoir (Anna Karina), Ferdinand falls head over heels in love with her and abandons his family. He soon discovers, however, that his mistress is not who she seems. Pursued by foreign thugs, Ferdinand and Marianne steal a car and embark on a crime spree through the French countryside all the way to the Mediterranean.

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Critics Consensus

Colorful, subversive, and overall beguiling, Pierrot le Fou is arguably Jean-Luc Godard's quintessential work.

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Keith Uhlich

(All (Parentheses)) (Substack)

09/06/2022

Represents a high watermark of the art film, and in no small measure due to its despair over the artist’s ambivalent, uncertain role in an era of aesthetic, technological, and political turmoil. —Guest Post by Michael Joshua Rowin

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Joe Morgenstern

Newsweek

07/06/2022

"Pierrot" is less successfully artistically than several Godard films that followed it: Masculine Feminine, La Chinoise and Weekend. It's much more than historically interesting, though, this funny little fugue for soured sweethearts.

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Renata Adler

New York Times

01/09/2018

The film is poetic, quiet, introverted, personal.

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Daniel Barnes

Dare Daniel

Jan 28

4/5

Violent rejection of societal and aesthetic norms guided by a Looney Tunes logic, as Godard distracts himself from the familiar lovers-on-the-run story with experiments in color, composition, exuberance and incoherence.

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Dave Giannini

InSession Film

02/23/2024

Pierrot Le Fou is quite obviously a film that will reward subsequent viewings.

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Brian Susbielles

InSession Film

03/01/2023

In beautiful color and modernizing of a calmer France, it would be among the last works in Godard’s first phase where he then shifted to politically charged movies.

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Sarfaraz A

@RT40602226 03/09/2025

Jean-Luc Godard wrote and directed this French New Wave road crime thriller. Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo co-star. The film is based on Lionel White's 1962 novel, "Obsession". Jean is a married guy with a young daughter who one day steals a car with his daughter's babysitter, Anna, and goes on a crime spree, while being pursued by the Mafia. I enjoyed cinematic photography, nostalgic sights of streets and buildings in Paris, including the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, both at night and in daytime. The leads are irritant but with fathomable performances. I couldn't comprehend how Anna could knock down a healthy and haughty working man at a gas station by punching him in the chest and he never got up. This type of film's frivolity drove away my interest in it. Jean-Luc Godard is recognized as one of the best filmmakers whose work has never received an Oscar, which is most likely why Western film critics wish to repay him by giving his films excellent reviews.

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Dušan A

@RT86182278 11/13/2024

Such beautiful imagery, evoking all kinds of emotions, although yet again as Dragan Nikolic would say "It's Godard, there is no plot"

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Camero W

@RT71510397 11/06/2024

Not for the faint of mind

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Dani G

@RT81139271 08/28/2023

Typical Godard surrealism and lack of sense. That's his line of work and I respect it

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Emilio T

@MilloTPue 05/09/2022

It is the movie I most quickly wished to turn it off. I have spent little more than 10 minutes.

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Leaburn O

@RT35452347 04/20/2022

I'm sure there are many people who enjoy Godard's films. This one has its quirky moments but it's not enough to make up for the rest of this tiresome film that seemed to drag on. "We've found eternity" is a fair description for how long it feels like watching this rambling mess.

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Jean-Luc Godard

Director

Jean-Paul Belmondo

Ferdinand Griffon, dit "Pierrot"

Anna Karina

Marianne Renoir

Graziella Galvani

Maria

Dirk Sanders

Fred

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Synopsis

Uninterested in his wife (Dirk Sanders), Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo) wearies of his stagnant life. But when the couple hires an enigmatic babysitter, Marianne Renoir (Anna Karina), Ferdinand falls head over heels in love with her and abandons his family. He soon discovers, however, that his mistress is not who she seems. Pursued by foreign thugs, Ferdinand and Marianne steal a car and embark on a crime spree through the French countryside all the way to the Mediterranean.

Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Producer: Georges de Beauregard
Screenwriter: Remo Forlani, Lionel White
Distributor: Pathé Contemporary Films
Production Co: Les Productions Georges de Beauregard, Rome Paris Films, Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie, Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Mystery & Thriller, Musical, Romance
Original Language: French (France)
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 8, 1969, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Dec 18, 2015
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 1, 2011
Box Office (Gross USA): $22.7K
Runtime: 1h 45m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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