How and whyPierrot Le Fou works against the conventions of classical continuity cinema?
By Daniel Blumensev
Pierrot Le Fou (1965 Jean-Luc Godard), the 1965 French New Wave gem about a couple on the run, is considered, by many critics and cineastes alike, to be Jean Luc Godard’s best work. The “Nouvelle Vague” of the late 1950s through the 1960s was a time of cinematic reform and experimentation, with not only political and social ideas but also technical ones as well. One of the most influential, innovative and original filmmakers behind the Nouvelle Vague was the ex-Cahiers du Cinema critic Jean-Luc Godard. As well as exploring philosophical and socialist themes in his work, Godard was also well known for his divergence from classical continuity cinema (being the technique of filling in the gaps of a film’s narrative and making logical and geographical sense of all its elements within). Godard, having started as early as in his feature debut: À Bout de Souffle (1960 Jean-Luc Godard), shattered classical continuity and filled his debut work with sudden jump cuts in order to divert the audiences attention to, not the narrative, but the power of the image itself: crafted through the filmmaking process (Brown 1972). Although possessing general similarity in the reasons for working against classical continuity in À Bout de Souffle, Godard’s 1965 oeuvre: Pierrot Le Fou’s discontinuity, achieved through non-linear and inconsistent editing of picture and soundtrack and through breaking the fourth wall, lies within the purpose of making the audience realize and appreciate the film form, and enhancing the subjectivity in the narrative, ultimately two completely different goals.
The particular sequence selected for the breakdown revolves around Ferdinand and Marianne, the film’s two protagonists, driving down the south of France in a vehicle they just stole, frolicking in their freedom and relishing in their love for each other. Although this scene seems straight forward, an attentive audience member would notice several breaks in the film’s space, this being the technique of discontinuity, Godard’s hallmark in the era of the Nouvelle Vague.
The particular sequence selected for the breakdown revolves around Ferdinand and Marianne, the film’s two protagonists, driving down the south of France in a vehicle they just stole, frolicking in their freedom and relishing in their love for each other. Although this scene seems straight forward, an attentive audience member would notice several breaks in the film’s space, this being the technique of discontinuity, Godard’s hallmark in the era of the Nouvelle Vague.
Although the flashback shots B, C, and D are beautiful examples of Godard’s provoking use of color in the film, they will not be discussed as they are not examples of discontinuity, but simply happened to be within the sequence being analyzed.
Shot E: We cut back to the same car ride scene: the static medium long shot on the hood of the car. Ferdinand answers that he’s not interested in his wife anymore, and that whenever you leave a woman, she starts to think you’ve gone crazy.
After some philosophical banter about death, Marianne turns on the radio. Music starts playing.
Marianne complains about what they are going to do without any money. Ferdinand responds that they can stop anywhere and have a vacation.
Shot F1: We awkwardly cut to this static medium long shot from the back of the car. The music has stopped playing, but then after a few seconds it starts over again. Then Ferdinand repeats the same line that ended the last shot (E): “We can stop anywhere”. After a few seconds the music restarts again.
Marianne tells him that they first have to find her brother who will give them lots of money and then they can go stay at a hotel and have lots of fun.
The abrupt cut that happens between shots E and F1 is the first example of discontinuity. At the end of shot E, Marianne turns on the radio: music starts to play. Marianne then complains that they can’t even get to Italy without any money and Ferdinand responds that they can stop anywhere and relax. Suddenly we cut to shot F1. The music that has been playing throughout the end of shot E has stopped and after a few seconds Ferdinand seems to repeat the same line he ended shot E with: “We can stop anywhere”. Then after a few seconds the music restarts again.
Shot G: We awkwardly cut again to the camera on the hood of the car in a static medium shot. The music has once again stopped and starts over in a couple of seconds. Ferdinand repeats the same line that ended the previous shot (F2): “Come on, don’t say that!”.
Marianne challenges Ferdinand’s showing off of driving practically with no hands. Ferdinand responds by saying: “Oh yeah? Check this out!”
Skipping F2 for the moment, we then once again awkwardly cut to shot G, from shot F: the exact same effect occurs. The music has suddenly stopped in shot G and then starts over again in a few seconds, and Ferdinand opens this new shot by repeating the same line he closed shot F with. This is discontinuity. In continuity cinema, which tries to fill in all the gaps, we would cut smoothly and invisibly to shot F1. The music wouldn’t stop: it would keep going and Ferdinand would continue speaking on and not repeat the same line he already delivered in the previous shot. This editing would make sense of the film’s space and nothing would seem off or repeated, everything would just continue as if in real life. However purposefully disrupting the film’s sense of space, by suddenly stopping the music and having Ferdinand repeat the same line, Godard creates discontinuity; purposefully making the audiences feel ‘the cut’. The purpose for this technique is firstly to, as in À Bout de Souffle, divert the audiences’ attention from the narrative, and for them to focus on the image and the filmmaking process itself. Godard, through his cinema wants to give the audiences something new, something they haven’t seen before, quoting Godard’s own words: ‘I couldn’t see anything that hadn’t been done already. Ivan the Terrible had already been made, and so has Our Daily Bread’ (Godard 1972). Thus Godard, wanting to stand among Eisenstein and Vidor, employs the original technique of discontinuity in his cinema, bringing us something new, showing us the film form itself by making us witness the fact of the cut in Pierrot, thus demonstrating the artifice versus the reality, thus making us realize that cinema is an illusion and how that illusion is constructed, or in this case, deconstructed.
The other reason for swaying from classical discontinuity in this sequence is in order to enhance the subjectivity of the narrative. More precisely, due to the awkward deja vu created by the discontinuity in the beginning of shots F1 and G, this intimate and romantic moment between the two protagonists is extended, thus making the narrative be subjective on these two lovers. Although this effect is not at it’s strongest in this particular sequence, a great example to reinforce this purpose would be in the beginning of the picture, when Ferdinand drives Marianne home. We get a long dialogue, but whenever one person is talking, we only see the other on screen. In traditional continuity, we would cut to the person talking, in order to fill in the gap, but in Pierrot through focusing on the person listening, this discontinuity technique is employed in order to diverts the narrative to the subjective point of view of the person listening, and their reactions to the other person talking. Coming back to our particular sequence at hand, the lengthening effect that its discontinuity creates, pausing the traditional narrative, also makes the audience, themselves, experience this moment with the two protagonists longer, making the audience live with the couple in their intimacy and romance, making the spectators live in this film reality.
The other reason for swaying from classical discontinuity in this sequence is in order to enhance the subjectivity of the narrative. More precisely, due to the awkward deja vu created by the discontinuity in the beginning of shots F1 and G, this intimate and romantic moment between the two protagonists is extended, thus making the narrative be subjective on these two lovers. Although this effect is not at it’s strongest in this particular sequence, a great example to reinforce this purpose would be in the beginning of the picture, when Ferdinand drives Marianne home. We get a long dialogue, but whenever one person is talking, we only see the other on screen. In traditional continuity, we would cut to the person talking, in order to fill in the gap, but in Pierrot through focusing on the person listening, this discontinuity technique is employed in order to diverts the narrative to the subjective point of view of the person listening, and their reactions to the other person talking. Coming back to our particular sequence at hand, the lengthening effect that its discontinuity creates, pausing the traditional narrative, also makes the audience, themselves, experience this moment with the two protagonists longer, making the audience live with the couple in their intimacy and romance, making the spectators live in this film reality.
Shot F2: Ferdinand turns to the audience, breaking the forth wall and says: “You see: all she thinks about is having fun”. Marianne asks him whom he’s talking to, Ferdinand answers: “To the audience”. Marianne then turns around, looking at the camera (the audience) and goes: “Ah”.
The two then talk about their love for each other.
Observing shot F2, we get to see Godard breaking classical continuity in one of his most notorious ways: by breaking the fourth wall, meaning simply when a character, in any shape or form, acknowledges the audience. As early as in 1961 with Une Femme est Une Femme (1961 Jean-Luc Godard), Godard’s wickedly funny parody of romantic musicals, the auteur already broke the number one rule of filmmaking: to never break the suspension of disbelief. In the first half of Une Femme est Une Femme, Anna Karina and Jean-Claude Brialy distinctly acknowledge the audience, and bow to them (Williams 2000). Four years later, Godard, once again, employed this technique of discontinuity in Pierrot, as we can see in shot F2, Ferdinand turns to the camera, breaking the fourth wall, and says to the audience: “ You see: all she thinks about is having fun”. Marianne then asks him whom he’s talking to, and Ferdinand answers: “To the audience”. Marianne then turns around, looks at the camera and goes: “Ah”. This comical sequence, although amusing, completely breaks the illusion for the audience that they are watching a film. The purpose of this discontinuity is once again, to remind the audience to acknowledge the filmmaking aspect of cinema, and what it means to break ‘the cinema’: the suspension of disbelief, which Godard clearly demonstrates by breaking the forth wall in shot F2. Godard works against classical continuity in Pierrot Le Fou, such as by breaking the forth wall, in order to divert his audiences attention from the film’s narrative, and to, instead concentrate on the image itself, to make his spectators question how a film is constructed and what the art of filmmaking involves (Brown 1972).
Pierrot Le Fou, along with À Bout de Souffle, Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959 François Truffaut), Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959 Alain Resnais) and L'Année Dernière à Marienbad (1961 Alain Resnais), was one of the greatest achievements of La Nouvelle Vague, not only due to its overwhelmingly beautiful cinematography shot by the great Raoul Coutard, and its incredibly liberating and profound partly-improvised script (acting as a sort of table of contents for all Godard’s previous works), but also largely due to it’s provocative style of discontinuity. Godard implemented this technique through non-linear and illogical editing of visual and aural material and through breaking the fourth wall, with the purpose of both: making the audience realize and appreciate the image and not the narrative, making them realize that they are watching a film in order for them to understand what goes into making one, and also, quite contrarily, at certain parts, to create a subjective view on certain elements in the film’s eccentric plot.
Pierrot Le Fou, along with À Bout de Souffle, Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959 François Truffaut), Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959 Alain Resnais) and L'Année Dernière à Marienbad (1961 Alain Resnais), was one of the greatest achievements of La Nouvelle Vague, not only due to its overwhelmingly beautiful cinematography shot by the great Raoul Coutard, and its incredibly liberating and profound partly-improvised script (acting as a sort of table of contents for all Godard’s previous works), but also largely due to it’s provocative style of discontinuity. Godard implemented this technique through non-linear and illogical editing of visual and aural material and through breaking the fourth wall, with the purpose of both: making the audience realize and appreciate the image and not the narrative, making them realize that they are watching a film in order for them to understand what goes into making one, and also, quite contrarily, at certain parts, to create a subjective view on certain elements in the film’s eccentric plot.
Bibliography
Brown, R. (1972). Focus on Godard. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Godard, J. (1972). Godard on Godard. New York, N.Y.: Da Capo Press.
Williams, A (2000) ‘Pierrot in Context(s)’, in David Wills (ed.) Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Godard, J. (1972). Godard on Godard. New York, N.Y.: Da Capo Press.
Williams, A (2000) ‘Pierrot in Context(s)’, in David Wills (ed.) Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Filmography
À Bout de Souffle (1960) Directed by Jean-Luc Godard [Film]. France: Les Films Impéria.
Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959) Directed by Alain Resnais [Film]. France: Argos Films.
L'Année Dernière à Marienbad (1961) Directed by Alain Resnais [Film]. France: Cocinor.
Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959) Directed by François Truffaut [Film]. France: Les Films du Carrosse.
Pierrot Le Fou (1965) Directed by Jean-Luc Godard [Film]. France: Films Georges de Beauregard.
Une Femme est Une Femme (1961) Directed by Jean-Luc Godard [Film]. France: Euro International Film.
Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959) Directed by Alain Resnais [Film]. France: Argos Films.
L'Année Dernière à Marienbad (1961) Directed by Alain Resnais [Film]. France: Cocinor.
Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959) Directed by François Truffaut [Film]. France: Les Films du Carrosse.
Pierrot Le Fou (1965) Directed by Jean-Luc Godard [Film]. France: Films Georges de Beauregard.
Une Femme est Une Femme (1961) Directed by Jean-Luc Godard [Film]. France: Euro International Film.