Programme 50 years Cahiers du Cinéma

France/Italy | 1965 | col | 110 mins | dir. Jean-Luc Godard, with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina | cert. 15
Fed up with his wife and Paris, Jean-Paul Belmondo heads for the south of France with old flame Anna Karina, a gangster's moll. Based on Lionel White's novel Obsession, but mostly improvised as Godard was inspired by locations en route to the South, this is one of the director's very best films – a bewildering blend of genres and visual styles, shot in sun-splashed colour by Raoul Coutard, with a cameo by tough-guy director Sam Fuller and an explosive finale. 'Pierrot le fou isn't really a film,' said Godard on its release, 'it's an attempt at cinema.'