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| Tookey's Review |
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| Pro Reviews |
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| Mixed Reviews |
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| Cast |
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| Released: |
1959 |
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| Genre: |
IMPORTANT
FOREIGN
CRIME
ROMANCE
THRILLER
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| Origin: |
France |
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| Colour: |
BW |
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| Length: |
90 |
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French car thief (Jean-Paul Belmondo, pictured left) kills cop, goes on run with American girl friend (Jean Seberg, pictured right).
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Reviewed by Chris Tookey
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In Jean-Luc Godard's first feature, the ex-boxer Jean-Paul Belmondo immediately established himself as a powerful screen presence, the quintessence of cool . Godard's celebration of youthful amorality won him Best Director at the 1960 Berlin Festival and is an archetypal film of the French New Wave. It's an attempt to emulate the simplicity and impact of American gangster movies, but using very different tricks, such as jump-cuts, location shooting and hand-held camerawork. Decades later, the techniques are no longer fresh, the script seems talky, and the superficiality of the characters (not to mention their profound unloveliness) is apparent, but there's an energy and excitement about the film which Godard all too rapidly lost.
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, Jean Seberg, Danel Boulanger