elvircorhodzic BAND OF OUTSIDERS is a crime drama about a relationship between three young people who commit a robbery. A tense confrontation between the characters is portrayed through their stubbornness, anger, love and ambition.Odile, a young woman, meets a silent young man named Franz in an English language class. She lives in the villa, which belongs to a rich husband of her aunt. He holds a large pile of money in his room. She has told to Franz and his friend Arthur about money. Arthur and Franz decide to take advantage of the naivety of a young girl and rob her host. Arthur flirts with Odile in order to get hold of money as soon as possible. However, the robbery will not be that easy as they seem. Love is in the air...A love triangle is always strange and intriguing at the French New Wave. This is a charming expression, even if love is not a strong emotion. That youthful enthusiasm brings the spontaneity and the naivety in this story. They want to be young and rich, while she wants to be just loved. It is a good base for a rebellion.Mr. Godard has skillfully hidden emotions of his protagonists. He turns, through a sinister game, a natural expression in a kind of paradox.Characterization is, as usual, more than good.Anna Karina as Odile is lost between almost humorous naivety and unfulfilled desires. However, her character, later, receives a dose of confidence and she becomes a serious player in their undertaking. She found love in the end.Sami Frey as Franz is somber and serious young man. However, he tries to draw the attention of a young girl, who is a little afraid of him. The crucial point is that, when she becomes more important than his youthful ambition. Claude Brasseur as Arthur is a dangerous, desperate and ruthless player, who sees only salvation in cash.A well-planned robbery through a song, dance and sad look.

mevmijaumau Once again I don't know what do with a Godard film. Not really compelling, but not really awful, not too innovative, but not too formulaic, certainly not entertaining but not completely tedious. A Band of Outsiders is a crime romance flick that just baffles me, but not in a thought-provoking way or any other way of titillating my interest. Ultimately I dislike it. There is some really good stuff in here, but most of it seems to be probing the borders of boredom.As a New Wave film, it's expected that this one too would part ways with conventional storytelling and filming style, but it's caught in that awkward middle way where it's not over the top enough to be really memorable and inspired and it's not conventional enough to tell an entertaining crime story. Godard's typical tricks are here on display too; sudden deadpan narration, sudden diversions, sudden sound mixing and editing jokes, but most of those miss their mark here. The plot moves unbearably slow and the characters here are far from magnetic or charismatic, besides Anna Karina, but that's probably just because she's pretty to look at. I didn't care for these characters' fates at all.The film isn't completely bland. There's some really good stuff here. The dance scene is very cute, the music all throughout the film is charming, the camera occasionally captures a great snapshot of 1960s Paris. But really, for every good scene here there are 10 tedious ones, and it just doesn't click with me overall.

bandw Two Paris low-lifers (Franz and Arthur) meet a pretty girl (Odile) in an English class. Right there I was alerted to the fact that this movie was not to be taken for its realism--these two guys would never have been studying English. They both fall for Odile. When she reveals that there is a lodger in her villa who has a cash bundle, the two guys become intent on getting the money and enlist Odile as an accomplice. That is the story, but in a movie like this the story appears to be incidental to the presentation.And the presentation did not engage me. Odile is appealing enough in her innocence, but Franz and Arthur are losers. In an extraordinary feat Godard has managed to make Paris look dismal. This movie may as well have been filmed in Detroit. Clouds predominate and the film quality is slightly grainy giving the impression of looking through a light fog, even indoors.It's hard to know how to take this. Maybe that was one of the goals, but the mixed genres did not jell into a whole for me. The jaunty score encouraged me to take this as a joke, but other scenes, like a murder, worked at cross-purpose to that. There were some humorous parts, like having Franz and Arthur wear Odile's black stockings completely over their faces during a crime scene. With no eye holes, they could not have seen much. Scenes like that, and having the three run through the Louve to set a speed record, had me thinking that this could be an absurdest comedy. There is an interview with Godard (looking ominously like Dr. Strangelove) on the DVD extras where he discusses some of the tenets of the French New Wave cinema. The main thread I got out of that interview was Godard's desire to overthrow the accepted techniques and clichés of the past. But there is usually some wisdom in established techniques and clichés do not achieve their status without there having been some truth in them. Given Godard's outlook he can always deflect any criticism by accusing the critic of being too trapped by the past.I have recently come up with a yardstick to help me in assessing my reaction to a movie, and that is how frequently I look at the time. Toward the end of this relatively short movie I was checking the clock about every five minutes.

Murray Murray I found Godard's Bande à part to be much more entertaining than À bout de soufflé and my favourite out of the Nouvelle Vague films. It was in its cool, its aesthetics and simplicity in narrative that had me captivated and I finished the film with a smile on my face.It had everything you could want from a film with interesting textual references, comic quips, a love triangle and the protagonists sprinting through the Louvre, not to mention the best dance sequence to be caught on camera.This is why I want to make films, because they can be this stylish, this cool and this entertaining.8/10