Bande A Part review

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Five years after his debut with A Bout De Souffle, Jean-Luc Godard and his cinematographer Raoul Coutard made another jump-cutting pastiche of the American B-movie, with this enjoyably experimental crime comedy that freewheels across Paris.

Godard's actress wife Anna Karina plays the lonely Odile, who falls in with a pair of street toughs named Arthur (Brasseur) and Franz (Frey) at her English-language class. Infatuated with the stocky Arthur, she assists the duo in a hare-brained scheme to steal money from her aunt's lodger...

Dispensing with a traditional narrative, Godard tosses in pop and high-culture references and reveals the characters' thoughts through narration. Simultaneously realistic and dream-like, Bande A Part offers up some intoxicating set-pieces, notably the choreographed dance routine and the trio's chase around the Louvre.

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine. 

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