A while since I'd seen the 1965 - J-L Godard
I don't think it's possible, fair, or worthwhile discussing Godard on a kind of 'purely formal' plane. He doesn't hog techniques, or have a a running theme used for particular reasons through his films. Their isn't that kind of stasis.
'Pierrot' uses long shots, of the country with often low framings of action/people, and I was surprised to remember just how long Godard's takes are. There really is hardly a fast edit here.
One can play the game of trying to work out what is 'pre-planned', but it doesn't seem worth it. To me, Godard's starting point was films like 'Gun Crazy', some shots directly reminiscent (using the car, often). We the have music from other films, of course the literature, and various Brechtian elements (I loved the drawing of Anna Karina above where she is sitting). We the have some Cary Grant- style 'island paradise' stuff, a shot from Capra, and if I'm not mistaken a little hint at 'Tabu' with the bow and arrow. And Sam Fuller! Playing these games is all rather missing the point, of course.
The voiceover, the dialgoue between Belmondo and Karina, is stuuning. I had also inderestimated how powerful a presence Karina was in this; willful, not being pushed around or patronised.
Godard seems able to make cinema precisely what it should be; intelligent and beautiful, true and good, as far as it can. It is slightly like he was beemed in from another planet, and yet so of this world. Deliriously enjoyable, inexhaustively brilliant.
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