Stars: Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim Tamiroff, Howard Vernon, Jean-Claude Brialy, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Michel Subor, Henri-Jacques Huet, Paul Beauvais

Director: Jean-Luc Godard

Summary: In 'Alphaville' a special agent travels through space to find out the fate of his predecessor, and ends up in a totally loveless society. 'Une Femme Est Une Femme' tells the story of a nightclub stripper who is anxious to have a baby with her boyfriend turns to his best friend when he refuses. 'Le Petit Soldat' is the story of Bruno Forestier, a young, disillusioned man who becomes involved in politics. Despite his physical involvement in the Algerian war, he does not have deep political beliefs.

Contains three films by Jean Luc Godard: ALPHAVILLE, UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME and LE PETIT SOLDAT.
ALPHAVILLE:
With 1965's ALPHAVILLE--part sci-fi action film, part noir thriller--the acclaimed French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard achieves a stunningly clinical futurism using absolutely no special visual effects. The result is a moving, original film that, with its abstract, political, and intellectual themes, essentially redefines the apocalyptic science fiction genre. ALPHAVILLE, clearly the product of one of cinema's greatest contributors, is nothing less than a bona fide cult classic.
UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME:
Godard pays tribute to American musicals in much the same way that his debut feature, A BOUT DE SOUFFLE, did to American gangster films. The story follows the beautiful Angela (Anna Karina), a strip-tease artist who wants nothing more than to have a baby. Her live-in boyfriend, Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy), doesn't want to refuse and risk sparking major friction between the two. However, fed up with her constant pleading, Emile finally suggests that she shack up with his best friend, Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo), and much to Emile's dismay, she eventually takes his advice. Godard's second feature employs jump cuts and jarring sound mixing--most notably during Karina's strip-tease performances. Godard is at his most affectionate and good-natured here. He also makes several cinematic in-jokes, including one in which Belmondo's character mentions that he wants to hurry home to watch A BOUT DE SOUFFLE, the film that turned Belmondo into a megastar just one year before. Featuring a magnetically cute performance from Karina, who soon after the film became Godard's wife, this loving romantic comedy is a dazzler.
LE PETIT SOLDAT (1960):
Michel Subor stars as Bruno, a hitman under contract by the French government who suddenly develops a conscience and a philosophy when he is ordered to kill a left wing Arab leader. His newfound ideals are provoked by the stunning Veronica (Karina), a young woman who is secretly employed by the Arabs. The two fall in love, and, not surprisingly, Bruno finds it impossible to carry out his mission, bringing down the wrath of the French government on both he and Veronica. Beautifully filmed by Raoul Coutard, LES PETIT SOLDAT is less interested in the mechanics of plot as it is in providing Godard a voice for thoughts and musings on the politics and horrors of the Algerian War. It was originally banned in France because of its frank depiction of torture during Algeria's war of Independence, which was tearing France apart at the time of the film's completion.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo), an ex-airline steward turned hoodlum, steals a car and heads to Paris. Discovering a gun in the car's glove department, he uses it to shoot and kill a cop who tries to wave him down. He wants to escape to Italy with his American girlfriend Patricia (Jean Seberg), but the police are after him, and he is distracted by all the pleasures Paris has to offer.

Story-wise, Jean-Luc Godard's A Bout De Souffle(1960) (aka Breathless) is pretty thin, but as its director always proclaimed, you don't need much in the way of narrative to make a movie. Sometimes a girl and a gun are quite enough. The effortlessly cool and laconic Belmondo mirrors the director's mischief and flamboyance. With his fat cigarette stub perched on his bottom lip, his shades, his felt hat and white socks, he looks like a cross between a left-bank intellectual and an American gumshoe (perhaps his beloved Bogart). With her close-cropped hair and New York Herald TribuneT-shirt, his girlfriend (Jean Seberg) is equally stylish. A Hollywood star (she had appeared in the lead in Otto Preminger's Saint Joanin 1957 when she was still a teenager), the Iowa-born Seberg is turned by Godard into the lithe embodiment of European radical chic.

The film has a spontaneity that studio-bound offerings of the time missed by a mile. Cameraman Raoul Coutard uses natural light and real locations whenever possible. Lots of the pet tricks in the movie--jump cuts, whip pans and improvised tracking shots--have been copied relentlessly by imitators ever since. A Bout De Souffle, though, is unique: anarchic, liberating and hugely stylish, "the best film around now", as its trailer proclaimed. It made Godard, almost overnight, into "the world's most discussed, interviewed and quoted filmmaker". --Geoffrey Macnab

On the DVD:Godard's greatest movie has been lovingly transferred to disc by Optimum, and comes with several extras including trailers and production notes and an old Godard short, Charlotte Et Son Jules, also starring the swaggering, arrogant Belmondo. --Geoffrey Macnab

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	1965
Release Date:	September 6, 2004
Runtime:	263 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 096619
Keywords:	Collection, Small, Alphaville, Soldier, Jean, Box, General, Three, Une, Femme, Fiction, Triple, Set, Science, Le, Soldat, Horror, Discs, Est, Sci, Fi, Luc, Godard, Petite, Petit
Genre:	Science Fiction