A milestone "Everything is permissible" moment in narrative film, Godard's fourth feature is a rocket from Pandora's Box. It's sectioned into 12 "tableaux," each chapter opening with an intertitle describing its contents. The framing is carefully indiscriminate; faces are backlit into murk; café clatter swallows conversation. The camera rarely cues on in-scene action, instead turning weird patterns or unmooring from the story at the whim of private authorial logic. Star Anna Karina was in the brutal early rounds of marriage to her director, who was never more doting and egghead-condescending than in this showpiece. She's Nana, a northern provincial in Paris who aspires to maybe become a film actress (like Anna Karina!), but settles on making a quick franc horizontally. The suburban streets and jukebox idylls are as banal as her daydreams, though she touches loftier things—a teary... More >>>