Band of Outsiders (1964)

Also known as Bande à part (inspiring Quentin Tarantino's A Band Apart production company), this was Jean-Luc Godard's next film after Contempt. I had said in that review that I wouldn't bother with this film, but that was before a Meetup group invited me. If I didn't like it, I could still appreciate the talk before and after.

The titular band is not as big as I'd thought: just three young adults who meet via an ESL class. Arthur and Franz like to imagine themselves in a crime flick (unaware that they are) and have something of a love triangle with Odile (Godard staple Anna Karina), albeit not strongly enough to be genteel toward her. For the first hour or so, they mainly just goof around. Then they commit a crime for real: burglarizing a house that Odile shares with a non-relative who keeps a suspicious amount of cash in a stash. But someone besides Odile is home....

Contempt (1963)

I'm a bit wary of entries from the British Film Institute's "Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time." More than half the time, I find them OK at best. But Jean-Luc Godard hadn't let me down with Breathless and Alphaville, so this seemed a sufficiently safe bet. Besides, I had never seen the legendary Brigitte Bardot on film before.

It's one of the most international films I've seen, set in Italy but having more lines in French, English, and maybe German. Philandering Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance) wants to produce The Odyssey on the big screen, with the one and only Fritz Lang directing. The main focus is on reluctant screenwriter Paul (Michel Piccoli) and his wife, Camille (Bardot), who find something coming between them -- and it may make the difference in whether Paul stays with the project. The other major character is Giorgia Moll as talented translator Francesca.