Seriously. And the way that it starts with random, albeit somewhat believable, violence and the long, bored, absurd description of a threesome and degenerates into the complete breakdown of society was just brilliant. When Godard got around to the on-screen animal slaughter and cannibalism, I was slack-jawed with disbelief. Heck, I still am. This was the flip side of the silly, reckless youth culture of Breathless and Band of Outsiders.

There's a lot of stuff that I don't think works, or is interminable (the garbage truck scene; the literary characters, apart from the flaming sendoff; that damn piano), but there's so much stuff that is both funny and horrific. People getting homicidal over fender benders and ruined hand bags, for example. Not a "fun" movie by any stretch, but there are laughs of the bone dry and stunned disbelieving variety.

Also, wonderfully sick closing line.

There's a lot of stuff that I don't think works, or is interminable

I was ok with a lot of that stuff, even the St. Just part (and I just watched Masculin/Feminin last weekend, so I was happy to see that actor in particular). But I completely lost my patience with the 7 1/2 hour (or so) "revolutionary" speech with drums. And yeah, I loved the dry humor and some of the nuttier parts, like the phone-booth song, the horror over the lost handbag, and, of course, the greatest traffic jam to ever grace a film.

But I completely lost my patience with the 7 1/2 hour (or so) "revolutionary" speech with drums.

Yeah, drums in the middle of woods? Kinda interestingly surreal...for about 30 seconds. Then I get bored, as with drum solos like Moby Dick, and this was no Moby Dick.

for about 30 seconds.

Yeah. That. Strangely enough, the only pop culture reference that sprang to mind was the menu of Michel Gondry's video collection, which has Gondry drumming in the woods with his kids' heads stuck in the toms, causing them to shout when he hit the drums.

I didn't really see the point of the garbage workers' speech, either, but at least it made sense. The revolutionary speech was just incoherent semi-Marxist ranting, which made a point about the idiocy of the group, but that point was already well made.

I finally rented the Steve Martin movie "Pennies From Heaven" from Netflix, after hearing about it for years. I had no idea it was based on a Dennis Potter BBC mini-series.

Anyone else seen it?

Anyone else seen it?

Bits of it. We rented it, but couldn't keep up with the surrealism and finally fast-forwarded to Walken's scene.

Yeah, Walken's bit was something.

I didn't find the musical sequences jarring at all, but once I saw Dennis Potter's name, I had some idea of what I was in for.

I finally rented the Steve Martin movie "Pennies From Heaven" from Netflix, after hearing about it for years. I had no idea it was based on a Dennis Potter BBC mini-series.

Anyone else seen it?

It's been years, but I remember really liking it. I've been meaning to pick up both that and the original BBC series (which is also out on disk), if only for the cognitive dissonance of seeing Bob Hoskins and Steve Martin in the same role.

Yeah, Walken's bit was something.

It was a great number. Also the reason the Fatboy Slim video DIDN'T surprise me. I knew he was a hoofer from way back.

I am amazed that Steve Martin basically learned to seriously dance for that role. Guess he really did have happy feet after all.

I love that film. Martin is amazing and how fabulous are the two women? BF has had a life-long crush on Bernadette Peters and this film is one of the reasons why.

I love that film. Martin is amazing and how fabulous are the two women? BF has had a life-long crush on Bernadette Peters and this film is one of the reasons why.

Oh yes, and Jessica Harper, when she turns up in one of the musical numbers looking radiant in total contrast to the rest of how she played that character, was a total shock.