nouvelle Heloise, Werther, and Hermann and Dorothea." Writing As with many of Godard's movies, no screenplay was written until the day before shooting, and many scenes were improvised by the actors, especially in the final acts of the movie. Although the film preserved the book's basic plot outline of a middle-aged advertising man running away with and obsessing over his children's teenaged babysitter before ultimately killing her, Godard aimed to turn the film into "something completely different," as he told Belmondo. In the film, the male lead, Ferdinand Griffon, is a failed intellectual with literary ambitions who tries to fulfill his artistic desire after falling in love with Marianne, the female lead. Critic Richard Brody writes that since Marianne is inextricably bound to Ferdinand's great artistic ambitions, her betrayal "not only breaks Ferdinand’s heart but also destroys what was to be his life’s work." Brody notes that this change in the story's themes and effect mirrored Godard's failing marriage to Karina, who featured in many of his works. Karina and Godard divorced in early 1965, before production on the film had begun. Filming Godard initially panicked one week before production was to begin, realizing that many of his original ideas for the film were of little use to him. The shooting took place over two months, starting in the French Riviera and finishing in Paris (in reverse order from the edited movie). Toulon served as backdrop for the film's denouement, photography for which included footage of the storied French battleship Jean Bart. The 1962 Ford Galaxie that was driven into the water and sunk was Godard's own. Jean-Pierre Léaud was an uncredited assistant director on the movie (and also appears briefly as a young man in a movie theater). Sam Fuller has a cameo as the American film director in the party scene. Themes and style Narrative and editing choices Like many of Godard's films, Pierrot le fou features characters who break the fourth wall by looking into the camera. It also includes startling editing choices; for example, when Pierrot throws a cake at a woman in the party scene, Godard cuts to an exploding firework just as it hits her. The director said the film was "connected with the violence and loneliness that lie so close to happiness today. It's very much a film about France." Pop art aesthetic The film has many of the characteristics of the then