inquiry into form, or rather formlessness, to an extreme that destroyed not only himself but also his wife." Ferdinand believes that he will be able to accomplish his dream of writing a novel about "life itself. What lies in between people: space, sound, and color," by isolating himself on an island with Marianne, a dream dispelled by Marianne's boredom on the island. Brody writes that this mirrors Godard's belief that "The glory of nature and a life of shared purpose with a beloved woman are... a natural pair," and how this belief was affected by his divorce of Karina. Consumerism Godard explores consumerism and mass media in Pierrot le Fou, most prominently in an early scene at a cocktail party that demonstrates the bourgeois world Ferdinand flees from. The interactions of the guests consist solely of advertising slogans, drawing attention to the prevalence of commercialism and the strangeness of publicity speech, showing it out of context, in a "real" setting. To emphasize the scriptedness and one-dimensionalism of the public interaction in this scene, Godard saturates the scene with various strong colors, either through lights or a filter on the camera. Godard uses the film to draw attention to advertising's tendency to sexualize women. In the aforementioned party, women are portrayed both clothed and topless. In an earlier scene, Ferdinand observes an advertisement for a girdle and comments in a voice-over that after the civilizations of Athens and the Renaissance, humanity is entering "the civilization of the ass." Release Pierrot le fou premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, 1965, where some audience members initially responded by booing it. The film later opened in France on November 5, and was unsuccessful at the box office, with about 1,310,579 admissions. Criterion release The Criterion Collection first released Pierrot le fou on Blu-ray in September 2008. It was one of its first titles released on Blu-ray before being discontinued after Criterion lost the rights to StudioCanal. In July 2020, Criterion announced the film would be given a re-release in both Blu-ray and DVD with a new 2K digital restoration. Reception Despite the boos at Venice, the film received positive reviews. In Le Nouvel observateur, critic Michel Cournot wrote “I feel no embarrassment declaring that Pierrot le fou is the most beautiful film I’ve seen in my life," while in a front-page review for Les Lettres Françaises, the novelist and poet Louis