'' Pierrot le Fou '' ( , French for " Pierrot the madman " ) is a 1965 French New Wave film directed by Jean-Luc Godard , starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina . The film is based on the 1962 novel '' Obsession '' by Lionel White . It was Godard 's tenth feature film , released between '' Alphaville '' and '' Masculin , féminin '' . The film was the 15th highest-grossing film of the year with a total of 1,310,580 admissions in France . The film was selected as the French entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 38th Academy Awards , but was not accepted as a nominee
38th Academy Awards
38th Academy Awards
Pierrot le Fou