#308: GODARD, Jean-Luc: Masculin Féminin (1966)

GODARD, Jean-Luc (France)
Masculin Féminin [1966]

Spine #308
DVD

With Masculin feminin, ruthless stylist and iconoclast Jean-Luc Godard introduces the world to "the children of Marx and Coca-Cola," through a gang of restless youths engaged in hopeless love affairs with music, revolution, and each other. French new wave icon Jean-Pierre Léaud stars as Paul, an idealistic would-be intellectual struggling to forge a relationship with the adorable pop star Madeleine (real-life yé-yé girl Chantal Goya). Through their tempestuous affair, Godard fashions a candid and wildly funny free-form examination of youth culture in throbbing 1960s Paris, mixing satire and tragedy as only Godard can.

105 minutes
Black & White

Monaural

in French

1:33:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2005

Director/Writers

Jean-Luc Godard was 36 when he wrote and directed Masculin Féminin.
Based on La femme de Paul and Le signe by Guy de Maupassant.

Other Godard films in the Collection:

#408: Breathless (1960)
#238: A Woman is a Woman (1961)
#512: Vivre Sa Vie (1962)
#171: Contempt (1963)
#1010: Le Petit Soldat (1963)
#174: Band of Outsiders (1964)
#25: Alphaville (1965)
#421: Pierrot le Fou (1965)
#481: Made in U.S.A. (1966)

#482: 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967)
#635: Weekend (1967)
#744: Every Man for Himself (1980)

The Film

The best inside joke in a film that is itself one big inside joke occurs in a scene where Paul (Jean-Pierre Léaud), Madeleine (Chantal Goya) and Elisabeth (Marlène Jobert) are in a cinema, watching a risqué Swedish film. Suddenly, Paul jumps out of seat:

"Shit ... it's the wrong format! I'm going to complain."

He runs out of the theatre and finds the stairs to the projection booth. He confronts the projectionist:

"The aperture must be for a 1.65 or 1.75 aspect ratio, as decided during the film's shooting. The 1.85 format is a limit that should not be exceeded, as per the international recommendation of the ISO."

In the interview with Willy Kurant (below), he says:

"This was shot in the ratio of 1:33. I said to Godard, 'why do you want to shoot it in 1:33; it's going to be projected in 1:66?' He said, 'well, we'll frame it in 1:33, but try to frame vaguely in 1:66, and you never know with a projectionist what's going to happen, so we'll see ..."

The intertitle which Godard suggests could be an alternate title for the film — the children of Marx and Coca-Cola — perfectly describes the proceedings.

There's the 19-year-old (Elsa Leroy) who has no idea what Socialism is; there's Madeleine (Goya is gorgeous!) who claims Bach as an influence on her singing career (she knows only the one piece Paul has played on their phonograph) ... and of course, there's the wonderful cameo by Brigitte Bardot, looking lovely, saying nothing ...

On the Marx side of things, we have Paul's friend Robert (Michel Debord) spouting polemics throughout the film, and, again, slyly, we have a cameo by Med Hondo (two films on Criterion, Soleil Ô [1970, Spine #1049] and West Indies, the Fugitive Slaves of Liberty [1979, Spine #1313]).

Worthwhile Godard.

The Extras

The Booklet

Fourteen-page booklet featuring an essay by Adrian Martin, and a reprint from the set by French journalist Phillippe Labro.

Martin:

"Goya's pop debut leveled out into a lucrative career as a children's entertainer, staging theatrical and television spectaculars and making records where she accompanied, among other pop culture icons, famous Disney characters. So Léaud, in a sense, stuck with Marx, while Goya definitely opted for Coca-Cola."

Labro:

"[Godard]: 'I think it was Baudelaire who said that it was on the toilet walls that you see the human soul: you see graffiti there — politics and sex. Well, that's what my film is.'"

Commentary

None.

Archival 1966 interview

With actress Goya.

Video interviews

With Goya, DP Kurant, and Godard collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin, conducted in 2005.

Video discussion

Of the film between French film scholars Freddy Buache and Dominique Paini.

Swedish television footage

Of Godard directing the “film within the film” scene.

Trailers for the original theatrical release and the 2005 rerelease

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