Masculin Féminin

 Year:  1966

Director:  Jean-Luc Godard

Screenplay:  Jean-Luc Godard

Starring:  Jean-Pierre Léaud, Chantal Goya, Marlène Jobert, Michel Debord, Catherine-Isabelle Duport

Running Time:  104 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Paris, the mid 1960s:  Paul (Léaud), an idealistic political activist, falls for pop singer Madeleine (Goya), and the two start up a complex relationship, which includes Madeleine's two roommates: Catherine (Duport) and Elisabeth (Jobert), against the turbulent backdrop of Parisian politics and youth culture.

Jean-Luc Godard was one of the leading lights of the French nouvelle vague (New Wave) and became something of an art-house darling throughout the 1960s, until his films became increasingly inaccessible, experimental and political.  Masculin Féminin (or, to give it it's full title, Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis which translates as Masculine Feminine: 15 Specific Events) was made at the time when Godard was increasingly interested in making more political films, while still retaining some of the humour and verve of his earlier work.  Jean-Pierre Léaud was quite a star in France having appeared in François Truffaut's long running series of semi-autobiographical films about the character Antoine Doinel, which began with The 400 Blows (1959).  Chantal Goya, who plays singer Madeleine, was a model turned successful yé-yé singer (yé-yé music was a kind of light catchy pop music that was popular in France in the 1960s).  This was Goya's first film and she wasn't an actress, but Godard who had seen her perform on a TV show deliberately wanted someone who was "untrained" and more naturalistic.  As frequently happens in Godard the film uses a lot of unconventional techniques, including interspersing the main action of the film with captions on title cards (including the film's most famous quote: "THE CHILDREN OF MARX AND COCA-COLA"), and almost documentary style footage, including a long and slightly creepy sequence in which a model is brusquely interrogated about politics by an unseen interviewer.  Godard intended the film to reflect the lives of young people in Paris, although he doesn't seem to even the slightest liking or sympathy for them.  The male characters spout off long speeches on Marxist philosophy at any opportunity, although they seem more interested in hitting on girls than a revolution, the female characters only seem to care about music, shopping and their hair.  Godard was angry when the film was ruled unsuitable for anyone under the age of 18 when it was first released, commenting that they are not letting young people see the film because it's "about them".   However, in a sign of the changing times, the film is now rated "12" in the UK (the equivalent of the American "PG-13").  It's not one of Godard's best films, but it is inventive enough and the cast have enough charisma to hold the interest.  

The children of Marx and Coca-Cola: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Chantal Goya and Marlène Jobert in Masculin Féminin

Breathless

Year of Release:  1960

Director:  Jean-Luc Godard

Screenplay:  Jean-Luc Godard, based on a story by François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol

Starring:  Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg

Running Time:  90 minutes

Genre:  Crime drama

Cynical thief Michel (Belmondo) steals a car and kills a motorcycle policeman.  He escapes to Paris and contacts his on-again off-again American girlfriend Patricia (Seberg), a student and aspiring writer who earns a crust by selling the New York Herald-Tribune on the streets.  While trying to stay ahead of the police who are hot on his trail, Michel tries to call in a debt he's owed, in order to get enough money for himself and Patricia to escape to Italy.

This film takes what could be a conventional pulp narrative and turns it into an innovative blend of cinematic style and Sixties cool.  It marked the directorial debut of film critic turned filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, and was one of the defining films of the so-called "French New Wave".  The story was inspired by a real life case that François Truffaut came across in a newspaper.  Truffaut worked on the script with Claude Chabrol, but they both decided it was unworkable, however Godard read it and wanted to make it.   Filmed in a semi-documentary style, Paris shimmers in the crisp monochrome photography, with a roving camera, inventive editing (particularly it's use of the jump cut) and a cool jazz soundtrack.  The film's main character is Michel, a cynical thief, mugger and murderer, who it's hinted seduces and discards numerous women, is an absolutely ghastly person, who would take you for everything you owned given half the chance, however as played by Jean-Paul Belmondo he is really cool, and charismatic, basing his style and persona on Humphrey Bogart, he is the ultimate anti-hero, and although we see him do many bad things, and it is suggested that he has done a lot more besides, we still like him, and by the end we're kind of on his side.  As the equally cynical but ambitious Patricia, Jean Seberg has real charm and presence.  She's engaging and likeable and yet is shown to be possibly just as ruthless as Michel.  Together Seberg and Belmondo are electric.  They have real chemistry.  The dialogue is sharp and witty, although apparently it loses something in the English translation, particularly the ambiguous exchange at the end of the film.  Still fresh and exciting sixty years on, it's nihilistic, anti-authoritarian tone is still bracing to this day.  One of the seminal films in world cinema, it's influence is still felt today.  

Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in Breathless

        

Vivre sa vie

Year of Release:  1962
Director:  Jean-Luc Godard
Screenplay:  Jean-Luc Godard and Marcel Sacotte
Starring:  Anna Karina, Sady Rebbot, Andre S. Labarthe, Guylaine Schlumberger, Gerard Hoffman
Running Time:  83 minutes
Genre:  Drama

This French film tells the story of Nana (Karina), a young Parisian woman, dreams of becoming an actress, but is stuck working as a sales assistant in a record store.  Struggling financially, she decides to start working as a prostitute.

Released as My Life to Live in North America and It's My Life in Britain, this is one of the greatest and most accessible works of prolific director Jean-Luc Godard, one of the founding members of the French New Wave.  The film is constructed as twelve very short episodes in Nana's life (each preceded by a title card).  It uses point of view shots, captions, experiments with sound and narration, and a semi-documentary feel.  The depiction of sex work is not glamorised or celebrated, but neither is it explicitly judged.  Despite some very bleak subject matter the film is lively, and always exciting.  There can be seen to be some criticism of the consumerism of 1960s Paris, where everything can be bought and sold, including human beings.  However, the film really works due to the luminous performance of Anna Karina, who was married to Godard at the time.  Appearing in nearly every scene of the film, frequently staring directly at the camera, she gives a startling performance that you will remember for a very long time.   

Anna Karina in Vivre sa vie