Masculin, Feminin
1966
Paul is an ex-army recruit who is finding civilian life increasingly difficult. While his girlfriend, an aspiring popstar, becomes more successful, Paul pulls himself further and further away from the real world. Read more
| Starring | jean-Pierre Leaud, Chantal Goya, Marlene Jobert |
|---|---|
| Director | Jean-Luc Godard |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
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Masculin, Feminin
Paul is an ex-army recruit who is finding civilian life increasingly difficult. While his girlfriend, an aspiring popstar, becomes more successful, Paul pulls himself further and further away from the real world.
| Starring | jean-Pierre Leaud, Chantal Goya, Marlene Jobert |
|---|---|
| Director | Jean-Luc Godard |
| Studio | NOUVEAUX PICTURES |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 40 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
| Language | DVD: French |
| Subtitles | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 14 Mar 2005 Production year: 1966 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (3)
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Godard offers '15 precise facts' about the children of Marx and Coca-Cola: a series of scattershot observations of... read more on Time Out
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Godard has succeeded in creating a new kind of cinema.
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Most helpful member's review
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7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
When Godard ran out of ideas...
This seems to be the film that divides the Godard oeuvre between pre and post-Maoist ideology. As such, it's a mess. I found it hard to stomach the casual misogyny, the adolescent political posturing and the lack of wit and warmth that characterizes his earliest and best films.
Why are the women in Godard's films always so passive, without thoughts, feelings and opinions of their own? Despite its title the film has a completely masculine structure, with the female characters orbiting around the desires and needs of the men. They are reduced down to body parts or emotional punchbags passively receiving, absorbing, never resisting.
Watching 'Masculin Féminin' I found myself giving thanks to the same generation of feminists who came along and kicked the asses of these chauvinistic 'revolutionaries' who, while busy out on the streets standing up for the 'working man', (sic) also expected their little women to be at home making dinner and warming up the bed for later.
'Masculin Féminin' abandons the playful exuberance of Godard's earlier films and ushers in the formless, inauthentic, radical chic that typifies most of his latter output. For me, 'Masculin Féminin' lacks any sense of critique: the Vietnam War is just an excuse to graffiti; American Imperialism becomes a catchphrase flashed up on the screen like some MTV blipvert; the question of the individual and the mass political act is reduced to two post-adolescants leering at a woman in a launderette. Ghastly.
This is a disappointing film on all fronts. It’s superficial and unlikeable both in its execution and in its characterisation. The thrilling technique and cinematic literacy so evident in Godard's earliest films is not furthered in any way and what results is no more than a politically facile rehash of all his stock tropes, all of which are seen to much better effect in the likes of 'A Bout De Souffle, 'Bande A Part' & 'Une Femme Est Une Femme'. -
Most recent members' review
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Don't watch for the plot
This is a fascinating snapshot of mid-60s France, full of chain-smoking student revolutionaries and their gorgeous girlfriends. A time when the Vietnam War and Marxism were competing for the attention of the young against pop music and fashion. In Goddard's France the 60s soured far earlier than it did in the rest of the world.
Though much of this is very watchable, there's little plot to get the viewer through Goddard's increasing interest in experimentation with the art of film. Sound drops in and out, captions appear with little relevance to the action, there's a lengthy interview with a magazine's Miss 19 that has no plot significance. Despite brief appearances from stars Brigitte Bardot and Françoise Hardy, the film feels very low budget and much of the action happens off-screen which may be part of Goddard's experimentation but actually feels cheap.
Essential viewing if you're into Art Films, probably not if you're a more mainstream sort of person. -
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Masculin, Feminin
Paul is an ex-army recruit who is finding civilian life increasingly difficult. While his girlfriend, an aspiring popstar, becomes more successful, Paul pulls himself further and further away from the real world....
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