Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis (1966)

Director:

Jean-Luc Godard

Writers:

Jean-Luc Godard (writer)
Guy de Maupassant (stories)

Release Date:

22 March 1966 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Paul is young, just demobbed from national service in the French Army, and dishillusioned with civilian life...

Plot Keywords:

Friend | Singer | Vietnam War | Pinball Machine | Imagery

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Jean-Pierre Léaud	...	Paul - un jeune homme instable
Chantal Goya	...	Madeleine Zimmer - une petite chanteuse
Marlène Jobert	...	Elisabeth Choquet - la copine d'Elisabeth
Michel Debord	...	Robert Packard - un syndicaliste
Catherine-Isabelle Duport	...	Catherine-Isabelle
Eva-Britt Strandberg	...	Elle (la femme dans le film)
Birger Malmsten	...	Lui (l'homme dans le film)

Also Known As:

Masculin, féminin (France) (short title)
Masculine, Feminine: In 15 Acts (International: English title) (complete title)
Masculine-Feminine
Maskulinum - femininum (Sweden)

Runtime:

110 min | Argentina:103 min | Sweden:104 min | USA:103 min

Country:

France | Sweden

Language:

French | Swedish | English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Iceland:L | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R16 | Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:18 (w) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Anouchka Films

Trivia:

First film of Yves Afonso.

Quotes:

Paul: Man's conscience doesn't determine his existence. His social being determines his conscience.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Tystnaden (1963)

Soundtrack:

Concerto pour clarinette et orchestre en La majeur, K. 622, 1. Allegro & 2. Adagio

Anthropology of a decade

Possible Spoliers: Though not Godard's best, Masculin, feminin is in many ways the prototypical Godard film, exhibiting as it does both his characteristic virtues and characteristic vices. The plot is simple and barley manages to hold the film together; a young man (Paul) conducts a shapeless relationship with a singer (Madeline), works on a cigarette trick, engages in politically oriented graffiti, wrestles with only moderate energy with his own political views, watches two strangers get killed and takes scant notice, etc. Friends and acquaintances of the pair drift in and out of the film, to no great effect.

The film, like most Godard films, should be dreadful, and to many it will appear to be just that. But it manages to develop a rhythm, largely thanks to interesting editing choices, and keeps the viewer interested, if not exactly riveted. One hangs on with a Godard film in an attempt to discern the pattern at work-there seems to be no organizing principle as such, nothing particular the filmmaker wishes to communicate, but one senses a method, or a semblance of one, to Godard's madness.

Nearly 40 years on, Masculin, feminin appears very much a product of its time, though not without some claim to universality. References to the Vietnam War and to De Gaulle along with detailed, and dreary, political texts read aloud by the actors, do date the film somewhat, and yet a good deal of ground is covered; love and sex, birth control, women's rights, democracy and liberty, France vs. America, Bob Dylan, the Final Solution, German war guilt, union agitation, random violence, vanity, pornography. Trouble is, neither the characters nor the film reaches any particular conclusions about any of these things; many of them are mentioned in passing-themes stillborn. But perhaps that's part of the point. Godard seems to be acting almost like a

documentarian-at this point in time these kinds of things were discussed, but desultorily, as a part of the process of living, but not as its whole. Will this interest you, the putative viewer? Who knows. In my opinion, this is hardly a great film. Scenes drag on and lead nowhere; dramatic events happen but have no bearing on the rest of the film and thus we are not inclined to care; the sound of gunfire and titles break the film into chapters for no justifiable reason; Godard appears as confused as his protagonists as to the value of art, politics, and action. Still, the film has a wholly original texture, and that cannot be faked.