With Une Femme est Une Femme, Jean Luc Godard makes it clear to us that not only does he really have a heart, he can also make a breezy comedy with intelligence and style. This is his take on Hollywood musicals, which is not the same as an imitation of Hollywood musicals, quit
...( read more)e the contrary; Godard brings out what can be humorous and graceful about the musical paradigm, as well as its circumstancial awkwardness and irony. He delves into the clichés and re-creates them: the result is a charming, witty, film, a musical that is not quite one, but has all the color, the style, and the quirkiness.Anna Karina plays the lovely Angela, a stripper. She is very much in love with Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy), with whom she lives. Emile's friend, Albert (Jean Paul Belmondo), is in love with Angela. She knows this, and although the idea mildly appeals to her, she stays strongly faithful to Emile. However, one day, Angela proposes to Emile that they have a baby. Emile makes fun of her, argues with her, and ignores her. Angela is deeply frustrated, torn by the impossibility of reconciling Emile's love with his negative to having a child with her, so she playfully suggests she'll simply ask the first man she sees. Emile quickly tells her that she should ask Albert, who's very much up to it... and Angela is faced with a predicament -sad, absurd, and funny at the same time-: if Albert would like to have a baby with her, perhaps she should love him, and not Emile. How can Emile love her more than Albert? Angela asks Emile a thousand times whether he loves her, and has a hard time believing his YES.
This is a rather serious argument. Out of context, Angela's frustration would be one of the heaviest a woman in a relationship could ever face, for it would be unavoidable for her to re-evaluate it all in a painful process. However, this is a film. Godard not only reaffirms with intertitles and innuendoes that this love triangle is truly filled with love -even if disorderly- and no one is ever left unprotected, it also had me smiling and eventually laughing. Godard's three warm-hearted characters light up the film with their comedic timing, their wit, their facial expressions, and their physicality. Une Femme est Une Femme is not the cerebral comedy some would expect from Godard... in fact, it relies much more on body language and sentiment than dialogue to create humor, and this makes it a very unique film.
In his personal approach to the Hollywood musical, Godard also plays with the idea of the meta-musical. Remember Audrey Hepburn dancing in a night club, performing a musical number which is itself part of a musical film, and both "performances" exist knowledgeably in their correspondent space and time? Godard makes Anna Karina an exotic dancer for this purpose, and she twice performs her routine in the film, for her clients and for us. She had a thin, sparkling voice that complements her song perfectly. The music itself is employed in a very idiosyncratic way: for example, it suddenly bursts out and quickly goes silent, almost as it would in a radio show. When it is possible to fully appreciate it, the prolific (of Parapluies de Cherbourg and Demoiselles de Rochefort fame) Michel Legrand's beautiful score soars.
Of course, no 60s musical would be complete without quirky editing, including transitions and inserted vignettes. Especially not if it's a Godard musical. Another aspect, and one of the most memorable, of Une Femme est Une Femme is the use of color: bright blue, red, pink, purple and white overflow in the sets, and above all in Anna Karina's brash wardrobe. Styllistically, and thanks to Raoul Coutard's cinematography, color is a fundamental element in the film; I would say it transcends its association with the "musical" genre and goes on to become the visual fingerprint of a decade.
Une Femme est Une Femme is a film to be enjoyed with a light spirit and a willingness to surrender and let yourself be charmed. It is involving and beautiful, constantly inventive, and honest. Godard's love story is very much in the now, in the context of a blooming sexual liberation, but it never loses touch with its leit motif: Angela, a woman, and her wish to be loved and considered as she is and not in spite of what she is or wants, craving love and committment in spite of the times.
Jean-Claude Brialy, Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo
Angela,a striptease artist, wants to have a baby and tries to persuade her boyfriend Emile to go along with the idea. Emile will have none of it so she goes after Emile's friend Alfred.
DVD Release Date: June 22, 2004
Stats: 398 reviews
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Flixster Reviews (398)
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October 12, 2009With Une Femme est Une Femme, Jean Luc Godard makes it clear to us that not only does he really have a heart, he can also make a breezy comedy with intelligence and style. This is his take on Hollywood musicals, which is not the same as an imitation of Hollywood musicals, quit
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July 6, 2009Jean-Luc Godard's second feature film is a wonderfully refreshing romantic comedy. Its style is unique, containing multiple jump cuts, and scenes that may or may not be describing a character's subconscious. It is supposed to be a musical, but it isn't a musical in the traditio...( read more)
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April 5, 2009Where do I begin?! Part II in Godard's trilogy of brilliant, inventive, mischievous and pure revolutionary story-telling, deserves a fuller appreciation than I can muster. Check out the NY Times review - http://is.gd/qWhn
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November 2, 2006Musicals are more enjoyable in a foreign language. Anna Karina doesn't hurt either.
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September 19, 2009WEB-LETTERBOX. Brialy, Karina y Belmondo son hermosos y carismáticos, y el diseño de producción es genial, así como el uso del color, pero aquí la experimentación de Godard con los géneros y sus destrucciones se me hizo un tanto insufrible. / Brialy, Karina and Belmondo are beaut...( read more)
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June 9, 2009Godard's homage to the Hollywood musical is just delightful. Probably Godard's funniest film, filled with cinematic tricks and Nouvelle Vague in jokes, I had a smile on my face throughout the whole film. The childlike trio of Jean-Claude Brialy, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina...( read more)
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April 20, 2009Um filme moderno que envelheceu sem perder o frescor. Repleto de momentos memoráveis.
Critic Reviews
A Woman Is a Woman is slight and sometimes wearisome. full review
Godard's whimsical celebration of romance, sentiment, musical comedy, color film, the city of Paris and the abundant charms of Ms. Karina herself, who at the time was also Madame Godard. full review
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