Review of Masculin Féminin (1966) by Stephen L — 27 Apr 2011

Here are young girls who are disaffected with worldly issues and more interested in becoming celebrities. Here are young men who want to change the politics of the world but be cool and smoke cigarettes at the same time. Each of their ideals are fraught with the same empty and graceless postures. Nevertheless, it's an entrancing experience watching Chantal Goya's beauty on screen!!

Godard once said that the 2 most imortant things to have in a succesful movie is a girl and a gun. In his own films, it appears that beautiful girls and the wielding of weapons blatently serve only to compliment the seeringly deep explorations of life, gender roles and cultural differences between Europe and America. It's an engagingly effective and poetic style that runs through all of his 60s films after all.

Masculin Feminin should be viewed in conjunction with all of his New Wave stuff. Only then will the rewarding challange of Godard's universe truly unfold.