Review of Masculin Féminin (1966) by Todd J — 20 Nov 2007

Masculin Feminin: At one point during the film, a very Godardian title card comes up that says that the film should have been called "The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola," and I really wish Godard would've called the film that because it's really the perfect title for the film, which is probably the definitive film discussing young people and politics.

Godard skirts a very delicate balance between endearment and distancing. All of the characters in the film are portrayed with an incredible amount of detail with each actor really throwing themselves into the role.

Unlike most films with Jean-Pierre Léaud, I don't see Antoine Doniel here. Here, Léaud goes for it, portraying Paul with not only a great deal of charm but also palpable insecurity. It's a finely nuanced performance that's the center of the film.

Of course, the honesty with which Godard paints youth culture is perhaps just as vital, and the way in which his characters talk and behave is completely credible, making the insanity of the film (lovers gunning each other down and such) seem almost natural (instead of contrived, which it does in a very acceptable fashion).

The amount of the film in which the characters have long conversations really maybe says most what the youth do: talk. Although Paul and his friend paint Yankee Go Home on a visiting official's car and have those real deep conversations about the corrupted nature of capitalist politic, their more sincere conversations about girls and their own state as males comes with the same weight.

Yet what's truly remarkable is that Godard obviously feels for these maybe naive kids and makes the viewer feel that. I don't think we're annoyed by the characters because even the most astute of us find that, for lack of a better word, pretentiousness in our day-to-day wheelings and dealings.

That Godard manages to make the characters appealing while still showing the somewhat shallowness of their ambitions is a really remarkable achievement, even moreso than the great, wild New Wave techniques at use throughout.

**** out've *****.