Un Femme Est Un Femme

Jean-Luc Godard 1961

The manager at my video store said this was his favorite Godard movie (mine, so far, is CONTEMPT – interestingly, the two films, which couldn’t be more different, are kind of about the same thing).  UN FEMME’s soundtrack is what I liked best – stopping, starting, overlapping and generally fucking with me just enough to make me smile. The film is very cheeky, a send-up of American musicals where nothing saves the day like a song. And while theoretically a cheeky  send up can’t be too cheeky, this one comes close, like when Jean-Paul Belmondo’s character says he’s staying in because they’re showing BREATHLESS (which had been released less than one year prior) on television. Other cheeky scenes, like when Anna Karina and Jean-Claude Brialy take turns carrying  lamps around the apartment and using book titles to insult each other, are marginally more palatable.

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