Antonius Block Smart, philosophical, cool, sexy, playful, subversive, and perfect to the time period – I just loved 'Masculin Feminin'. There is an indie, impromptu feeling to the film, which is told in chapters, and includes beautiful Parisian street scenes, thought-provoking quotes, and great performances from Jean-Pierre Léaud and Chantal Goya, as well as the supporting cast. It's said that director Jean-Luc Godard didn't have an actual script, and instead used hand-written notes he would come up with the night before. While that could have led to disorganized chaos, here it works, and brilliantly. Sometimes heard with street noise in the background, the dialogue seems natural even when it's provocative, or when characters are in sequences that are essentially interviews. It's not a linear, simple story and that may put some viewers off, but if you think about it, along the way Godard touches on love, sex, homosexuality, politics, the antiwar movement, violence, race relations, pop culture, and of course, the youth of 1960's France, saying a lot in this film. There are surreal elements, and hey, you even get a cameo from Brigitte Bardot. Very entertaining, and on a number of levels.Quotes: "If you kill a man, you're a murderer. If you kill millions of men, you're a conqueror. If you kill them all, you're God.""We went to the movies often. The screen would light up, and we'd feel a thrill. But Madeline and I were usually disappointed. But Madeline and I were usually disappointed. The images were dated and jumpy. Marilyn Monroe had aged badly. We felt sad. It wasn't the movie of our dreams. It wasn't the total film we carried inside ourselves. That film we would have liked to make, or more secretly, no doubt, the film we wanted to live."Madeleine: Do you think one can live alone? Always alone. Paul: No, I don't think one can, it's impossible. Without tenderness you'd shoot yourself."We can suppose that, 20 years from now, every citizen will wear a small electrical device that can arouse the body to pleasure and sexual satisfaction."

framptonhollis "Masculin Feminin" is a definitive example of French New Wave filmmaking. It is experimental, comic, risky, wild, and fun, a spectacle that find cinematic magic within even the most subtle and mundane of situations. Although it is often listed as nothing more than a drama, this is also an extremely funny movie, perhaps one of Jean-Luc Godard's very funniest. From the opening moments, bizarre comic mischief is springing left and right. Through unexpected surrealism and occasional violence, Godard masterfully weaves dark humor into this often tragic love story.The performances are also quite exceptional. Jean-Pierre Léaud further stabilizes his spot among the greatest French actors, and Chantal Goya is no less than absolutely charming and delightful. The characters are well developed-often likable, but sometimes despicable, like most human beings. There are times in which you, as an audience member, agree with their actions and beliefs, and there are times in which you must disagree. Through their ups and downs, "Masculin Feminin" explores a youthful couple's relationship in a unique and hysterical way. Fusing satire, sadness, fantasy, and comedy, "Masculin feminin" is very much a Jean-Luc Godard love story, meaning that it is heavily stylized, but also heavily realistic, just not in the conventional sense.

Steve Pulaski Masculin Féminin has been called one of Godard's most challenging films by critics and scholars alike. However, having seen both Film Socialisme and La Chinoise, I think this one isn't nearly his worst in terms of extractable ideas and themes. It's ambiguous, often difficult to watch and grasp, and very disjointed, yet it is also one of the best presentations of pop art, pop culture, and time-specific culture I have yet to see. It's Easy Rider and Two-Lane Blacktop for the 1960's France.The aforementioned criticisms of Masculin Féminin are to be expected with a Godard film; he is a man not easily defined and one who defies all narrow stereotypes of filmmakers and free-thinkers. He is a man who had the unbelievable audacity to go against popular French cinematic customs during the tumultuous times of 1960's, making films that defied convention, critiqued western culture, and valued experimentation over traditionalist practices. Consistently, with the lone exceptions probably being Pierrot Le Fou and Weekend Godard's films are usually more fun to contemplate, analyze, write about, and discuss than they are to watch. They're meals and things you don't appreciate until they're over and done with even though one doesn't necessarily want to revisit it any time soon; watch two in an evening, especially his political works, and I fear for your mental wellbeing.Masculin Féminin centers around Paul (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a young France idealist who falls in love with a pop star named Madeleine (Chantal Goya), completely ignoring their polar opposite views of the world, music, politics, etc. Paul and Madeline, among Madeline's close circle of friends, begin having intimate and inspirational conversations about those topics, often reciting poetry or reading political text in order to communicate their point. In the meantime, Godard structures the film like he so often does, with quick-cuts and interjecting title cards bearing often disconnected and unclear text that we, the audience member, have to try to connect to the film in some way.One of the Godard's most famous title cards appears in this picture, around the third act of the film, and reads, "This film could be called The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola." Here, Godard seems to be stating that the characters we center on in this film, and perhaps he himself, a "Marxist intellectual," are only impacted by two budding forces of the time; they are Marxism, the political ideology coined by the teachings of Karl Marx that addresses issues of class struggle and conflict between people of differing socioeconomic lifestyles by critiquing capitalism and emphasizing a more communistic approach to governing, and Coca-Cola, the globally-recognized soft drink brand that could easily be dubbed a corporate empire. Now, I think the generation today could be called "The Children of Income Inequality and Apple."Another great quote that pops in the film, this time it's uttered aloud, is stated by Paul when he is discussing the roles of a philosopher and a filmmaker. He states very simply, "a philosopher and filmmaker share an outlook on life that embodies a generation." I like this quote almost as much as the above quote because this one compares two ostensibly different people and makes them come together in hopes that people see they achieve the same goal. This could also come full circle to reference Godard himself, as Godard is very much a Marxist philosopher and thinker as well as a radical, experimental filmmaker, and he damn-sure embodies the mindset and opinions of the sixties French students and young-adults.With that, Masculin Féminin is a dialog-heavy film where the dialog can be increasingly alienating and very often dry and unappealing. Background knowledge of the French New Wave movement, mild understanding of Marxism, as well as a high tolerance for complex political readings is almost essential here. In theory, the film shouldn't work - it's far too disjointed, punctuated by interjecting title cards that still do little other than muddle the narrative, and has little character development outside of rather basic descriptions. However, scarcely has a film been this more focused and successful at developing the motivations and thoughts of a specific generation.Starring: Jean-Pierre Léaud and Chantal Goya. Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard.

Boba_Fett1138 Sometimes movies can make me feel really stupid, simply because I don't feel like I understand them. This is also really the case with this movie. Don't get me wrong, it's still a good watch but at the same time I really don't see or understand what it is exactly trying to do or say.I don't get the movie its symbolism and messages but even despite that the movie remains a good and interesting one to watch. Yet at the same time I'm also still constantly thinking; why are you showing me all of this and what are you trying to tell with your story and certain moments. Not to sound too disrespectful but it's a quite pointless movie, since I got nothing out of it and in my opinion also is a movie you can very easily do without.It's one of those movies that seems to be a random slice of life. I can really like these kind of movies, if they tell an intriguing enough story. And I wouldn't exactly call this movie a very involving one, mainly since it isn't always going anywhere with its story. It's still interesting to see the characters do their things and interacting with each other but I only did wish that sometimes the movie would have a more clear point to all of it. Technically I can't say anything bad about this movie. It's obviously capably directed by Jean-Luc Godard and the movie has good, atmospheric black & white camera-work, like you would expect from a French genre movie of the '60's.If this movie sounds like it's right up your alley, by all means go and watch it but to me most people this movie will still be a bit of a pointless watch. No not bad, just redundant. 7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/