Masculin Féminin
There is nothing in “féminin”, huh? But really, Godard is GOD. That his movies make me want to fall asleep is not so much of a problem when you do other random things while watching them, like how I started tweaking my resume today, ahaha. (By the way, I wrote “film” as one of my interests, and now I am wondering if I should specify it. But how?) Actually I really must admit that I was extremely distracted while watching the film, and now I am distracted while writing this posting, but let me give it a try. (I am very tired though.)
So, what should I say? Years ago, I have been told that “À bout de souffle” and “Le Mépris” are Godard’s only movies you can watch, everything else is just artsy shit. (Okay, he didn’t say that, but ultimately this is what he feels about it.) In some ways, he is right, but on the other hand, Godard is God. Even though everything he does feels a little bit l’art pour l’art (to me at least), he is able to make this combination of relationships and sex with politics in an incredibly charming way, all the actors he use look much better in his movies than they possibly could in another, or so it seems to me. If I were Anna Karina, I probably would have dated him despite his ugliness as well. That is how I feel about Godard today.
The film itself is quite a artistic feast for the most part: If you don’t like the other Godards, you won’t like this one. If you like Godard, you might like it, and you will recognize his style: The parisianness, the nonchalant characters with their coquette, perverted and bad personality, the incredibly good humour (“Tu savais qu’il y a masque et cul dans ‘masculin’?” – “Et dans ‘féminin’?” – “Il y a rien.” [1]) and finally the great cinematography. There even were Godard’s sudden flashes of random or meaningful words.
In most ways, I think “Masculin Féminin” is the most like “Alphaville” so far; not only by the techniques he uses, but also because of the sociocritical storyline. This is much less subtle than it is in Alphaville, it makes quite clear how “Masculin Féminin” carries a strong politicalness – I wouldn’t exactly say there is a political message, but it deals with capitalism critique quite a bit after all. In that respect, I have found the dialogue tidbits quite smart at some points. Although for some reason I forgot what it was, but there were a few memorable quotes, much more than the ones that Imdb lists.
By the way, I also love how Godard references himself and his Nouvelle Vague friends. “T’es pas Pierrot le Fou toi!”, and two seconds later they were talking about a “Doinel” Ahhh, how brilliant.
And now, before I start on a long rant about how damn attractive Jean-Pierre Léaud is, I shall conclude with the that “Masculin Féminin” was definitely worth to see – as Godard fangirl.
[1] This quote is even greater because the end is a flash, with a white “Feminin” on the black screen that turns into “F in”. It is perhaps the second best last two seconds of a movie after “Some like it hot”.
(Yes, I am going to install some footnotes plugin some day.)