Masculin-Feminin

What I would add is that this film best shows the change that female sexual liberation had on society. The boy, totally in love, has nothing of value to give to a girl who considers sex an everyday occurance -- a big change from the going-steady days of the late fifties and early sixties when sex was the culmination of a protracted courtship. The masculine and feminine roles changed forever and continue so to this day. Goddard was there first. In 1966, this film was cutting edge. In 1999 it remains an important work with a lot to say to the present generation concerning the battle of the sexes that has, apparently, been won for good by the ladies.

I saw it in 1966 on a first date with a very conservative girl who was convinced after we left the theatre that I was a sex pervert. Unfortunately for me she was as yet unwashed by the New Wave.


Lost Generation of 1960's   December 15, 2003
Doug Anderson (Miami Beach, Florida United States)
18 out of 19 found this review helpful

My favorite Godard film is Pierrot Le Fou and Masculine/Feminine is usually considered alongside Pierrot because the two films do make for an interesting contrast. Pierrot Le Fou is the romantics Godard film and Masculine/Feminine is the realists Godard film. Both films deal with disaffected people at two different times in life. Pierrot stars Belmondo and Karina as disaffected adults -- when the two meet Belmondo is already married but Karina gives him an excuse to abandon his boring bourgeoisie existence and head off on a road trip where he learns through the helpful example of Karina what true freedom is. Maculine/Feminine -- starring Leaud and Goya -- is about younger people disaffected by their mundane lives but neither really knows what to do about it. They each have vague dreams but neither has much direction or any real hope and their time together leads neither toward any increased self-awareness. Pierrot Le Fou is filmed outside in the sun by the sea and the atmosphere inspires the characters who attempt to communicate but who for the most part remain trapped within themselves and their own private relationship with the world -- even though the two characters remain at an unclosable distance from one another there is a sense of shared adventure that gives the film its romantic feel. Ultimately in Pierrot le Fou increased freedom also means increased self-awareness and increased awareness of each persons singular nature so the film moves inexorably toward a tragic end. Masculine/Feminine takes place primarily indoors and there is no sense of adventure but rather one of the world closing in as they try to come to grips with what that unavoidable world they are confronted with is all about. Even though Masc/Fem is about younger people these are people who live in the real world whether they want to or not. These two films as another reviewer mentioned make excellent companion pieces -- interesting to see Godards treatment of disaffected people from two perspectives, the poetic and the realist. At this phase in Godards career he was not overtly political but politics plays an increasing role in the way his characters relate to each other and feel about the world, especially in Masc/Fem where the masculine half of that equation shows a flicker or two of a growing political consciousness . In later films Godard will develop his own political ideas but this phase in his career remains my favorite. If the New Wave is all about the disaffected lost generation of the sixties then Godard is that generations Hemingway.


Classic French New Wave Film, Bad for General Audiences   April 3, 2006
Kyle Slayzar (Grand Forks, ND)
17 out of 36 found this review helpful

I watched this film as part of my history studies in Post-War Europe and before everyone docks me because I gave it two stars, hear me out. I'm no Godard fan so I may not be able to appreciate this film as a fan of The New Wave might. I'm just your regular Joe Movie-Watcher.

Masculin Feminin is about Paul, a 21-year-old French citizen that just retired from his 16 months in the Army. Paul is a believer in Marxism and throughout the film promotes the Worker's Party while denouncing US involvement in Vietnam, the Du Gaulle government and most forms of Westernism such as condoms, psychadelic rock (many songs in Masculin Feminin have a style similar to The Kinks, Jefferson Airplane etc) and even Coca-Cola... yet Paul is often seen playing pinball and that mini-bowling game you see at an arcade. Paul seems to be the pro-French identity kind of guy as he often eats cheese and drinks wine. The preserver of the romanticized French culture.

However, Paul's friends and interviewees (Paul works for the IFOP, the major French polling agency at the time) seem to not care about the change towards a quasi-American consumer state. Paul's girlfriend Madelein is a rising pop-singer, her room mates are materialistic consumers, one who owns a car, and the people Paul interviews seem to only care about themselves. This is very accurate in terms of how the 'baby-boom' generation of French youth began to rebel against the traditionalist governments in Europe. Like the teens in the 1950s in the US, the teens began to form their own demographic.

However, this is where my fascination ends. Godard apparently never heard of music editing and film editing. In many parts in the movie, Godard fixed the camera on one person's face in a portrait shot and kept it there for minutes at a time even though the scene was a 15-minute back and forth conversation. The volume in the music went from very high to very low instantly in many parts during dialogue, making it very annoying if almost distracting to the audience.

In a few parts when Paul was whistling, the recording of the whistling obviously overloaded the sound buffer as I heard static in the speakers. I thought this was a volume problem on my end so I turned it down, nope... it was the sound editing. This is just poor recording and editing. Furthermore, the sound editors had this fascination with using the same gun-noise sound (which sounded more like a cartoon car noise) over and over and over again and in very unlikely times.

Other times, ambiant noises would drown out the dialogue such as vehicles from outside a cafe or even drinking noises. Sometimes the sound didn't kick in for up to five seconds into the scene.

Because this is a French New Wave film, I won't attack how there is virtually no plot and has random scenes that are just plain silly. However, I strongly recomend not getting this film if you're just in the general audience and not a New Wave fan. Otherwise, you might like this New Wave classic but I'm no expert on the subject. I was just extremely disapointed with the lazy filming, recording and editing.


Boy Meets Girl   February 12, 2005
MICHAEL ACUNA (Southern California United States)
16 out of 20 found this review helpful

Jean-Luc Godard's "Masculine -Feminine" first opened in Los Angeles 38 years ago but it's charms and timeless tenderness are as insinuating and thoughtful as they were in 1966.
Jean-Pierre Leaud as Paul, Godard's hero is passionately in love with Madeleine (Chantal Goya) but Paul is also passionately in hate of the war in Vietnam and the De Gaulle government. Godard is making a love story but he is making it in the real world of France, 1966: student riots, a world that Godard describes as "the world of the children of Marx and Coca Cola."
Godard is not making a docudrama though and he lets us know this with his formal structuring of the plot: he divides Paul's story into chapters to make sure we understand that this is a movie that we are watching and that he is a film maker arranging and conducting the scenes.
Despite all this though: Godard has made a thoughtful and touching film about fervent young love and the blind, maybe even mis-guided righteousness of the young and foolish.
"Masculine-Feminine" is real and superbly made and it a pleasure to re-discover it's many charms and to experience once again it's enchanting and vulnerable love story.



a nice film with excellent music.   March 13, 2006
Ted M. (Pennsylvania, USA)
10 out of 14 found this review helpful

this review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

"Masculin Feminin" is a film about a group of teenagers in 1960's Paris who go on outings together. Movie theatres, dance clubs, and love affairs.

The film is set against the beginnings of youth culture in France and got the equivelant of an NC-17 rating when it was released in France but would most likely get a PG or PG-13 rating by today's standards.

The film has some very nice 1960's French pop music which I really liked and would watch the film solely for the music.

The DVD has an archival and a new interview with main actress Chantal Goya along with new interviews with other cast and crew. There is also a discussion of the film between two film experts Freddy Buache and Dominique Paini, Swedish TV footage of the production of the fictional Swedish film featured in the movie, an original theatrical trailer and a new trailer for the re-release.