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."

By 1966, Jean-Luc Godard had established himself at the forefront of the French New Wave. Cinematically, he was experimenting with revolutionary techniques and politically, his films were in touch with the upsurge of youth revolution sweeping the country. To this day, many of the films he made in his first six years can be reeled off by even the laxest of cinephiles: À bout de soufflé (1960), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Mépris (1963), Bande À Part (1964), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot Le Fou (1965), and others. Masculin Féminin fits very much in this revolutionary lineage.It follows a small group of young Parisians, variously focused on Marxism and pop music. In particular, the film focuses on Paul (Jean-Pierre Léaud), his existential musings on life (e.g. wondering if he is the centre of the universe), his radical politics, and his romance with an up-and coming pop-star.Masculin Féminin has many of tropes typical of Godard during this era. In the opening scene, there is a shooting outside a café. But it is ignored, as it isn't relevant to our characters – Godard is only showing us want he wants us to see. Similarly, the background noise in the film comes and goes – we hear it only if Godard wants us to. During conversations, the camera remains steadfast, vérité- style, on one character.There are other signs that are unmistakably Godard: the self- referentiality (a character mentions Pierrot Le Fou, his previous film); the giant capital letter inter-titles that appear with Western-style gunshots on screen. One of these inter-titles says "This film could be called The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola" – revolutionary politics and American culture feature heavily throughout.The revolutionary atmosphere very much matched Godard's own views of this time, and can be seen again in films such as Week-End (1967). He was making films that were riding a wave of passion on the streets; films that were incredibly relevant, if not ahead of their time. At their best, Godard's films capture this energy and pace. The pop soundtrack helps this pace along, as we ride a culture crest of a wave.On these grounds, there is much to acclaim Masculin Féminin for.However, there are issues with the sexual politics of the film, and particularly with the central character of Paul. Trying to charm a woman he says, "I really like your kind of breasts. It matters." He also shouts sexual comments at passing women and concocts ways to stare at a woman's cleavage in a café.Yet he is a politically active individual, a Marxist with a strong sense of right and wrong. But he cannot see his views and actions towards women being so vile. It is possible – nay, likely – that Godard has written this chauvinism into the script purposefully under the guise of satire. Godard's anti-American sentiment appears to be blaming American and British popular culture for infecting France with this attitude. (There are shout-outs to James Bond, The Beatles and even Sandie Shaw in the film).But sadly we can never escape the chauvinism itself, or the strong sense that Godard associates with Paul. When Paul defaces an American embassy car, Godard would have been cheering from behind the camera.The female members in the group – Madeleine (Chantal Goya), Catherine (Catherine-Isabelle Duport) and Elisabeth (Marlène Jobert) – have been fantastically developed in the writing, with performances to match. Some of the greatest moments of the film come in the scenes between Paul and Madeleine, when their romance feels at its most real: the tenderness when lying in bed together (albeit with a third person); and his pain when Madeleine walks off and leaves him alone in a bar. Madeleine, and Chantal Goya's performance, has brought out a side in Paul the audience can relate to.But sadly too often the two men of the group are arseholes with gut- wrenching chauvinism, and the apparent adoration from behind the camera only exacerbates this.I do not wish to take away or detract from what is great, inventive or revolutionary about Masculin Féminin. But the sexism, which all too often surfaces, prevents it from being the first Godard film to unequivocally capture me.

My fourth Godard's film (CONTEMPT 1963, 7/10; BREATHLESS 1960, 9/10; PIERROT LE FOU 1965, 7/10), so apparently I am not a newbie in Godard school, but to see the defiant Jean- Pierre Léaud (Francois Truffaut's alter ego in THE 400 BLOWS 1959, 9/10) has grown into a handsome young man, a boy-becomes-man leap from Antoine Doinel to Paul, with sharp stare, worldly-wise sophistication (a wonderful whistler and vocalist too), in a Godard's picture, which strikes as a sublime force of naturalistic liaison between La Nouvelle Vague auteurs. Quoted by its most famous intertitle: the film could be called The Children of Marx and Coca Cola, it is an acute assessment of the young generation in Paris at 1960s, through Paul's relationship with his singer girlfriend Madeliene (Goya), her roommate Elisabeth (Jobert), and another lady friend Catherine-Isabelle (Duport), a girl whom Robert (Debord), Paul's friend, is courting. The narrative is chronic but haphazard, there are chockablock cultural and political references (Brigitte Bardot, Vietnam war, communism etc.) and cinéma-vérité interviews (including a lengthy one with Elsa Leroy, the first winner of France's Miss Seventeen), an apolitical malady seems to prevail among those young hipsters. Paul is an overt idealist, in this adult-absent filmic essay, he is the witness and the victim of the encroaching globalization, Léaud possesses a spontaneous flexibility to act without affected veneer, every scene is rehearsed beforehand, but his delivery sparkles with authenticity, fierceness and bluntness, which is a gift rather than talent. Goya and Duport manifest two sides of one mirror, the ideal girl image, one is a sweetheart-type while the other is more demure and non-threatening, with the sine qua non that both should be beautiful. Encompassing 15 acts, MASCULIN FEMININ is quintessential Godard, a solid contemplation on its time's zeitgeist, in some way his subjective initiative is less radical and idiosyncratic than his iconic BREATHLESS, however, it is a stroke of genius from a cinematic torchbearer in his zenith, from a viewing experience in 2014, half a century later, it is still highly stylized under its unadorned aesthetic doctrine.

From director Jean-Luc Godard (À bout de soufflé (Breathless), Alphaville, Pierrot le Fou), this was a French/Swedish language film featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I didn't know what to expect, but I was going to watch regardless. Basically young idealist and noted author Paul (Jean-Pierre Léaud) has recently disbanded from the French Army and national service, and he is attempting, and returning to life as a civilian he is chasing Madeleine Zimmer (Chantal Goya), who is building a career as a pop singer. They do get together, despite having different musical tastes and political opinions, they also have pleasurable experiences with her roommates Catherine (Catherine-Isabelle Duport) and Elisabeth Choquet (Marlène Jobert), but while she is climbing the ladder to fame, he is becoming isolated from his friends. Also starring Michel Debord as Robert Packard and a cameo by Brigitte Bardot, seen in a café rehearsing some lines. I will be honest and say that I did not pay the fullest attention to what was going on, but I don't think it really matters, as it has been described as an indulgent mess, with meaningless subplots and non-linear stuff, but the acting and direction is fine I suppose, an alright romantic drama. Worth watching!