Une femme est une femme (1961)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Jean-Luc Godard

Writer:

Jean-Luc Godard (screenplay)

Release Date:

6 September 1961 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Musical | Romance

Plot:

Angela,a striptease artist, wants to have a baby and tries to persuade her boyfriend Emile to go along with the idea...

Plot Keywords:

Striptease | Song | Bookcase | Strip Club | Pregnancy

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Jean-Claude Brialy	...	Émile Récamier (as Brialy)
Anna Karina	...	Angela (as Karina)
Jean-Paul Belmondo	...	Alfred Lubitsch (as Belmondo)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Henri Attal	...	Faux aveugle #2 (uncredited)
Karyn Balm	...	(uncredited)
Dorothée Blank	...	Prostitute 3 (uncredited)
Catherine Demongeot	...	Zazie (uncredited)
Marie Dubois	...	Angela's friend (uncredited)
Ernest Menzer	...	Bar Owner (uncredited)
Jeanne Moreau	...	Woman in Bar (uncredited)
Nicole Paquin	...	Suzanne (uncredited)
Gisèle Sandré	...	Prostitute 2 (uncredited)
Marion Sarraut	...	Prostitute 1 (uncredited)
Dominique Zardi	...	Faux aveugle #1 (uncredited)

Directed by
Jean-Luc Godard

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jean-Luc Godard		screenplay

Produced by
Georges de Beauregard	....	producer
Carlo Ponti	....	producer

Original Music by
Michel Legrand

Cinematography by
Raoul Coutard

Film Editing by
Agnès Guillemot
Lila Herman

Production Design by
Bernard Evein

Costume Design by
Jacqueline Moreau		(uncredited)

Production Management
Philippe Dussart	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Francis Cognany	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Guy Villette	....	sound

Other crew
Suzanne Schiffman	....	script girl

Production Companies

• Euro International Film (EIA)
• Rome Paris Films

Distributors

• Unidex (1961) (France) (theatrical)
• Pathé Contemporary Films (1964) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Rialto Pictures (2003) (USA) (re-release)

Also Known As:

A Woman Is a Woman (USA)
La donna è donna (Italy)
Uma Mulher É Uma Mulher (Brazil) (Portugal) [pt]
Una mujer es una mujer (Argentina) (Spain) [es]
Eine Frau ist eine Frau (West Germany) [de]
En kvinde er en kvinde (Denmark) [da]
I kyria thelei erota (Greece) [el]
Nainen on aina nainen (Finland) [fi]

Runtime:

Argentina:85 min | USA:84 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (cut) | UK:PG | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:16 | Netherlands:16 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | Brazil:16 | West Germany:18 (nf)

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Euro International Film (EIA)

Trivia:

Jean-Luc Godard's first film in color.

Quotes:

Alfred Lubitsch: Answer yes, and I owe you 100 francs. Answer no, and you owe me 100, okay?
Bar Owner: Okay.
Alfred Lubitsch: Here's the question: Can you loan me 100 francs?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Días de mayo (2008)

Soundtrack:

Chanson d'Angela

A Jean-Luc Godard musical-comedy

This is a Jean-Luc Godard musical-comedy, which sounds like a contradiction in terms, a fact which he himself acknowledged. The wide-screen color cinematography by Raoul Coutard is amazing, and the experiments with color are lovely. Anna Karina is incredibly pretty and rather too self-consciously adorable; Jean-Claude Brialy is suavely understated, and Jean-Paul Belmondo is certainly exuberant. There's a lot to recommend, even if it's far from the most successful of early Godard films.