Une femme est une femme (1961)

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 | Immaturity | Telephone | Femme Fatale | Wink

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:

Angela: We should boycott women who don't cry.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Soundtrack:

Chanson d'Angela

Godard knows what cinema is and this is cinema.

This movie is often advertised as a musical. It's not. It's Jean-Luc Godard's world, filled with vibrant blues and reds, bogaurd cigarettes, and cinema fantasies, shown through the eyes of Anna Karina. Karina plays a stripper, but unlike the other girls, she dances and sings as if she were in a musical choreographed by Bob Fosse. Raoul Cotard's cinerama camera follows her through Paris as we expiriance her flirtation's with her lover's best friend (played by Jean Paul Belamondo who also costars with Karina in 'Pierette le Fou' and starred in Godard's first film, A bout de scoffule) and argues with her lover about whether they should have a child and how awful the opposite sex is. They love eachother deeply, but can't stand eachother. In my experiance this IS love...or the closest thing humans can get to love. Godard keeps us completley out of the film by constantly reminding us that THIS IS A FILM. Anna Karina winks at the camera, breaks into song, the actors are staged unrealistically. This is what makes Jean-Luc Godard great. No matter how hard he tried to obtain realism in his first film, it was still a film and this is one of Godard's subliminal messages to the audience. Fun, charming, cinematic, and beautiful--a woman is a woman is a fine piece of cinema.