Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis (1966)

Director:

Jean-Luc Godard

Writers:

Jean-Luc Godard (writer)
Guy de Maupassant (stories)

Release Date:

22 March 1966 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Paul is young, just demobbed from national service in the French Army, and dishillusioned with civilian life...

Plot Keywords:

Friend | Singer | Vietnam War | Pinball Machine | Imagery

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Jean-Pierre Léaud	...	Paul - un jeune homme instable
Chantal Goya	...	Madeleine Zimmer - une petite chanteuse
Marlène Jobert	...	Elisabeth Choquet - la copine d'Elisabeth
Michel Debord	...	Robert Packard - un syndicaliste
Catherine-Isabelle Duport	...	Catherine-Isabelle
Eva-Britt Strandberg	...	Elle (la femme dans le film)
Birger Malmsten	...	Lui (l'homme dans le film)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yves Afonso	...	L'homme qui se suicide (uncredited)
Henri Attal	...	L'autre lecteur du bouquin porno (uncredited)
Brigitte Bardot	...	Elle-même (uncredited)
Antoine Bourseiller	...	Le partenaire de Brigitte Bardot (uncredited)
Chantal Darget	...	La femme dans le métro (uncredited)
Françoise Hardy	...	La compagne de l'officier américain (uncredited)
Med Hondo	...	L'homme dans le métro (uncredited)
Elsa Leroy	...	Mlle 19 ans de 'Mademoiselle Age Tendre' (uncredited)
Dominique Zardi	...	Le lecteur du bouquin porno (uncredited)

Directed by
Jean-Luc Godard

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Guy de Maupassant		stories La Femme de Paul and Le Signe
Jean-Luc Godard		writer

Produced by
Anatole Dauman	....	producer

Original Music by
Jean-Jacques Debout

Cinematography by
Willy Kurant

Film Editing by
Agnès Guillemot
Marguerite Renoir		(uncredited)

Production Management
Philippe Dussart	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jacques Barratier	....	assistant director
Bernard Toublanc-Michel	....	assistant director

Sound Department
René Levert	....	sound

Other crew
Christine Brierre	....	press attache
Marlène Jobert	....	body double: Chantal Goya (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Anouchka Films
• Argos Films
• Sandrews
• Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

Distributors

• Columbia Films (1966) (France) (theatrical)
• Royal Films International (1966) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Neue Filmkunst Walter Kirchner (1967) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Rialto Pictures (2004) (USA) (theatrical)
• New Yorker Video (1991) (USA) (VHS)
• Art Free (2005) (Greece) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Criterion Collection, The (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (New Zealand) (DVD)
• Ripley's Home Video (2006) (Italy) (DVD)
• KinoVista (2007) (Russia) (TV)
• NEF Diffusion (????) (France) (theatrical) (new rights)
• Silver Screen Collection (2008) (Brazil) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Masculin, féminin (France) (short title)
Masculine, Feminine: In 15 Acts (International: English title) (complete title)
Masculine-Feminine
Maskulinum - femininum (Sweden)
Arseniko - thilyko (Greece) [el]
Il maschio e la femmina (Italy) [it]
Masculin - Feminin oder: Die Kinder von Coca Cola (West Germany) [de]
Masculino Feminino (Portugal) [pt]
Masculino, femenino (Spain) [es]
Masculino-Feminino (Brazil) [pt]
Masculino-femenino (Argentina) [es]
Maskuliini feminiini (Finland) [fi]
Meski, zenski (Poland) [pl]

Runtime:

110 min | Argentina:103 min | Sweden:104 min | USA:103 min

Country:

France | Sweden

Language:

French | Swedish | English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Iceland:L | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R16 | Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:18 (w) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Anouchka Films

Trivia:

The film was shot in Sweden. Ingmar Bergman, not being a fan of Jean-Luc Godard found out about the film, went to go and see it and called it "a classic case of Godard: mind-numbingly boring".

Quotes:

Catherine-Isabelle: Give us a TV and a car, but deliver us from liberty.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Hottest State (2006)

Soundtrack:

Laisse moi

even through its moments of experimentation it's a fun, fully intriguing Godard flick

I saw Masculin Feminin in a class last year and like with most of Jean-Luc Godard's films I was taken aback by how much the film doesn't stick to anything expected for the audience. This is Godard at the peak of his powers as a director for what has become a line associated forever with Godard- the Marx and Coca-Cola generation of people (or, those born in the 1940's). Like My Life to Live, the film is broken up into specific acts, but this time it isn't as discernible and even plays on when a new segment should start or end (sometimes it changes quite quickly). And the spontaneous feel that goes with many of the better Godard films is in full swing here, as Godard (according to the interviews on the DVD) sometimes just feeds the actors lines, or just questions to get true, if more documentary-like, answers from the actor(s). It's really one of the best films from the period that made Godard known all over the world; anyone seeing his later, more obscured semantic essay films need only to see a film like this or Band of Outsiders to see the filmmaker dealing with real characters and convincing dialog.

Jean-Pierre Leaud is actually just as good here as he is in the 400 Blows, only in a slightly different way. The youth of this actor is still ever present, but here it's changed to be a little more of a radical guy. The uncertainty of the character of Paul, his interest in the opposite sex, and having an intelligent but aimless walk of life, is very in tune with the other Truffaut creation. He becomes, along with his co-stars (like the young, beautiful Chantal Goya as Madeline and Marlene Jobert as Elisabeth), if not really a direct representation of all the French youth at the time, something of a reflection of youth is like in general is present. These characters don't know what they want for their lives, but they do know that things like sex, rock and roll, protesting the oppression of governments, and keeping an interest in parts of life are what make up their day-to-day existences. What might seem very casual styling in following these characters, particularly Paul, is a bit more calculated than expected. Everything that unfolds goes from being very funny to philosophical to fly-on-the-wall to even the poetic. That the cinematography and visual style is more often than not exciting in where the camera may move or not, or where the length of the shot will hold.

Individual moments make up some of the best that Godard's ever received, and from actors who being caught off-guard is not a negative. I loved the dialog between Paul and Madeline early in the film, as simple questions have some deeper contexts. Or when Paul is just walking along, a rock song starts, and a guy whips out a knife only to something very unexpected with a great, ironic payoff. Or the movie within the movie, a parody on Bergman's The Silence that isn't disrespectful and at the same time captures a cool attitude that these characters are looking at even if it's a bit above their own sexual attitude. But most striking both times I watched the film, even in its sort of un-reality and very 'movie' kind of way is when Madeline says a very poetic bit of wording in bed in the dark. Even in the moments when Godard's off-kilter filming isn't as appealing as in other points, as one who is apart of this age group the characters are in, I got enveloped in their loose, tragic-comic conversations and observations (not as preachy or didactic as in other works of the filmmaker). The ending, too, is perfectly shocking and puts a fine dramatic cap on what is really a bittersweet view of these people. And along with getting these characters right, this time and place, the places and people they encounter (little poetic notes of their own, as on the subway or in the coffee shops) add to its overall effect. One of the best films of 1966.