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A beautiful homage to comedy musicals, Jean-Luc Godard's experimental and self-aware feature benefits from Anna Karina's delightful charms - a colaboration that would serve as a reference for the French New Wave Movement.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/19/23
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Playful and not as deep as it endeavors to be
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/31/23
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This early Godard feature is all about Anna Karina - she is in virtually every scene and the script blurs her real life (born in Denmark, travelled to France) and her character (a stripper who wants to get pregnant, but her boyfriend is not keen). Actually, it is hard to know whether the plot actually does reflect issues in the Karina/Godard relationship or not but he suggested that elements were taken from the Ernst Lubitsch comedy "Design for Living" which sees Gary Cooper and Frederic March in a menage-a-trois with Miriam Cooper. Here, Jean-Claude Brialy is the boyfriend and Jean-Paul Belmondo is his friend who is solicited to impregnate Karina - in jest or not, we don't know - and the Belmondo character is actually named Lubitsch. So, the whole thing is rather playful and this extends to Godard's treatment of the soundtrack, which threatens to see the characters leap into song and dance but then stops short. Indeed, the music obtrusively blurts out at the wrong moments consistently throughout the film, making the film seem self-consciously organized according to some secret directorial intentions to which the audience is not privy. This is certainly in line with my views of Godard, particularly as his career progresses after his early hits - he is inscrutably intellectual, working out his own concerns according to a theoretical logic all his own. Critical and cultural theorists have found this a rich vein to mine. However, for the casual viewer, there is enough to enjoy in the vibrant colours (in widescreen with cinematography by Coutard) and stylistic experimentation (breaking the fourth wall, etc.) even if the plot is ridiculous and the whole thing tends toward the abstract (but again not as abstract as Godard would later become).
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
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cinegeek.de Our Daily Free Stream: Jean-Luc Godard - Une Femme Est Une Femme (engl. subt.). Zum Geburtstag von Jean-Paul Belmondo! Wenn Godard Auskunft gibt über sein eigenes Werk, sind Zweifel angebracht. Une Femme Est Une Femme war sein zweiter Film nach dem unglaublichen Debüt. Godard aber bezeichnete Une Femme Est Une Femme als seinen ersten "richtigen"! Das stimmt nicht, Une Femme Est Une Femme wirkt etwas schwach auf der Brust und phasenweise langweilig. Zum ersten Mall tritt Godards Frau Anna Karina auf, die aber einen unglaubwürdigen Charakter verkörpern muss: Sie spielt eine Stripperin, die nach Hause kommt zu ihrem Yuppie Freund und ein Baby verlangt. Bestimmt habe ich in keinem Film je so einen manierlichen Strip-Club gesehen wie den! Die Bedienungen in diesem Laden gehen untätig zwischen den Tischen hin und her, während die Gäste an ihren Drinks nippen. Schliesslich verabschieden sie sich voneinander und gehen Heim als ob sie im Supermarkt an der Registrierkasse arbeiten. Ist da irgendetwas schmierig oder anrüchig? Überhaupt nicht! Angela Recamier, so ihr Name, während der Freund Emile Recamier (Jean-Claude Brialy) heisst. Trotzdem besteht der Film darauf, dass beide gar nicht verheiratet sind! Nun kommt Angela also nach Hause und verlangt, in zwei Stunden geschwängert zu werden, anonsten könnte das auch ihr Freund Alfred Lubitsch (Jean-Paul Belmondo) besorgen, der sowieso hinter ihr her ist. Lubtisch ist einer der unzähligen Insider Witze für Geeks. Wer Lust hat, kann ja mal eine Zählung anstellen. Une Femme Est Une Femme will gern ein Musical sein, ein Tribute der Hollywood Klassiker, behandelt die Musik aber reichlich abwertend. Wir hören zwar eine ganze Reihe berühmter Chansons, aber oft werden sie einfach abgebrochen. Das macht Godard offenkundig Spass, die Musik plötzlich abzustellen. Im Mittelpunkt steht Godard selbst, der einige Regie Mäzchen unterbringt, die man dann als Nouvelle Vague bezeichnet. Manche davon sind unnötig (zum Beispiel eine zerfaserte Kuss-Szene), andere offenbaren seine ganze Meisterschaft: Einmal zeigt Alfred Angela ein Foto, dass beweist, wie ihr Freund sie betrügt. Während sie sich das Foto anschaut, gibts einen Schniit von ihrem Gesicht, zum Foto und dann zu seinem Gesicht. Wieder und wieder. Brilliant! Der Effekt zeigt, wie sie sich in ihrem Schmerz verliert und nur noch an dieses Bild denken kann. Der Film im Ganzen aber wirkt viel zu lang und nimmt nur den Rang "unter ferner liefen" ein. Einige Ideen, wie die einzelnen Kapitel oder der Einwurf von dicken Überschriften während des Films gefielen mir so wie die Einlage, wenn Angela und Emile aufhören, zu sprechen und stattdessen Bücher mit ihren Dialogen hochhalten. Une Femme Est Une Femme wirkt lebendig und quirlig, aber auch etwas prätentiös. Sehr bald schon sollte Godard viel bessere Filme hinkriegen als diesen hier!
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/31/23
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With A Woman Is A Woman, Godard takes his debut film, Breathless, and basically subverts the entire thing. Godard has created a meta film experience that calls out all the ways in which film manipulates but he does so with a giddy sense of a fun. The story is rather innocuous, as the main draw here is really Godard. With A Woman Is A Woman, Godard made the ultimate twee, fanciful movie that would be imitated time and time again. Those other films, however, don't have Jean-Luc Godard at the helm.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/22/23
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If Cyd Charisse, Bob Fosse, and Gene Kelly don't mean anything to you, then "A Woman Is a Woman" probably won't either. But if they do, then the film will be a hell of a lot less meager, having some spice amidst all the pop art sugar. In 1961, Godard was a hot shot director, riding off the massive success of '60's "Breathless," which remains to be his finest hour. Unavoidably, "A Woman Is a Woman" is minor, showing the director paying homage to the Hollywood musical with varied success.
Godard's muse/wife Anna Karina portrays Angela, a young and overtly naïve stripper who longs to have a baby. Her boyfriend, Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy), refuses to commit to the decision. Desperate, Angela turns her attention towards Emile's best friend, Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo).
"A Woman Is a Woman" pays one homage after the other, and in return, the film is more of a love letter than an actual film. Whenever Emile turns Angela's advances down, she responds with a babyish that's-not-fair! frown that mirrors the ingenue sensibilities of Debbie Reynolds or Sandra Dee. Angela works at a strip club that has all the exoticness of the one Barbara Stanwyck danced for in "Ball of Fire" (meaning there is zero exoticness to be found). Emile is the sensible Fred Astaire type and Alfred is his charming Van Johnson counterpart. But the characters never feel quite original; they're nearly echoes of the people Godard is trying to emulate.
I find myself having the exact same problems in the majority of Godard's films. They bewitch you with their style, crowding the landscape with snappy American style advertisements, chic actors, and an eye for color that can range from the ice cold pizzazz of a film noir to the gaudiness of a Technicolor musical. Yet it's as if Godard puts the story in his mouth and shreds it with his teeth; even if it's straightforward, it's detached, almost blasé. His films are so concentrated on flipping a genre movie onto its head that they seem to forget to be even somewhat compelling.
But "A Woman Is a Woman" isn't without its charms. Godard's manipulation of sound swings the supposed score around and smashes it into a wall; the few musical sequences are inspired in their delivery. Karina, always a pleasure to watch, is simply lovely; Belmondo is lightly smug and ready to please as Brialy's foil.
Nevertheless, "A Woman Is a Woman" is more self-serving than it is accessible. It is one of Godard's most elegantly shot films, but it lacks the heart of "Breathless" or "Bande á part."
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/03/23
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