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Features: Special Edition, DVD, Aspect Ratio 1.33:1, Mono Audio, English, Subtitled
With Masculin Feminin, ruthless stylist and iconoclast Jean-Luc Godard introduces the world to "the children of Marx and Coca-Cola," through a gang of restless youths engaged in hopeless love affairs with music, revolution, and each other. French new wave icon Jean-Pierre Leaud stars as Paul, an idealistic would-be intellectual struggling to forge a relationship with adorable pop star Madeleine (real-life ye-ye girl Chantal Goya). Through their tempestuous affair, Godard fashions a candid and wildly funny free-form examination of youth culture in throbbing 1960s Paris, mixing satire and tragedy as only JLG can.
"A work of grace and beauty." Pauline Kael
"A masterpiece! Who wouldn't want to live in the supercool, girl-pop world of Godard's freshest comedy?" Time Out
Editor's Note
A film about "the children of Marx and Coca Cola" directed by the child of Brecht and Hollywood, MASCULINE-FEMININE is a touchstone in the career of Jean-Luc Godard, a window into the kinetic world of Paris in the 1960s, and a high point in the cinema of the French New Wave. It chronicles the love affair between Paul (Jean-Pierre Leaud), a young zealot with revolutionary leanings, and Madeleine (Chantal Goya), a fetching pop singer. Their relationship gradually breaks down as the two attempt to bridge their differences, albeit unsuccessfully (he likes Bob Dylan, she is only interested in the top 40). Along the way, they discuss current world culture and politics with their friends, and encounter a variety of bizarre individuals who only serve to exacerbate the youthful confusion of both Paul and Madeleine. One of Godard's most insightful films, MASCULINE-FEMININE represents a search for tenderness, and is, at the same time, an unsettling illumination of the Battle of the Sexes. By casting legitimate pop sensation Goya in the lead role, Godard threatened to date his film, taking into account the speed with which pop singers are replaced. Luckily for him, Goya is an engaging screen presence whose mere appearance is enough to keep things interesting.
Plot Summary
Two young lovers attempt to communicate throughout fifteen discontinuous, contrapuntal vignettes in MASCULINE-FEMININE, the first film of Godard's agitprop, Brechtian cycle, notable for its self-reflexivity and use of alienating technical effects, such as inter-titles and flash frames.
| Features | Audio: French Mono | | Exclusive New Video Interviews, Conducted In 2005, With Actress Chantal Goya, Cinematographer Willy Kurant, And Godard Collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin | | New And Improved English Subtitle Translation | | New Essay By Film Scholar Adrian Martin | | New, Restored High-Definition Digital Transfer | | Subtitles: English | | Theatrical Trailer For The 2005 Rerelease |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Image |
| Release Date: 9/20/2005 |
| Running Time: 105 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1966 | | Catalog ID: 180 | | UPC: 00037429209226 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: French | | Available Audio Tracks: French | | Available Subtitles: English | | Video: B&W |
Aspect Ratio | | Standard 1.33:1 [4:3] |
| Cast & Crew
| Memorable Quotes| "My speech doesn't reflect the depth of my thoughts."----Paul (Jean--Pierre Leaud) |
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| | Professional Reviews | Los Angeles Times
"The great pleasure of rediscovering MASCULINE FEMININE, along with Godard's unique vision, is the chance to appreciate how gifted an actor Jean-Pierre Leaud still is in his piercing fearlessness and vulnerability." 02/11/2005 p.E8Premiere
3 stars out of 4 -- "[B]lack and white doesn't get much better than this..." 11/01/2005 p.117 Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
When we found a movie like the one we secretly wanted to live, we did not even seek greatness; greatness could take care of itself. The joke at the center of "Masculine-Feminine" (1966) is that its young French characters were fascinated by America, and its young American audiences were fascinated by them. When the movie came out, we all focused on "Marx and Coca-Cola" but now I see that the operative word is "children." - Roger Ebert
San Francisco Chronicle 7 of 10
This is a droll, deadpan film, deliberately paced and told with simple cinematic means -- the camera hardly ever budges. In his first feature, writer-director Michael Schorr offers mildly surreal and satirical observations about life in Schultze's dreary industrial hometown, and he mostly sidesteps the sentimentality you might expect in a film about an aging man surrounded by reminders of mortality. - Ruthe Stein
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