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Features: DVD, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, Mono Audio, English, Subtitled
With A Woman Is a Woman (Une Femme est une femme), compulsively innovative director Jean-Luc Godard presents "a neorealist musical, that is, a contradiction in terms." Featuring French superstars Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean-Claude Brialy at their peak of adorability, A Woman Is a Woman is a sly, playful tribute to--and interrogation of--the American musical comedy, showcasing Godard's signature wit and intellectual acumen. The film tells the story of exotic dancer Angela (Karina) as she attempts to have a child with her unwilling lover Emile (Brialy). In the process, she finds herself torn between him and his best friend Alfred (Belmondo). A dizzying compendium of color, humor, and the music of renowned composer Michel Legrand, A Woman Is a Woman finds the young Godard at his warmest and most accessible, reveling in and scrutinizing the mechanics of his great obsession--the cinema.
Editor's Note
With A WOMAN IS A WOMAN, French director Jean-Luc Godard pays tribute to American musicals in much the same way that his debut feature, the critical and commercial smash hit BREATHLESS, did to American gangster films. The story follows the beautiful Angela (Anna Karina), a strip-tease artist who wants nothing more than to have a baby. Her live-in boyfriend, Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy), doesn't want to refuse and risk sparking major friction between the two. However, fed up with her constant pleading, Emile finally suggests that she shack up with his best friend, Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo), and much to Emile's dismay, she eventually takes his advice. Godard's second feature employs jump cuts and jarring sound mixing--most notably during Karina's strip-tease performances. A WOMAN IS A WOMAN is Godard at his most affectionate and good-natured. He also makes several cinematic in-jokes, including one in which Belmondo's character mentions that he wants to hurry home to watch BREATHLESS, the film that turned Belmondo into a megastar just one year before. Featuring a magnetically cute performance from Karina, who soon after the film became Godard's wife, this loving romantic comedy is a dazzler.
| Features | An Early Short Film By Director Jean-Luc Godard | | Audio: French Mono | | Collection Of A Woman Is A Woman Posters From Around The World | | Interactive Menus | | New Essay By Film Critic J. Hoberman, Author Of The Dream Life: Movies, Media, And The Mythology Of The Sixties | | Original Theatrical Trailer | | Qui etes-vous Anna Karina: Excerpts From A 1966 French Television Interview With Karina, Brialy, And Serge Gainsbourg | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Home Vision/Public Media |
| Release Date: 6/22/2004 |
| Running Time: 84 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1960 | | Catalog ID: 060 | | UPC: 00037429187821 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: French | | Available Audio Tracks: French | | Available Subtitles: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Memorable Quotes| "I'm not without shame. I'm a dame."----Angela (Karina) to Emile (Jean--Claude Brialy). |
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| | Professional Reviews | Los Angeles Times
"...More glorious than ever and also inevitably more poignant with the passing of time....It is surely Godard's most lighthearted movie..." 07/04/2003 p.C11Village Voice 9 of 10
Not since the most tortured days of Sternberg and Dietrich has the female principle been expressed s - Andrew Sarris
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