Une Femme Est Une Femme (1961)

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Une Femme Est Une Femme (1961) – J.-L. Godard

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).