Masculin Feminin - Criterion Collection

Amazon.com essential video

Juxtaposing images of pristine, romantic innocence with ones of mute, meaningless violence, Godard's Masculin-Féminin first lulls with a hypnotic, disjointed story line and then stuns with scenes of tremendous depth and meaning. This outrageous film follows the somewhat ineffectual courtship of Madeline, an aspiring pop singer, by Paul, an erstwhile journalist and interviewer but mostly groundless searcher. As in most Godard films, plot mechanics are secondary to elements such as dialog (generally marvelous, but sometimes a bit too pointed), lighting (bizarre and oversaturated, but never less than fascinating), shot framing (extraordinarily thoughtful), and performance. Godard allows his camera to linger on single faces, without cutting, for what seems by modern standards to be extremely long segments--perhaps even excruciatingly long--but the remarkably subtle cast members never disappoint, particularly the fantastically adept and frequently hilarious lead actors, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Chantal Goya. The filmmaker has little to add to our collective understanding of the relationship between masculine et feminine writ large; in fact, most of the female characters are uncomfortably stereotypical, framed as either willfully oblivious to the world or subtly (or overtly) deadly. But as an examination of a young generation faced with the prospect of war in Vietnam and the vagaries of French socialism, Masculin-Féminin proves remorselessly and chillingly trenchant. A towering influence, it would seem, on Whit Stillman's similarly themed Barcelona--but while Stillman lacks the conviction to follow his instincts to their logical, violent conclusions, Godard faces his uncompromising story with elegance and courage. In French, with subtitles that are occasionally difficult to read. --Miles Bethany

Description

With Masculin Féminin, 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 Léaud stars as Paul, an idealistic would-be intellectual struggling to forge a relationship with adorable pop star Madeleine (real-life yé-yé 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.

Customer Reviews:

Mashed Potatoes and the Revolution of the Earth around the Sun.......2007-05-23

Maybe I am just a sucker for punishment. Over the last few months I have watched quite a handful of Jean-Luc Godard's films, but, besides a couple such as Breathless and Band of Outsiders, I have really not enjoyed my time delving into his films. I am by no means stating that Godard is a bad filmmaker for I respect the body of work that he has created overall and the changes that he made in film and his desire to use film as a tool to change society and maybe even spark revolution amongst his film viewers, but for the most part I find many of his films to be too "arty," in my opinion Pierrot le fou is a prime example of this, and this sense of art for art's sake detracts from the films often leaving them as little more than pedantic schlock.

Well then. After my introductory paragraph it might come as bit of a shock that I enjoyed the film Masculin, Féminin quite a bit not only the first time that I watched it but the second time as well. Masculin, féminin stars Jean-Pierre Léaud as Paul, a young man with literary aspirations and a very strong communist bent and the ye-ye girl Chantal Goya as Madeleine, a photographer who is embarking on her career as a pop singer. Like many of Godard's films there is no one underlying plot within this film, unless you consider Paul's desire to sleep with the lovely Madeleine as an underlying plot, so it comes off as being very episodic. We are treated to the typical anti-America propaganda that is common within Godard's body of work during this time period, but we are also introduced to Godard's disillusionment with socialist movements as well. These disillusions come out brilliantly within interviews conducted by Paul in which the "oppressed" are more concerned with the small bits of happiness than can be found in life and not in some vague socialist plot that offers fewer concrete awards than the America based capitalist system. Outside of political agenda, one of the most enjoyable aspects of this film is the music. Throughout the film we are treated to French ye-ye girl songs, Chantal Goya, of course, and they definitely give the film a bit of energy where it is lacking in several other Godard films.

Another aspect of the film that should be mentioned is the sexuality within the film itself. There, of course is no hardcore or even soft-core action, but the topic of sexuality is quite prominent and the characters continuously talk about their love making episodes in relation to love and it even the subject of birth control is prevalent. This, of course, seems tame by today's standards, but at the time this content was racy enough to give the film an eighteen and over ranking.

Masculin féminin was created the same year that Godard also created Alphaville and Pierrot le fou. The former two often garner more praise, but in my opinion this film shines in comparison to the other two.

Not good. .......2007-03-12

Most of the time I love French films. 400 Blows, Breathless, etc. This one caught my eye so I bought it. Waste of $$. Horrible. I never did really get the plot becuase there was not much of one. It was just like a homemade movie with really bad sound. I looked around the room and the other two people watching it with me had fallen asleep.

Classic French New Wave Film, Bad for General Audiences.......2006-04-03

I watched this film as part of my history studies in Post-War Europe and before everyone docks me because I gave it two stars, hear me out. I'm no Godard fan so I may not be able to appreciate this film as a fan of The New Wave might. I'm just your regular Joe Movie-Watcher.

Masculin Feminin is about Paul, a 21-year-old French citizen that just retired from his 16 months in the Army. Paul is a believer in Marxism and throughout the film promotes the Worker's Party while denouncing US involvement in Vietnam, the Du Gaulle government and most forms of Westernism such as condoms, psychadelic rock (many songs in Masculin Feminin have a style similar to The Kinks, Jefferson Airplane etc) and even Coca-Cola... yet Paul is often seen playing pinball and that mini-bowling game you see at an arcade. Paul seems to be the pro-French identity kind of guy as he often eats cheese and drinks wine. The preserver of the romanticized French culture.

However, Paul's friends and interviewees (Paul works for the IFOP, the major French polling agency at the time) seem to not care about the change towards a quasi-American consumer state. Paul's girlfriend Madelein is a rising pop-singer, her room mates are materialistic consumers, one who owns a car, and the people Paul interviews seem to only care about themselves. This is very accurate in terms of how the 'baby-boom' generation of French youth began to rebel against the traditionalist governments in Europe. Like the teens in the 1950s in the US, the teens began to form their own demographic.

However, this is where my fascination ends. Godard apparently never heard of music editing and film editing. In many parts in the movie, Godard fixed the camera on one person's face in a portrait shot and kept it there for minutes at a time even though the scene was a 15-minute back and forth conversation. The volume in the music went from very high to very low instantly in many parts during dialogue, making it very annoying if almost distracting to the audience.

In a few parts when Paul was whistling, the recording of the whistling obviously overloaded the sound buffer as I heard static in the speakers. I thought this was a volume problem on my end so I turned it down, nope... it was the sound editing. This is just poor recording and editing. Furthermore, the sound editors had this fascination with using the same gun-noise sound (which sounded more like a cartoon car noise) over and over and over again and in very unlikely times.

Other times, ambiant noises would drown out the dialogue such as vehicles from outside a cafe or even drinking noises. Sometimes the sound didn't kick in for up to five seconds into the scene.

Because this is a French New Wave film, I won't attack how there is virtually no plot and has random scenes that are just plain silly. However, I strongly recomend not getting this film if you're just in the general audience and not a New Wave fan. Otherwise, you might like this New Wave classic but I'm no expert on the subject. I was just extremely disapointed with the lazy filming, recording and editing.

a nice film with excellent music........2006-03-13

this review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

"Masculin Feminin" is a film about a group of teenagers in 1960's Paris who go on outings together. Movie theatres, dance clubs, and love affairs.

The film is set against the beginnings of youth culture in France and got the equivelant of an NC-17 rating when it was released in France but would most likely get a PG or PG-13 rating by today's standards.

The film has some very nice 1960's French pop music which I really liked and would watch the film solely for the music.

The DVD has an archival and a new interview with main actress Chantal Goya along with new interviews with other cast and crew. There is also a discussion of the film between two film experts Freddy Buache and Dominique Païni, Swedish TV footage of the production of the fictional Swedish film featured in the movie, an original theatrical trailer and a new trailer for the re-release.

The innocence of sex.......2005-11-06

Excellent movie. Jean-Pierre Leaud is playing the same insecure but dogmatic, innocent but manipulator, sex-obsessed but sex-ignorant character that he played so well for Truffaut, and he fits perfectly in this story as well. He as Paul falls crazily in love with Madeleine, who is insecure but open-minded, innocent but risk-aware, sex-interested but also sex-ignorant enough to be afraid about being - and to get - pregnant.

The script of the 60s is there: the young discover affluence and idealism, light entertainment with the heavy duty of changing the world, and exploration of sexual freedom. Boy-meets-girl and discover a new, uncertain world together.

Simply delicious...

Average customer rating:

The Revolution Begins With You
Excellent film - poor DVD
A Brilliant Study of Turmoil and Human Testing...
Beautiful.
DVD Technical Review

Love and Anarchy
Starring: Giancarlo Giannini , Mariangela Melato , Eros Pagni , Pina Cei , and Elena Fiore
Director: Lina Wertmüller
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 630506976X
Release Date: 1998-10-07

Amazon.com

Lina Wertmuller and her favorite actor, Giancarlo Giannini, took large steps toward establishing their international reputations with this 1973 tragi-comedy about an oaf who gets it into his head to assassinate Mussolini right after the Fascist takeover of Italy. The hero's plans, however, get a little off-track when he falls for a prostitute in the brothel where he's hiding out. As always, Wertmuller's politics can get ahead of the rest of her film. But her sharply perceptive and comic takes on the collapse of various human constructions--social divisions, schemes, dignity--in intense situations is the stuff of genuine revelation. Giannini's renown in the 1970s as a new Chaplin, an innocent buffeted by the world's brutality and easily distracted, got a big boost from his work here. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

The Revolution Begins With You.......2005-10-12

A film about love, and, er, anarchy. Funny, horrifying, moving, passionate, committed, acid, cynical...Magnificently acted, with a beautiful music score. A love story, a peasant and a whore. The tyranny of fascism and the desperation of the poor. At once a romance, a comedy and a study of political injustice. This is a mix found in many of Wertmuller's films. The result is confusion, an evocation of feeling that insidiously questions itself as you watch.

And it's accurate. Whores did fall in love in the Italy of the 1930s, and soldiers did beat dissidents to death, and human beings haven't changed at all in the meantime. As a species we have a horrifying, lovable capacity to love and be cruel at the same time. Lina Wertmuller has caught this in her film with devastating results. La Tripolena believes that love is more important than justice or freedom. And if we are capable of loving while we carry out our fight for freedom and justice we are enlightened indeed. But emotions are powerful; feeling, we often lose our sense of perspective. The results are unforgettably shown in this film.

Excellent film - poor DVD.......2004-09-20

One of the early Wertmuller films, allready demonstrating all the hallmarks of her style. A brave film, uncompromising in its grotesquerie, and driving home its bleak message as only Wertmuller can. Not as compelling as the later masterpieces, or demonstrating as much of the trademark humour, but still putting most to shame.
The film deserves a full five stars, but Fox Lorber's dvd deserves zero - a very poorly done transfer made from a very poor source. It looks like the sort of thing you could put together at home from an old vhs copy. This powerful film needs a proper dvd transfer.

A Brilliant Study of Turmoil and Human Testing..........2004-04-15

Directed by Lina Wertmüller in 1973, "Love & Anarchy" is an indisputable classic. Universally identifiable and immediately entertaining, Wertmüller carries her audience into the mind and times of Turin, a peasant in 1930s Italy. When one of his close friends and idols is killed by fascists, Turin becomes obsessed with anarchist ideals he hardly understands, and sets off to exact an awful vendetta--the assassination of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. The plan gets off-track when Turin falls in love with Tripolina, a prostitute in the bordello where he lives in the days leading up to the assassination attempt. We soon learn that Tripolina returns his love, and the tragic stage is set. Knowing full well that the assassination attempt, successful or not, will surely mean his death, Turin is suddenly gripped by fear. When all he had at stake was a quiet life on the farm, he was glad to give it up for a chance at changing the quality of life for his peasant countrymen. But now, having tasted the happiness love can afford, can Turin really carry through with this suicidal act? Can he truly give up his life for a belief he once thought was worth dying?

"Love & Anarchy" is a brilliant study of turmoil and human testing in the face of insurmountable odds. It begs the question--is it better to bow and live, or stand up and die? How much can a people be crushed before someone makes a sacrifice for the betterment of society? Whose responsibility is it? And on a grander scale, is it better to live happily, contented by love or family, and leave the world untouched, or to attempt real change by sacrificing everything in exchange for it? "Love & Anarchy" poses all these questions, but it offers no easy answers.

Wertmüller's favorite actor, Giancarlo Giannini, plays the peasant boy, Turin, with beautiful humility. He wordlessly portrays infinite subtleties of emotion with body language and facial expression alone. Giannini has the face of a silent movie actor, and in fact was touted as a new Chaplin in the 1970s. Playing opposite him as the prostitute Salome is Mariangela Melato, who viewers may recognize from Wertmüller's "Swept Away." She, too, delivers a wonderful performance. The style and pacing of the film are excellent. Cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno captures Rome in a gorgeous, yet unobtrusive manner.

In "Love & Anarchy," Wertmüller doesn't pull any punches. As par usual, she lets the politics of her movie decide the fate of its characters, and tragedy ensues. One must admire her for making an extraordinarily brave and beautiful film. She exhibits how powerful and effective a tragic story can truly be in exploring the more complex questions of life.

Beautiful........2003-10-24

This is a gorgeous film. Sex, Love, and Politics all blended together into one great movie. Though I'll admit it's not for everybody. You really have to love movies to love this film.

DVD Technical Review.......2001-11-30

I have exchanged this DVD twice and find that the quality of the transfer is unacceptable. Fox Lorber simply did a poor job of transferring this film to DVD. I recommend that you NOT purchase this DVD until they do a better job of transferring the movie. The movie deserves better.

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