Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 09/20/2005
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: French
Sound: DD1
Run Time: 105 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Not For Children
Distributor/Studio: Criterion
Masculine Feminine was
Jean-Luc Godard's first (but not his last) foray into the burgeoning "Children of the Sixties" generation -- or, as
Godard described it, "the children of
Marx and Coca-Cola." Impressionable teenager
Paul (
Jean-Pierre Léaud) tries to make sense of the world by working as an interviewer for a research firm. Meanwhile,
Paul cohabits with aspiring singer
Madeleine (
Chantal Goya), with two additional young ladies joining the nocturnal festivities.
Paul jumps or is pushed from a window, leaving a pregnant
Madeleine to move on to the next aimless youth she meets. While the nominal hero has failed to find fulfillment in personal relations, another male protagonist (
Michel Debord), a political activist, is luckier -- an indication that the director favored revolutionary politics over simple emotionalism at this point in his career. Though
Godard's free-form style is usually opposed to linear storytelling,
Masculine Feminine has solid literary roots, having been inspired by two
Guy de Maupassant stories.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
