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Jean-Pierre Léaud, Chantal Goya, Marlene Jobert, Brigitte Bardot, Michel Debord ... see more see more... , Catherine Duport , Birger Malmsten , Antoine Bourseiller , Francoise Hardy , Eva-Britt Strandberg , Catherine-Isabelle Duport , Dominique Zardi

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." Im... read more read more...pressionable 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, Rovi

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87% liked it

7,393 ratings

Critics

91% liked it

35 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 43 min.

Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard

Release Date: September 19, 1966

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DVD Release Date: September 20, 2005

Stats: 419 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (419)

  • SirPant
    October 24, 2011
    SirPant
    "A mole is blind but burrows in a particular direction". Masculin Feminin, although not really about man and woman, is about a young couple who basically represent the impossible struggle between idealism and consumerism. Although there is always a contradiction waiting around th... read moree corner. Chantal Goya is beautiful and so served her purpose, harsh but fair. Godard just doesn't get anything from Jean-Pierre Léaud, certainly not like Truffaut did some ears earlier and I really do think that was down to the direction rather than the acting. Many have parodied Godard's work and it's easy to see why in this film. It's not really about anything other than Godard having another bee in his bonnet, the anti-Vietnam war theme had become more than repetitive by then, not that that stopped him, he was still at it in 2002! It's another miss I'm afraid.
  • fb1216165431
    September 9, 2011
    fb1216165431
    Masculine Feminine is of popular culture, youth, love, and sex from Jean-Luc Godard starring French New Wave icon Jean-Pierre Léaud as Paul in a romantic pursuit for Madeleine, eventually involved in a "ménage à quatre." Vigorous narrative and visual style. Seductive.
  • hunterjt13
    March 15, 2011
    hunterjt13
    And so begins my tour of Godard films ...
    Of the five Godard films I've seen (and am going to see), this is the best, but that's not saying much. Normally, I begin my reviews with a sentence-long plot outline, but Godard is so entrenched in the post-structuralist disapproval of ... read morethe typical story arc that it makes it difficult to render the film so simply. Rather, I think I can only report what I experienced while watching the film and hope it makes more sense than the film.
    I think the film attempts to juxtapose the hedonistic tendency of the sixties against the decade's political turmoil. We see a flighty, apolitical pop song artist pursued by the politically aware but inactive Paul. He prioritizes his libido above his political concerns, but this can only last so long.
    The film, in typical post-modern fashion, dives away from the plot into political rants that only tangentially connect to the main action.
    Overall, Masculin Feminin is jumbled and often incoherent but ultimately rewarding.
  • kenstachnik
    July 13, 2010
    kenstachnik
    weird weird movie. Not my favorite Godard...kind of like Life Aquatic...it's quirky for quirky's sake
  • sanjurosamurai
    January 22, 2010
    sanjurosamurai
    godards commentary on 1960's young people in france is interesting and insightful, while a bit bizarre at the same time. many of the signature godard techniques are here, including a texture quite similar to breathless. the quirky story becomes tragic in a way not coherent with... read more the direction of the rest of the story, but the film as a whole is very good.
  • ebs90
    December 8, 2008
    ebs90
    The 60s' young Parisian scene is about pop music, bowling alleys, dance clubs, cafés... Paul and Madeleine talk about music, films, sex, and love. Not much seems to have changed.

    Jean Luc Godard introduces us to this environment as to simply show us in detail what the hip up-... read moreand-coming generation of the 60s thinks, or doesn-t think, what it loves and loathes, what troubles or doesn't trouble it. Paul is a pseudo-intellectual journalist, writer, and activist, who falls for a rising pop star, Madeleine. This is hardly relevant; what truly matters is that by following their relationship we get to listen to their conversations.

    The ride is fascinating because it's easy to relate to it. Amid the troubling scenario of the War in Vietnam, traces of French socialism and the apathy of a great deal of his generation, Paul has to combine both what he feels as his political commitment and his desire to simply be young and have fun, have sex, listen to music, be silly, drink Coca-Cola? The film, Godard says, might as well be named "The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola": a living contradiction, almost a double life. Paul, who is concerned with what happens around him, struggles to combine his need to be opinionated with his inherent position as a part of the superfluous so-called Pepsi generation Madeleine, his girlfriend, is so enthusiastically devoted to. At a certain point, it's unavoidable to see that Paul, who represents a part of Parisian youth, is caught up between two interests, and he's desperate to find some clarity, only he doesn't know it. Madeleine and her friends, on the other hand, are isolated from their political reality, too often combing their hair, talking about boys and giggling.

    I found the story to be a very fascinating character study. Chantal Goya is downright lovely and sporadically annoying to perfection. Jean Pierre Leaud is the best actor to ever play "angry young men" without becoming a cliche, he does it with no self-preservation instincts, risking ridicule with all sorts of antics, spontaneity, a total lack of self-confidence, and humor, only to suddenly become collected, frustrated, angry, or sad. He takes Paul from extreme to extreme of the emotional scale. I loved his performance. My only complaint would be that the girls of the film are too frigid, too shallow, and too foolish. But perhaps this is what the girls of the Pepsi generation appeared to Godard.

    Stylistically, it's an achievement. The photography is very beautiful throughout. The way the film is structured overall could have been very pretentious, but it seems pertinent as I watched. Although Godard's philosophic pauses between chapters may be utterly incomprehensible sometimes, some were pretty clever. What truly stands out, though, is the dialogue: Paul delivers line after line of razor-sharp phrases like a machine gun. Most observations by all the different characters range from the very intelligent, to the stereotypical, to the confusing and the shallow, which is why the script never bores and never wears out.

    Look out for a fantastic parody of 60s European eroticism (allegedly of Ingmar Bergman's The Silence) and what some of the characters think of it. It's a brilliant moment.
  • gator681
    February 13, 2005
    gator681
    [font=Century Gothic][color=darkorange]I have had problems with other Jean Luc-Godard films in the past - to be specific - Breathless is nothing more than a historic document. Contempt is half a good movie - the sections with Fritz Lang and Jack Palance as the producer from hell... read more are priceless; the sections with Brigitte Bardot asking for opinions on various parts of her anatomy nearly put me into a coma. I did not really care for Weekend or Alphaville, either.[/color][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][color=#ff8c00][/color][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][color=#ff8c00]Which brings me to "Masculine-Feminine" which centers on the life of a would be revolutionary who has just gotten out of the army. He goes through a couple of jobs while romancing a would be pop singer. It's not bad but there is not a lot of depth here, either.[/color][/font]
  • muesli2005
    February 29, 2012
    muesli2005
    as close to 1960's Paris youth culture as most of us will ever get and for that sense of time and place, I give this a five.
  • hossein13
    July 13, 2010
    hossein13
    Sep 2009 - An experimental picture of the master of such experiments. I find myself fascinated that it is still pretty attractive and more amazed at the quality of the acting.
  • HuskersNC949597
    July 13, 2010
    HuskersNC949597
    A dullard and two hot babes talk about shit. Ingmar Bergman thought it was boring, good enough for me.

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Critic Reviews

Terry Lawson
October 14, 2005
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press

May not have aged any better than Godard's other films of the period, but that doesn't mean Paul and company don't continue to ask questions and spout the opinions of the newly enlightened.

Colin Covert
July 28, 2005
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

The kaleidoscopic film's meandering mirrors the uncertainty of that restless, tumultuous era. Full Review

Chris Vognar
May 5, 2005
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News

This is the Godard that fans would like to take to the grave: jaundiced, naughty, immediate, very much alive. Full Review

Roger Ebert
April 14, 2005
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

You can appreciate Godard's vigorous early visual style. Full Review

Michael Wilmington
April 14, 2005
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

One of the quintessential '60s foreign art films, a bizarre melange of pop music, revolution, sex, movie allusions and poetry. Full Review

Carrie Rickey
April 2, 2005
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

A shotgun wedding of the political and the personal.

Stephanie Zacharek
April 2, 2005
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

Effectively political in the way it captures the mood of a time; the picture feels combustible, like an explosion about to happen. Full Review

Ty Burr
March 11, 2005
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

For all the doubt and acrid aphorisms, despite the gunfire that interrupts the soundtrack, and the playful, random death that flits around the edges, there's an indestructible core of romanticism. Full Review

Ruthe Stein
March 11, 2005
Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle

It's nice to have Masculine Feminine back on a big screen to remind us of a pioneering director in his prime. Full Review

Kevin Thomas
February 10, 2005
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

To reappraise it after nearly 40 years only brings a richer appreciation of Godard's subtlety, sly humor and depth of perception, and his gift for melding nonchalance and profundity. Full Review

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