I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

By 1966, Jean-Luc Godard had established himself at the forefront of the French New Wave. Cinematically, he was experimenting with revolutionary techniques and politically, his films were in touch with the upsurge of youth revolution sweeping the country. To this day, many of the films he made in his first six years can be reeled off by even the laxest of cinephiles: À bout de soufflé (1960), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Mépris (1963), Bande À Part (1964), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot Le Fou (1965), and others. Masculin Féminin fits very much in this revolutionary lineage.It follows a small group of young Parisians, variously focused on Marxism and pop music. In particular, the film focuses on Paul (Jean-Pierre Léaud), his existential musings on life (e.g. wondering if he is the centre of the universe), his radical politics, and his romance with an up-and coming pop-star.Masculin Féminin has many of tropes typical of Godard during this era. In the opening scene, there is a shooting outside a café. But it is ignored, as it isn't relevant to our characters – Godard is only showing us want he wants us to see. Similarly, the background noise in the film comes and goes – we hear it only if Godard wants us to. During conversations, the camera remains steadfast, vérité- style, on one character.There are other signs that are unmistakably Godard: the self- referentiality (a character mentions Pierrot Le Fou, his previous film); the giant capital letter inter-titles that appear with Western-style gunshots on screen. One of these inter-titles says "This film could be called The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola" – revolutionary politics and American culture feature heavily throughout.The revolutionary atmosphere very much matched Godard's own views of this time, and can be seen again in films such as Week-End (1967). He was making films that were riding a wave of passion on the streets; films that were incredibly relevant, if not ahead of their time. At their best, Godard's films capture this energy and pace. The pop soundtrack helps this pace along, as we ride a culture crest of a wave.On these grounds, there is much to acclaim Masculin Féminin for.However, there are issues with the sexual politics of the film, and particularly with the central character of Paul. Trying to charm a woman he says, "I really like your kind of breasts. It matters." He also shouts sexual comments at passing women and concocts ways to stare at a woman's cleavage in a café.Yet he is a politically active individual, a Marxist with a strong sense of right and wrong. But he cannot see his views and actions towards women being so vile. It is possible – nay, likely – that Godard has written this chauvinism into the script purposefully under the guise of satire. Godard's anti-American sentiment appears to be blaming American and British popular culture for infecting France with this attitude. (There are shout-outs to James Bond, The Beatles and even Sandie Shaw in the film).But sadly we can never escape the chauvinism itself, or the strong sense that Godard associates with Paul. When Paul defaces an American embassy car, Godard would have been cheering from behind the camera.The female members in the group – Madeleine (Chantal Goya), Catherine (Catherine-Isabelle Duport) and Elisabeth (Marlène Jobert) – have been fantastically developed in the writing, with performances to match. Some of the greatest moments of the film come in the scenes between Paul and Madeleine, when their romance feels at its most real: the tenderness when lying in bed together (albeit with a third person); and his pain when Madeleine walks off and leaves him alone in a bar. Madeleine, and Chantal Goya's performance, has brought out a side in Paul the audience can relate to.But sadly too often the two men of the group are arseholes with gut- wrenching chauvinism, and the apparent adoration from behind the camera only exacerbates this.I do not wish to take away or detract from what is great, inventive or revolutionary about Masculin Féminin. But the sexism, which all too often surfaces, prevents it from being the first Godard film to unequivocally capture me.

A series of vignettes about youth culture in current day urban France are presented. These vignettes are tied together by a central thread, the story of twenty-one year old Paul (Jean-Pierre Léaud), who witnesses or overhears many of these happenings.I am not sure that I am a fan of Godard. Some of his films I like quite a bit, but it seems he has the problem of many prolific directors: the more he makes, the greatest chances of making a bad film. Not to say this is a bad one, but I would by no means say it is among his best. And he has a weird love of atonal music, which I do not think helps matters.There is certainly a cultural relevance here. The film is said to tackle the generation that has Coca-Cola and Marx, which I suppose would be France in the 1960s (and to a lesser extent the United States). The greatest revolutionary decade of the 1900s, but also a time when the youth were living comfortably.

Compared to his previous works, this is a much more accessible Godard film, that is for the majority of film lovers. Of course, perhaps I am referring to the younger American scene, which I believe is the highest group that goes to the movies statistically. Still, I found this to be a fresh take on the relationship arch that has been done in probably 95% of all movies ever made. Here, the feelings and actions of the characters are very genuine, helped along by the documentary-style shooting that is so the style of Godard.Along the way, we see Godard becoming even more-so political with plenty of references to Vietnam, the American lifestyle and Marxist teachings. However, I applaud Godard for not being overly preachy, but rather simply showing all sides and letting the audience decide from there. The ending is probably the best scene and although some strands of the plot line don't tie up so completely perfect, I think this is a better film than Pierrot le Fou and one that will always be remembered as one of Godard's groundbreaking cinema experiments.

Masculine Feminin is my favorite Godard movie! Chantal Goya's Ye-Ye score gives the movie an incredibly youthful freshness. The innocent naiveté of Ye-Ye is presented as an oxymoron in a French culture being deluged by Pop Culture and consumer materialism. Paul prefers classical music and despite his Marxism has fairly traditional sexual values. France lost its innocence with this movie. While I would call this movie tame by our our celeb sex tape standards, France restricted access to this movie to those over 18. Some interesting sexual / bisexual stuff that is subversively alluded to. The Swedish sex film (a mise-en-abîme) and the homosexual kiss in the cinema bathroom are self-explanatory. (The later echoes James Baldwin's opening in Another Country.) Godard can didactically beats it over your head - witness his prescient comments on the American involvement in Vietnam, yet in the same movie he can be remarkably subtle. Did Paul commit suicide or was it an accident? What is Madeline's relationship with Elizabeth? Godard chronicles France in transition from the hegemony of the Catholic ethos to the student uprising, which would occur in 1968.It is ironic when you consider the national trauma of the NAZI invasion and the Gallic intellectual cynicism; however, the Beatles and the Sexual Revolution seems to have come later to France. Individualism and consumerism overcoming a group mentality whether Godard's Marxism or the mainstream Catholic Church. Odd Paradox when you consider the traditional association of the French with libertines. Hmm....Léaud later said he trembled when he did the bathroom scene with Goya. Goya wouldn't do a nude shower scene even behind a frosted glass. (BB is wonderful eye candy in Mepris if that is what you want.) While Masculin Femin is cavalier about prostitution, it is deeply engaged in the structural transformation occurring in France in how men and women define their sexual roles.I'm not a movie critic but I enjoyed watching and re-watching this movie. I think it is a more entertaining movie than Breathless or Contempt from the fun perspective. Jean-Paul Belmondo defines cool in the same way as Marcello Mastroianni in La Dolce vita but I'm talking about how a movie can go beyond style and talk about human relationships. On a superficial note, BB is nice in Mepris but as an incurable romantic I'm still drooling over Miss Elsa Leroy's fuzzy sweater in M/F.I think when Godard later becomes more experimental and didactic he loses his mainstream audience. I am one of that mainstream audience and that is truly my loss. :(