A New Wave of Masculin Feminin

The French New Wave is one of the most influential movements in cinema’s storied history. A group of French film critics began making low budget movies in direct contrast with the Tradition of Quality of their country’s film industry, and ended up transforming the idea of cinema - in both narrative and formal style, as well as filmmaking production techniques. One of the most important figures in this movement was director Jean-Luc Godard, whose initial credits helped define the characteristics of New Wave films, and whose career continued well past the Nouvelle Wave’s period. Masculin Feminin (1966) is a prime example of both the New Wave’s style and Godard’s personal commitment to infusing politics into the everyday. Focusing on the youth in Paris, it was ironically age restricted when released in French theaters. The film leans into the New Wave’s elements, which can be disjointed and challenging to viewers, and also speaks directly to the social and political climate that was distinctly Parisian in the mid-1960s, captured as a moment in time - as one intertitle in the film comments:

“This film could be called The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola.”

The French New Wave movement began in the late 1950s postwar years with a set of young French film critics working at the Cahiers du Cinema magazine, who pioneered the now ubiquitous auteur theory, proposing that directors are the main authors of a film and express their personal artistic vision in both narrative and formal choices. These critics, including Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, and Jacques Rivette, began making their own films that were in direct contrast to the current state of the French film industry, also known as the Tradition of Quality. The new filmmakers produced low budget films with small crews, working on location with natural lighting and taking advantage of new light-weight cameras for a hand-held aesthetic. Their stories followed non-linear narratives that included disjointed scenes lacking coherent throughlines, chance events or digressive episodes that weren’t necessarily relevant to the main story, and also ambiguous endings. Notably, the protagonists lack traditional characteristics, such as clearly defined goals, and can be difficult for viewers to identify with as leading characters. Finally, the formal elements of the movement include long tracking shots, fragmented style or jump cuts, and a certain cinema verite that mimicked the expanding influence of television, in the form of handheld camerawork and direct reporting interviews. With new stylistic elements, these Nouvelle Wave filmmakers presented a shift in the conception of cinema as one that should simply reflect reality, but instead as an artform that embodies a specific director’s aesthetic.

Jean-Luc Godard was a fiery, yet thoughtful cinema critic turned experimental filmmaker whose body of work contributed to the definition of the French New Wave, and whose subsequent films took on even more political themes. Speaking directly to the youth, he was hyper-aware and engaged with the tides of political and cultural change brewing in the 1960s. He found a way to infuse a real connection between the political and the personal in his films, and also included his pointed critiques of world events. In addition to embodying the auteur theory by making films that express his world vision as art, he also broke with the Hollywood standard of making escapist films; rather, he sought to bring cinema closer to everyday people’s lives. He remained active in filmmaking into the 2010s, cementing his place among the canon of influential filmmakers, especially for his work during the French New Wave.

Masculin Feminin is presented in 15 different chapters, introduced via title cards. In 1960s Paris, Paul (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a young socialist, meets a woman in a cafe named Madeleine Zimmer (Chantal Goya), who aspires to become a singer. Paul begins to pursue her and she begins to record her first album. Some time later, Paul attempts to propose to Madeleine in the same cafe where they met, but is unable to finish the deed. He eventually moves in with Madeleine and her other roommates. Madeleine is revealed to be pregnant and, while on a date in the cinema, she tells Paul that she loves him, but there is additional complicated romantic drama amongst Paul, Madeleine, Paul’s friend Robert and her two roommates. Paul becomes a worker for a French polling company, and he interviews women about politics and love. He eventually purchases a high-rise apartment and falls from the balcony, either by accident or suicide, leaving a pregnant Madeleine behind. She is unsure about her future.

The 1965 trailer for Masculin Feminin ends with the title cards: 

“A film in several acts about youth and sex in modern France.”

“Of course, minors under 18 not admitted, because its about them”

Sex - the desire for it from either a partner or from someone you wish would become a partner, the frank discussion of it between friends or random thoughts overheard on the street, the complicated feelings that can arise from withholding or engaging in the act, and the consequences of what sex can bring about in a woman’s body - pervades this film, just as it pervades the thoughts of hormonal young people growing up in a big city. During one of Paul and Madeleine’s first conversations, she asks him if “going out” means “going to bed” - it is clearly his aim, but she is more hesitant. Paul eventually moves in with Madeleine and her roommates and there are heavy suggestions that they are sexually active together. When Paul gets a job as a pollster, he interviews a woman about the subjects of politics and love - and he specifically asks about birth control, a topic which the woman looks authentically uncomfortable speaking about. Birth control methods are discussed throughout the film, including timing sex to specific periods during the cycle, taking the woman’s basal temperature, pulling out, and using a diaphragm (a “gadget from America”). For women of the 1960s, these were the options open to them for protection and none of them are guaranteed, so it is no surprise that Madeleine gets pregnant anyway. Even though this film was representing real life and challenges for young people in 1960s Paris, the open discussion of sex was deemed too controversial by authorities for them to see their life represented on the theater screen.

As the main character, Paul is very challenging to identify with as the protagonist - he makes it difficult as a viewer to root for him, especially as he always seems to be getting in his own way (in a similar fashion to the title character of Llewyn Davis played by Oscar Issac in the Cohen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis). The ending brings a similar level of angst and ambiguity - Paul’s death occurs off screen and the audience only finds out via dialogue from one of the roommates speaking to the police. To complicate matters further, Madeleine does not know what she will do about the baby. Pregnant, and with her partner dead, her friend suggested using a curtain rod - Goya delivers the line with no expression on her face, which is both devastating and immediately brings to mind the reality that she and millions of women face without easy access to reproductive healthcare choices. These unanswered questions leave the audience not only wondering what Madeleine will do next, but how the generation of Coca-Cola and Marx will navigate the challenges of the 1960s and beyond.

During all of the film’s vignettes, random acts of violence and disruption are frequently interspersed among the scenes, such as a woman arguing with her partner that ends with her shooting him, a racist altercation in a train car that results in another gun firing, and a man who stabs himself on the street. This violence isn’t directly related to the story of Paul and Madeleine, nor does it impact the plot in any way; rather, they are interspersed in between conversations or are observed by the main characters as part of their everyday experience (and often forgotten by the next vignette). These agitated episodes can be interpreted as a commentary by Godard on the rising levels of violence in the urban landscape and modern times. 

The politics of the film may also have contributed to the age restrictions in cinemas as well; Godard infused specific commentary on international affairs. Paul and his friend are both socialists, and acts of protest and resistance are peppered throughout the film. They paint “Peace in Vietnam” on the side of a US army vehicle, he graffitis slogans in opposition to a French national politician running for President, and he signs a petition to free incarcerated artists in Rio de Janeiro. Another example of the random violence that pulses through the film - as Paul and Elizabeth (one of the roommates) are walking down the street, a man borrows matches from Paul, only to light himself on fire and kill himself in front of an American hospital, leaving a note that says “Peace in Vietnam.’ While this could have been a very powerful set piece in the film, especially critiquing a controversial war happening on the global stage, unfortunately, the sequence is not executed well in the film, as everything happens off-screen. This may have been a consequence of a low-budget production with effects limitations, but the audience must only imagine the dramatic act of political demonstration.

The formal elements of this film also place it squarely within the French New Wave style. The film’s settings are all shot on location - in a restaurant, in a cinema, in a laundromat - but also prominently features the streets of Paris. The filmmakers captured footage of normal people going about their business in Paris, overlaying those scenes with voiceovers from men and women. This footage also captures the sounds of Paris - the noise of the subway, pinball games at the arcade, washing machines in a laundromat, the city soundscape as people walk the bustling streets at night - but is also interspersed with cuts from Madeleine’s record, random bullet sounds, and the occasional intentional silence. 

This staccato energy is also employed via the use of jump cuts - while Paul is telling a story to his friend in a laundromat, his monologue is punctuated by various cuts, channeling his frantic energy in the face of the difficulties of modern life. In contrast to the jump cuts, handheld camera work is highlighted in a long take shot at a restaurant, where Paul is attempting to ask Madeleine to marry him, but can’t quite find the right spot or words. They wander around the restaurant, compelled to movement to escape the various diner’s discussion of sex and relationships, until she becomes frustrated with his awkwardness and rushes out to her appointment with the record company. The use of contrasting techniques within the same film points to the experimental nature of the Nouvelle Wave - and Godard’s use of formal elements to channel the emotional energy of his characters.

Finally, a direct interview scene is also highlighted in the film; when Paul takes on a new job as a pollster, the camera is trained for a long take on one of his subjects. Either this woman is an extremely accomplished actress, or she truly agreed to sit for an interview without knowing what would be asked of her - as her reactions seems genuine and capture the nature of a regular feminine youth in Paris and her thoughts on politics (uncomfortable about discussing socialism), birth control (uncomfortable on the topic, but eventually relents to having some knowledge), and foreign wars (admits she isn’t aware of any details). The choice to never cut puts the entire focus on the subject, with Paul’s questions coming off screen behind the camera. In a film meant to highlight the time’s modern youth of Paris, this sequence is peak time capsule and cinema verite - capturing her candid thoughts on the film’s thematic topics of sex and politics.

Overall, this film captures a moment in time - the formal style and conventions of the French New Wave and the culture of 1960s Parisian youth. All the experimental formal techniques utilized brought a conscious edge to the film that helped define the French New Wave style. The mixing of distinct formal choices with the sex and politics content produced a film whose goal was to challenge traditional norms and both reveal and appeal to the French youth. There are references and moments that speak to a specific cultural milieu and require knowledge of that society’s time and place, but other threads continue to hold relevance despite the years. The formal elements are not afraid to be edgy and raw, just like adolescents, and the film is not afraid to be distracted, messy, and extreme in emotions or sequences. What is Godard’s final message here? Sex is complicated and delightfully fun and can be tragic - and that youth are faced with difficult choices in modern life between love, violence, and the political reality surrounding them. A cut of the 2005 re-release trailer ends with a similar title card to the 1965 version, a fitting evaluation of where the film stands in our current cultural moment:

 “Pepsi and the Pepsi Generation are trademark of PepsiCo.

Paris and sex are still in the public domain.”