Masculin-Feminin

Jean-Luc Godard went through his most brilliant period as filmmaker in the 1960s; though he was still active into the 2000s, it is for his work in this period that he is best remembered. It was during the '60s that he had his finger firmly on the pulse of the youth movement, and was already becoming deeply interested in class issues and politics. Made for less than 150,000 dollars and shot in flat back-and-white by the great Willy Kurant, Masculin/Feminin chronicles the rise of young pop singer Madeleine (Chantal Goya, in real life ruling the '60s French pop charts with her "ye-ye" hits, catchy songs of transient adolescent passion and romance), who will stop at nothing in her rise to the top. Along for the ride are Paul (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a rather aimless revolutionary drifting through a series of dead-end jobs; Elisabeth (Marlène Jobert), who acts pretty much as Madeleine's groupie; and Robert (Michel Debord), a punk revolutionary who sees hypocrisy at every turn. Much of the dialogue centers on the differences between the sexes, and the fears, hopes, and desires that confronted teens in the 1960s.