ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

TrappedInTheCinema 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.

Ersbel Oraph This movie is about an opportunist seeking the approval of armchair revolutionaries. The story is about the director slash film writer JL Godard and the public is expected to be sucked in the disjointed stories presented on screen. And the final product is a working product which gave the opportunist a boost in image.Pick any star of today you dislike. Someone liked by the masses but disliked by you. Godard is the same shallow thing, only for the Marxists for whom he sang.This is a masculine ode, of course, given the name. A catholic revival story. And to make things more revolutionary you have the exploitation of images like Coca Cola or the Vietnam war. Which was started by the French. What makes Godard disgusting is that he knew of Vietnam, he knew of all the colonial wars, he knew about Algeria and how a decade before the police has drowned hundreds of peaceful Algerians in the Seine, yet he needs to point out his spineless resistance against the US. Which makes him yet another proud cultural icon serving the power.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

Blake Peterson "We are the children of Marx and Coca-Cola," a character remarks in "Masculin Féminin". This isn't the character's sentiment, per se; it is, in actuality, the sentiment of Jean-Luc Godard, and he doesn't want to mention it passively. It is as though he wants the quote to be stamped on his grave, to be lauded as a visionary for generations to come. So who woulda thought that, nearly fifty years later, the children of those children's children would be the children of Tumblr and Starbucks, more likely to wonder aloud who the hell Marx is and why one should drink Coca-Cola when a five-dollar "coffee" awaits a few blocks down the road.Godard's attitudes have, of course, dated over the course of a half-century — but the way he expresses them, the way he captures 1960s youth, have not. To be a successful Godard film is certainly not an easy thing. A director who can hardly suppress his love for bizarre sound manipulations ("Masculin Féminin" itself is often soundtracked by a single, cartoonish gun shot that seemingly comes out of nowhere) and teleprompter-ready intellectual speak, it doesn't take much for a Godard film to go from zero to insufferably pretentious miles-per-hour in an instant.But most of the time, Godard keeps the politically/intellectually minded atmosphere humorous and engaging, even if you can't quite put your finger on why watching Jean- Pierre Léaud dive into a radically liberal speech is entrancing. The kiddos of "Masculin Féminin", all in their late-teens/early 20s, spend most of their time smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee in stylish cafés around the city, delighting each other in their oh-so-adult conversations and escaping in movies they know they're smarter than. All attractive, all high in their hopes, all avant-garde, they regard sex as a breezy pastime, responsibilities as a chore they can save for later. They act worldly, name-dropping Sartre whenever the time comes, but heaven knows they would be much more content swimming in each other's cerebral coolness than actually do something with their lives. Leading lady Chantal Goya, who portrays the ambitious Madeline Zimmer, wants to become a yé-yé singer — but does she know that Sylvie Vartan and Françoise Hardy were one-in-a-million chanteuses hard to recreate? "Masculin Féminin" is about everything while also being about nothing. It covers just about every topic found in the mind of a '60s dwelling youth, but it knows that these are just fleeting thoughts, especially when considering most of the stuff happening internationally is the responsibility of the leader of the free world (whoever that is, a character might accidentally grunt). A café is perched just a block down the street and, last time I checked, I wasn't the leader of the free world.The film doesn't take itself seriously, and its actors are likable; New Wave staple Léaud is always so fascinating to watch (don't ask me why), and Goya, looking like a typical Anna Karina-type, enchants with her childlike smile and jet-black, Anna Wintour reminiscent bob. "Masculin Féminin" is Godard at his most focused, his most audience oriented — it is a pleasure from start to finish, even if we don't quite have a grip on what we just watched.

bobsgrock 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.