Masculin Féminin
Paul, a young idealist trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life, takes a job interviewing people for a marketing research firm. He moves in with aspiring pop singer Madeleine. Paul, however, is disillusioned by the growing commercialism in society, while Madeleine just wants to be successful. The story is told in a series of 15 unrelated vignettes.
Critics Sentiment
Madeleine tells Paul she loves him in the cinema, Paul spray-paints a de Gaulle slogan outside
Robert asks Catherine repetitive questions about her sex life in a long kitchen scene
The film swings from its lowest point in the tedious kitchen interrogation scene between Robert and Catherine (score 6.2) up to its peak in the cinema love confession and de Gaulle graffiti sequence (score 8.5), a shift of 2.3 points driven by the return of Léaud and Goya and the film's most perfectly balanced fusion of romance and politics.
Masculin Féminin opens with infectious energy and dark comic surrealism that reviewers consistently praise, sustains strong sentiment through its romantic and activist set pieces, then dips noticeably in the mid-film stretches dominated by repetitive supporting-character dialogue before recovering powerfully in the cinema sequence and the devastating final police-station coda. The film's arc is one of uneven but genuine vitality, with its highs celebrated as among Godard's most human and charming work and its lows acknowledged as the price of his deliberately shapeless, essayistic method. Critics and audiences ultimately embrace it as a flawed but essential time capsule of youth, politics, and longing in 1960s Paris.
Full cast
Jean-Pierre Léaud
Paul
Chantal Goya
Madeleine Zimmer
Marlène Jobert
Élisabeth Choquet
Michel Debord
Robert Packard
Catherine-Isabelle Duport
Catherine-Isabelle
Evabritt Strandberg
She (Woman in the Film)
Birger Malmsten
He (Man in the Film)
Yves Afonso
Man Who Kills Himself (uncredited)
Henri Attal
The Other Porn Book Reader (uncredited)
Mickey Baker
Record Producer (uncredited)
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot (uncredited)
Antoine Bourseiller
Brigitte Bardot's Director (uncredited)
Chantal Darget
Woman in the Subway (uncredited)
Françoise Hardy
American Officer's Wife (uncredited)
Med Hondo
Man in the Subway (uncredited)
Elsa Leroy
Miss 19 Years Old (uncredited)
Dominique Zardi
The Porn Book Reader (uncredited)
Crew
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