The Godard's Masculin Feminin

Simply said that the film Masculin Feminin tells the story of a French idealism and the vanguard of the consciousness of youth daily life state. The film fits the character of the French new wave movement which used dialogue directly to tell the inner desire of the character.

Godard's approach is estimated in some avant-garde human eyes but also has a pioneer of ideology and a unique perspective of alternative expression. The love, the Vietnam War, revolution, pop music, Coca-Cola, labor and other social concentrated issues can easily be found with very straight manner. Many problems and contradictions of things through Godard to figures fixed shot show in the eyes of the viewer. Godard used free shooting technique with the wrong picture and sounded the voice to blend into the relation of several main characters of the film, and the direct embodiment of the story flow smoothly.

It’s not very difficult for us to see that Godard tried to express his anger and feeling through the film. The film started in a coffee shop with an argument between the man and woman; the scene ended with the man shooting the woman to end the conversation. In the middle part there’s a young man on the protagonist Paul with a knife but suddenly stabbed himself. This sudden movement with surprise had built the unique characteristics of the film from Godard. In some way, this technique also contributed to the French new wave movement. In the end, the film made a more conceptual summary of the dialogue with the Madeleine, the simple end of the male and female presented together in the society at that time to face the popular question asked. It’s typical French type of question where a lot of unknowns are established, but very few were answered. It’s a good thing to have some room left to think about such a contradictive topic and I salute Godard for his great work.