Experimental, crazy and wild! “A Woman is a Woman” is a unique film that features an experimental style by Jean-Luc Godard satirizing American musicals, poking fun on relationships, deconstructing cinema and more!
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TITLE: A Woman is a Woman – The Criterion Collection #238
DURATION: 84 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Color, Monaural, in French with optional English subtitles, 2:35:1 Aspect Ratio
COMPANY: Rialto Pictures/The Criterion Collection
RELEASED: 2004
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Screenplay by Jean-Luc Godard
Produced by Georges de Beauregard, Carlo Ponti
Music by Michel Legrand
Cinematography by Raoul Coutard
Edited by Agnes Guillemot, Lila Herman
Production Design by Bernard Evein
Costume Design by Jacqueline Moreau
Starring:
Jean-Claude Brialy as Emile Recamier
Anna Karina as Angela
Jean-Paul Belmondo as Alfred Lubitsch
With A Woman Is a Woman (Une femme est une femme), compulsively innovative director Jean-Luc Godard presents “a neorealist musical—that is, a contradiction in terms.†Featuring French superstars Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean-Claude Brialy at their peak of popularity, A Woman Is a Woman is a sly, playful tribute to—and interrogation of—the American musical comedy, showcasing Godard’s signature wit and intellectual acumen. The film tells the story of exotic dancer Angéla (Karina) as she attempts to have a child with her unwilling lover Émile (Brialy). In the process, she finds herself torn between him and his best friend Alfred (Belmondo). A dizzying compendium of color, humor, and the music of renowned composer Michel Legrand, A Woman Is a Woman finds the young Godard at his warmest and most accessible, reveling in and scrutinizing the mechanics of his great obsession: the cinema.
Director Jean-Luc Godard, one of the pioneers of Nouvelle Vague (French New Wave) was on fire. Having directed “A bout de souffle” (Breathless) which starred Jean-Paul Belmondo and in 1961 with the controversial “Le Petit Soldat” (The Little Soldier) starring Anna Karina, for this third film “Une femme este une femme” (A Woman is a Woman) brings together both Belmondo and Karina (who Godard married during the filming of the movie) and actor Jean-Claude Brialy. The film is Godard’s first film in color and CinemaScope, also a film that is a co-production with French Georges De Beauregard and Italy’s Carlo Ponti. Shot in five weeks with no script, “A Woman is a Woman” is Godard’s experiment into a film fueled by improvisation.
The film is possibly one of Godard’s most interesting and unique film in which it’s a musical, but not a musical. Godard calls it an “idea of a musical” or a “neorealist musical”.  Music has its part in the film, Godard calls it a tribute to the American musical comedy. But unlike the well-known musicals, you get awkward pauses of music, when Anna Karina is about to sing, instead of the music playing through, it stops on her vocals and she sings without any music. In certain scenes, the sound is gone and you get absolute silence and the part that the film is known for, it’s improvisation as there was no written dialogue for this film. Godard told his actors what would happen and they would have to make it look convincingly real. Also, you get scenes where Godard is hidden and aims the camera at the public or a hidden camera is attached. And of course, keeping Godard’s well known style of jump shots and the talent looking directly at the camera from time to time.
“A Woman is a Woman” revolves around three people. Exotic dancer Angela (played by Anna Karina) and her love of her life Emile (played by Jean-Claude Brialy). The two live a life of enjoying time at home, as she tries to be the good girlfriend and Emile who enjoys his communist newspaper and likes to have fun with his friend Alfred (played by Jean-Paul Belmondo). Alfred who is a Marxist, absolutely loves Angela but knows her heart is with Emile. Although it doesn’t seem that Emile knows that his best friend likes his girlfriend.
But things get complicated for Angela and Emile when she tells him that she wants a baby. He has no plans of wanting to have a children but she wants one badly. Each time she brings up the issue, he gets angered. And through the film, we see how the two handle the subject of having a baby. The two seem perfect for each other as he accepts her no matter what and vice versa. When the two fight with each other, instead of arguing, they grab books and use title of the books to do the talking.
At what great lengths will Anna go through, to get pregnant? And what great lengths will Emile to avoid the issue?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“A Woman is a Woman” is featured in color and presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen. Although in color, the film is not as vibrant or sharp as what we have seen in Godard’s “Pierrot le fou” and at times, some scenes look a bit blurry. According to Criterion, director of photography Raoul Coutard supervised the new high-definition digital transfer which was created on a 35mm interpositive. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and scratches were removed using the MTI Digital Restoration System.   There are scenes in which you can see the dust but Criterion did a good job in helping to eliminate most of it.
Audio is presented in monaural and features a Dolby Digital 1.0 center channel driven dialogue which is clear. But because of the use of music, I preferred to watch this film with my receiver set with stereo on all channels for a much more immersive sound using my 7.2 system. According to Criterion, the soundtrack was mastered at 24-bit from the magnetic track and audio restoration tools to reduce clicks, pops, hiss and crackle.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“A Woman is a Woman” contains the following special features:
- Charlotte et Veronique ou Tous les garcons s’appellent Patrick– (19:22) Director Jean-Luc Godard’s first short film produced as a professional product from 1957. Also known as “All Boys are Called Patrick” starring Jean-Claude Brialy and written by Eric Rohmer. The film is about a man who tries to get close to two women, not knowing that Charlotte and Veronique are roommates.
- Publicite – Featuring a photo gallery (which you can scroll via your remote control) of photos by Raymond Cauchetier from the set of “A Woman is a Woman”, photos of director Jean-Luc Godard during the filming of the movie and international posters of the film. Also, included is an audio promotional recording (34:14) made for the release of “A Woman is a Woman” which was pressed on 10″ vinyl records and is presented on the DVD with on-screen English translation. Pretty much select audio from the film between Emile, Angela and Alfred and featured on audio and Godard talking about the film and yes, you get that needle on vinyl sound as well. Also, the Rialto Pictures theatrical trailer (2:32).
- Qui Etes-Vous Anna Karina? - (13:05) A featurette on Anna Karina from April 1966 directed by Colette Djidou and was featured on “Cinema: Qui etes-vous Anna Karina?”. The featurette interviews Karina about her career and how she got her first big break (interview those who gave her the chance of modeling) and becoming an actress. Also, you get to see Anna during a time when things between her and Godard were not working out and eventually divorced a year later.  Also featuring Jean-Claude Brialy, Serge Gainsbourg and more.
- 24-page booklet – Featuring “A Woman is a Woman” essay by J. Hoberman (film critic for the Village Voice) and “A Movie is a Movie” by Michele Manceaux which are two interviews featured in the French Magazine L’Express back in 1961.
“A Woman is a Woman” is an interesting kind of film. For one, I enjoy it for Godard’s technique and what he accomplished during this time of filmmaking. But the question is if the film holds up for those watching it today? I would imagine that “A Woman is a Woman” would be a bit frustrating for some viewers not familiar with Godard’s work and may feel a bit too unusual and experimental for their taste.
Godard’s feeling at the time was “if you don’t like it, then screw you”. He made films for himself and I suppose where later films became much more political, “A Woman is a Woman” was a satire of American musicals but at the same time, his way of poking around relationships and doing things his own way. “A Woman is a Woman” has its charming moments and as some cinema fans might feel that those who enjoyed the film are diehard Godardites or fans that are hardcore Anna Karina fans, I suppose that in my case, its one of the reasons why I was a bit patient and even more tolerant of the film.
I found it charming and the characters to be fun, but bare in mind, these characters are not your typical clean cut men and an educated woman. Angela is a stripper, Emile is a man who doesn’t make much money and likes to watch women to stripper bars and even have fun with other women while still dating Angela. And Alfred is a Marxist who is in love with his best friend’s girl and wouldn’t care what his friend thinks. In most cases, characters like these three can easily be hated or reviled but in “A Woman is a Woman”, because the film is featured in a musical (or un-musical) type of way, you don’t really hate them, you just find them charming in their own kind of way.
There are scenes in the film that just make you smile, may it be references to “Breathless” or “Jules et Jim”, Cyd Charisse, Gene Kelly or Bob Fosse. Or the scenes in which Angela tries to cook a roast for Emile or an egg for herself. How about their way of arguing through using the titles of books or how the music goes on and then off and then on and then off. I just found that unique and so enjoyable that I can imagine how audiences probably saw this film as so avant-garde back in 1962.
But I see “A Woman is a Woman” more of an experimental film with Godard trying out improvisation and trying to crank out a film in the quickest amount of time possible but still trying to make it enjoyable. It’s one of his earlier films but I will admit to enjoying Godard’s “Masculin Feminine”, “Band of Outsiders” and “Pierrot le fou” much, much more. But yet I still enjoyed this film as it was so un-Hollywood. Almost rebellious filmmaking in a way as Godard deconstructs cinema.
And as Angela would say during the film, “I don’t know if it’s a comedy or a tragedy, but in any case it’s a masterpiece.” Is “A Woman is a Woman” a masterpiece? Or is it experimental filmmaking at its best? I’ll leave that to the viewer.