A Woman Is A Woman: Godard's Perspective

A Woman is A Woman ( Une Femme est Une Femme) (1961) is the third feature film of Jean-Luc Godard. Also, the first film he shot in colour and CinemaScope.

It is a perfect production of French New Wave filmmaking. Said movement gave the director full creative control, therefore the film is an exact representation of the director’s ideas. One of the aims of the new wave movement is to make the audience question the material and work towards the meaning, unlike classic Old Hollywood films that aimed only to maintain pleasure. Godard certainly is a director that one needs to abandon concepts such as modernism, comfort or singularity going into it.

Une Femme est Une Femme simply could be explained as ‘A woman wants to have a baby.’ But to further the definition; Angéla (Anna Karina), a striptease dancer wishes to have a baby with her partner Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy), who is not keen on the idea. After Emile slyly suggests that she does so with his best friend Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo), she finds herself torn between them. The film revolves around Angéla, as she struggles to decide if her love towards Emile is stronger than her wish to become a mother. At one point during the film, a line appears on the screen that reads: “It’s because they are in love everything will go wrong for Emile and Angéla.”. With this slight foreshadowing, we know that their love will overpower the rest in the end. Alfred wishes to be with Angéla and accepts a baby as a requirement for the relationship. However, his real intentions are never clear. Emile is a typical young French man, who is too concerned with his bicycle race to realize his relationship slipping away. That is until he does.

As it happens in all films of his, Godard creates a character out of what he thinks a woman is. Emile carries a misogynistic tone throughout the film, which is criticized highly within. Rather than providing a misogynistic tough-guy perspective, Godard provides the woman’s perspective that cinema so desperately needed at the time.

A woman in society is expected of certain things, to fit into a gender role. Therefore women learn to live with it, while also fighting against it. This film is a representation of women taking advantage of the disadvantages of their gender. Angéla simply does so, to her pleasure. She is still called shameless for it, while she simply suggests this is the way women get what they want.

Angéla is a character that is quite hard to place into a label. She seems like an independent woman who is providing for herself and is after her desires. The dilemma is whether her desire for a baby is a result of society's expectations or a personal desire. This is correct, although she does not fit into the image of 'a traditional woman with children'. Emile tries so hard to be a traditional young man that unfortunately is expected to make his partner do as he says. He too becomes someone who goes against that as he is convinced by her partner. These characters, especially the main character, are people who are following their ambitions and egos without even giving a single thought to society.

The ending of the film has a very important line that is shared between Emile and Angéla. Emile says to Angéla: “Tu es infâme!”( You are shameless!) to which she replies: “Non, je suis une femme.” (No, I’m a woman.). This simple pun carries a lot of meaning, while also giving the film its title.

The film at its heart is an examination of women and men existing together. Godard observes and exposes the relationship between women and men while they dance around each other, pretending, afraid of the truth.

Une Femme est Une Femme has complications not only in characters but in the genre as well. Godard explained it as a ‘neorealist musical’, a found genre that bears ‘the idea of a musical’ and combines neorealism and musical elements. The film is, therefore, very self-conscious in its making. Godard presents a different version of reality, that is ‘unnatural’.

There is a constant breaking of the fourth wall, which adds to the bending of reality, hence neorealism. It’s in that sense a lot like a play, which was the original influence of the film. There are quite a few shots that would be seen as ‘disposable’ in popular cinema. The simple shots of Angéla in the house, or long walking scenes that don’t necessarily add anything to the plot, are what make this movie an alternative art film. Most mainstream cinema is plot-driven and concerned with hiding the camera, meaning the editing is bland and only focuses on giving the most amount of information with the least amount of shots. Towards the end of the film, Emile breaks the fourth wall and says: “I don't know if this is a comedy or a tragedy but it’s a masterpiece.”, doing so foreshadows the ending. The answer to that question in this case would be both and neither, as is life.