The Cinematheque

35mm Print

“A kind of movie that nobody had seen before. The result is brash, defiant, gaudy, and infinitely fragile.”

Tony Rayns, Time Out 

Godard’s exuberant third feature was his first in colour and in CinemaScope—and, with the banning of Le petit soldat, his first to be released after Breathless. Anna Karina, named Best Actress at Berlin for her performance, is Angela, the femme of the title, a nightclub stripper who wants to have a baby and settle down with lover Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy). When he refuses, she turns her attention to romantic Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo), Emile’s best friend. The film unfolds as a light-hearted, loving homage to MGM musicals of the ​’40s and ​’50s, with a tip of the hat as well to Lubitsch’s Design for Living. It also introduces to Godard’s cinema the theme of sex work, a central motif in his analyses of the social roles of women. Jeanne Moreau has a cameo as herself. Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) scores.

In French with English subtitles

Note: A Woman Is a Woman also screens as part of our ​“Deep Focus: French New Wave” interactive lecture on March 23 at 12:30 pm.

“One of the few absolutely necessary films in Godard’s canon … Altogether one of his most pleasing and vivacious films … Godard’s purest celebration of both life and movies.”

James Monaco, The New Wave: Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette

“Cinema in its purest form!”

André S. Labarthe, Cahiers du cinéma

“Godard’s idea of a musical is, of course, the idea of a musical … It’s the grande folie of Godard’s early career.”

J. Hoberman, The Village Voice