Masculine Feminine

Masculin, féminin is a 1966 French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It stars Jean-Pierre Léaud as Paul, a romantic young idealist and literary lion-wannabe who chases budding pop star, Madeleine (Chantal Goya, a real life girl). Despite markedly different musical tastes and political leanings, the two soon become romantically involved and begin a "ménage à quatre" with Madeleine's two roommates, Catherine (Catherine-Isabelle Duport) and Elisabeth (Marlène Jobert). The camera probes the young actors in a series of interviews about love, love-making, and politics.

The film is based on two stories by Guy de Maupassant. Due to the portrayal of youth and sex, the film was prohibited to persons under 18 in France — "the very audience it was meant for," griped Godard — while the 14th Berlin International Film Festival named it the year's best film for young people.

Masculin, féminin is a notable film within Godard's 60s period of filmmaking, and is considered by critics as representative of 1960s France and Paris. The film contains references to various pop culture icons and political figures around that time, such as Charles de Gaulle and André Malraux to James Bond and Bob Dylan, and follows Godard's non-linear filmmaking techniques and narratives. The main story is at times interrupted by various sequences and sub-plots, including a scene paraphrased from ’. Arguably the most famous quotation from the film is "This film could be called The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola", which is actually an intertitle between chapters.

Cast

 * Jean-Pierre Léaud as Paul - a young unstable man
 * Chantal Goya as Madeleine Zimmer - a young singer
 * Marlène Jobert as Elisabeth Choquet - la copine d'Elisabeth
 * Michel Debord as Robert Packard - a journalist
 * Catherine-Isabelle Duport as Catherine-Isabelle
 * Eva-Britt Strandberg as Elle (the "feminine" woman of the film)
 * Birger Malmsten as Lui (the "masculine" male of the film)

Accolades
Jean-Pierre Léaud won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 16th Berlin International Film Festival.