For international film enthusiasts who have read about and dreamed of Paris inspired by the novels and films on the city and France, watching Jean-Luc Godard's 1966 film "Masculine-Feminine" during the pandemic lock down is like flipping fondly through an audio-visual scrap book of the 60's.
An international co-production between France and sweden, the romantic drama film is hailed as one of the best among the New Wave cinema trend of the time. It is divided into 15 segments and each segment is seperated with a gunfire sound effect.
Many of the young people of the 60's Paris believed that communism was a viable alternative to capitalism and film's hero the young Paul who had just finished his compulsory military service was also taken up by the idea as he keep searching for a job to support himself in the civilian life.
As young Paul charms with his evolving intellectual mind and the purity of his poverty making girl friends who frequent the cafes and Bristos of the streets of Paris as a part of their daily life routine we get to know the life of the young people in their early twenties of Paris who are as one charachter in the film rightly tells "We are the children of Marx and Coca-cola." The generation which was considered then as "this new breed between teenagers and people."
Jean-Luc Godard's experimental style of film making leaves a lasting impression on our minds as the charachters live out their lives in its full sequences in natural sound and light which the camera patiently copies to its faintest of emotions. They tend to remain in our hearts long after the film is over.
The film is available on YouTube
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