Masculin Feminin is Jean-Luc Godard's affectionate film about the generation he calls "the children of Marx and Coca-Cola." This is only the second Godard film I've seen, but I am already becoming a big fan of his.
The film is shot in beautiful black and white and chronicles the daily life of Paul (Jean-Pierre Leaud), a teenager who interviews people for a research firm. We see Paul's political anxiety and his problems with members of the opposite sex, particularly Madeleine (Chantal Goya). All of the teenage characters hang out and smoke cigarettes in Parisian cafes. It's great.
The style of Masculin Feminin is what makes it such an interesting film. Godard doesn't seem to be married to any kind of narrative, and he cuts into the story with titles expressing whatever he wishes the audience to understand at a given moment.
Godard sees the innocence and naivete in these teenagers, yet he takes them completely seriously. This attitude is just as relevant now as it must have been in 1966 (obviously, I can only speculate here), and is just as relevant to me personally as it would have been had I seen it as a teenager. I think maybe now I have a better understanding of that time in my life, and my thoughts about seem to be the same as Godard's. Masculin Feminin is both jubilant and morose. It's one of the best films I've seen in a while.
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