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A Woman is a Woman - Criterion Collection

A Woman is a Woman - Criterion Collection

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: A lot of people don't like Godard very much, and I understand why: he sometimes seems more interested in making a theoretical or academic point than in making an enjoyable movie (Les Carabiniers, anyone?).

I can happily report, however, that this film is on the far opposite side of the spectrum. This movie is light, frothy fun. And yes, Godard is still experimenting, but in this film the characters are so delightful, the story so charming, that even people who are usually put off by cinematic experimentation will probably be happy to ignore Godard's playing around and just enjoy the movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: To be re-released by Criterion
Review: A Woman is a Woman should be re-released by the Criterion Collection in the 2nd half of 2004. Save your money from buying the expensive Fox-Lorber version.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: To be re-released by Criterion
Review: A Woman is a Woman should be re-released by the Criterion Collection in the 2nd half of 2004. Save your money from buying the expensive Fox-Lorber version.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: lights - cameras - godard...hitting his stride!
Review: By now, Godard is a somewhat mythical creature to cinephiles and to the casual film viewer alike. The mention of his name conjures up romantic notions of the filmmaker and the filmmaking process as the uncompromising artiste and his vision of the world as it should or could be. This early Godard work continues to perpetuate his image as the enfant terrible of the French New Wave and the international cinema. "A Woman is a Woman" resides as a minor yet significant work. Clearly, experimenting with colors, lighting, and music took precedence over the plot development - a bare-boned tale of a sassy, sentimental stripper (Godard's muse - Anna Karina) trying desperately to have a baby with bourgeois, self-interested boyfriend (Jean-Claude Brialy) but finds a welcome distraction in the more attentive, lovelorn Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Karina is at her charisamatic best and Belmondo complements her at every turn as the more fun-loving of her suitors. Brialy is also quite excellent as the somewhat clueless man in her life. Que magnifique! Paris in the early 1960s is never so vibrant and magical as depicted through Godard's camera. The musical vignettes - Godard's hommage to American musical theater - add layers to the emotional tone of the film, which while spotlighting the talents of Godard regulars Karina and Belmondo, is yet another delightful love poem to Paris, the City of Lights. Its colors, moods, and aspects as registered in his heroine's predicament.

Like any self-respecting auteur, he injects intertextual references to other "classics" of the French New Wave school - his own "Breathless", his friend Truffaut's "Shoot the Piano Player" among others, including icons of the American musical film.

A must-see for Godard fans!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Jean-Luc Godard re-invents cinema once again...
Review: Can Godard's sixties films be anything less than sensational ? " A Woman is a Woman " remains one of his most magnificent, a dazzling cinematic hymn to the Hollywood musical, and a celebration of his then wife, Anna Karina. Karina plays Angela, a nightclub stripper who yearns for a baby. Her practical boyfriend, Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy) insists that they marry first, and in her frustration she turns to Emile's friend, the romantic Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo)...

Seldom has the old cliché of the love triangle been filmed with such verve and innovation, and the movie is funny, tragic, happy and sad, and ultimately triumphant. The performances are wonderful. Brialy is fine as the boyfriend torn between his love for Angela and his stubborn pragmatism and Belmondo is typically cool, complete with customary cigarette permanently dangling from his mouth. Both male leads are peripheral however, for this is Karina's movie, as she examines the complexities of life and the difficulties of being a woman.

Technically, Godard is at his most playful, employing his usual array of stunning cinematic devises - there are visual gags galore, fluid tracking shots, Raoul Coutard's garish photography ( Godard's first film in colour ), a soundtrack of deliberately exaggerated big band music that seeming appears and disappears at any given moment, and the kind of referential cinema that Godard loves. There are nods towards Francois Truffaut and his films " Jules et Jim " and " Shoot the Piano Player " and at one point Belmondo mentions a screening on TV of " Breathless ", Godard's groundbreaking first feature.

Like nothing you've ever seen before, " A Woman is a Woman ", is a time capsule no doubt, but definitely a masterpiece for all time...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Jean-Luc Godard re-invents cinema once again...
Review: Can Godard's sixties films be anything less than sensational ? " A Woman is a Woman " remains one of his most magnificent, a dazzling cinematic hymn to the Hollywood musical, and a celebration of his then wife, Anna Karina. Karina plays Angela, a nightclub stripper who yearns for a baby. Her practical boyfriend, Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy) insists that they marry first, and in her frustration she turns to Emile's friend, the romantic Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo)...

Seldom has the old cliché of the love triangle been filmed with such verve and innovation, and the movie is funny, tragic, happy and sad, and ultimately triumphant. The performances are wonderful. Brialy is fine as the boyfriend torn between his love for Angela and his stubborn pragmatism and Belmondo is typically cool, complete with customary cigarette permanently dangling from his mouth. Both male leads are peripheral however, for this is Karina's movie, as she examines the complexities of life and the difficulties of being a woman.

Technically, Godard is at his most playful, employing his usual array of stunning cinematic devises - there are visual gags galore, fluid tracking shots, Raoul Coutard's garish photography ( Godard's first film in colour ), a soundtrack of deliberately exaggerated big band music that seeming appears and disappears at any given moment, and the kind of referential cinema that Godard loves. There are nods towards Francois Truffaut and his films " Jules et Jim " and " Shoot the Piano Player " and at one point Belmondo mentions a screening on TV of " Breathless ", Godard's groundbreaking first feature.

Like nothing you've ever seen before, " A Woman is a Woman ", is a time capsule no doubt, but definitely a masterpiece for all time...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Woman is a Ho, at least in this case.
Review: I can forgive Godard for any number of sins but being cute is not one of them. This cloying, silly movie is embarassing, a total fluff from one of the most daring filmmakers ever. What led him to this? Love for Karina make his head go pop fizzle dizzy wizzy? This is Godard as an auteur of Hallmark I-Love-You cards.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Une Femme est Une Femme
Review: I was expecting greatness, which is always a recipe for disaster. I had heard from more than enough people that Jean-Luc Godard is the master of modern avant-garde cinema, so I bought the only movie of his I could find. I enjoyed it, yes, but it was SO mainstream. It's a cute romantic French comedy. Overall, good, but nothing extraordinary.



Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Absolute c**p
Review: I will never buy Fox Lorber stuff again. I did watch five minutes of "A woman is a woman" and after that I just coulnd't take it anymore so I did throw the thing out in the window. This DVD is absolute c**p. The image is blurry and finally unwatchable but I think that the worst part is actually the sound: you can't hear a thing. I'm actually french and I don't understand Belmondo and Karina, but they're speaking the same language as me. I think that pretty much every aspect of this DVD makes it not worth buying. That is not the first time Fox Lorber make a good movie unwatchable, they also screwed big time with Padre Padrone and Ulysse's gaze.

P.S.: Next time you make a DVD, make sure that the subtitles are optional.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Way too good for Americans to get it...
Review: I've read the reviews on here, even the one who gave it 4 stars. I originally saw this film in French with NO subtitles, and even though my French is rusty, I still appreciated it as one of the most brilliant films I'd ever seen. The sweetly poignant striptease number alone (with music by Michel LeGrand) is worth the price of admittance. The film isn't just a finger up to musicals and hollywood cliche', but an homage to anyone with a sense of humour. Lord knows it inspired me in many many ways. I sometimes wish Godard's films DID appeal to the masses, we'd have a lot more hip and intelligent masses.


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