Jean-Luc Godard

A Woman Is a Woman

A Woman Is a Woman

With A Woman Is a Woman (Une femme est une femme), compulsively innovative director Jean-Luc Godard presents "a neorealist musical—that is, a contradiction in terms." Featuring French superstars Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean-Claude Brialy at their peak of popularity, A Woman Is a Woman is a sly, playful tribute to—and interrogation of—the American musical comedy, showcasing Godard's signature wit and intellectual acumen. The film tells the story of exotic dancer Angéla (Karina) as she attempts to have a child with her unwilling lover Émile (Brialy). In the process, she finds herself torn between him and his best friend Alfred (Belmondo). A dizzying compendium of color, humor, and the music of renowned composer Michel Legrand, A Woman Is a Woman finds the young Godard at his warmest and most accessible, reveling in and scrutinizing the mechanics of his great obsession: the cinema.

Film Info

  • France
  • 1961
  • 84 minutes
  • Color
  • 2.35:1
  • French
  • Spine #238

Special Features

  • High-definition digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Raoul Coutard
  • Charlotte et Véronique ou Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick (All the Boys Are Called Patrick, 1957), an early short film by Godard with Jean-Claude Brialy, written by Eric Rohmer
  • "Qui êtes-vous Anna Karina?"; excerpts from a 1966 French television interview with Karina, Brialy, and Serge Gainsbourg
  • Rare on-set photos by photographer Raymond Cauchetier, poster and stills gallery
  • Promotional audio recording for the film
  • Trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Plus: Excerpts from a 1961 interview with Godard and director of photography Raoul Coutard about A Woman Is a Woman, and a new essay by film critic J. Hoberman

    New cover by Alexander Ku

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • High-definition digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Raoul Coutard
  • Charlotte et Véronique ou Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick (All the Boys Are Called Patrick, 1957), an early short film by Godard with Jean-Claude Brialy, written by Eric Rohmer
  • "Qui êtes-vous Anna Karina?"; excerpts from a 1966 French television interview with Karina, Brialy, and Serge Gainsbourg
  • Rare on-set photos by photographer Raymond Cauchetier, poster and stills gallery
  • Promotional audio recording for the film
  • Trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Plus: Excerpts from a 1961 interview with Godard and director of photography Raoul Coutard about A Woman Is a Woman, and a new essay by film critic J. Hoberman

    New cover by Alexander Ku
A Woman Is a Woman
Cast
Anna Karina
Angéla
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Alfred Lubitsch
Jean-Claude Brialy
Émile Récamier
Marie Dubois
Suzanne
Jeanne Moreau
Woman in bar
Ernest Menzer
Club owner
Nicole Paquin
First prostitute
Marion Sarraut
Second prostitute
Credits
Director
Jean-Luc Godard
Screenplay (based on an idea by Geneviève Cluny)
Jean-Luc Godard
Producers
Georges de Beauregard
Producers
Carlo Ponti
Director of photography
Raoul Coutard
Music
Michel Legrand
Production design
Bernard Evein
Editing
Agnès Guillemot
Assistant editor
Lila Herman
Assistant directors
Francis Cognany
Assistant directors
Jean Vigne
Stills
Raymond Cauchetier
Script girl
Suzanne Schiffmann
Makeup
Jackie Raynal
Sound
Guy Villette
Production manager
Philippe Dussart

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Anna Karina

Actor

Anna Karina
Anna Karina

Anna Karina has written and directed films, taken on prominent stage roles (including in plays directed by Jacques Rivette and Ingmar Bergman), had a successful singing career, and written four novels, but, of course, she is cited most often as Jean-Luc Godard’s New Wave muse and first wife. Godard decided he wanted to put her on-screen after seeing her in a sudsy Palmolive ad on television in the late 1950s. Though she turned down a small (nude) role in Breathless, she was soon cast in Godard’s next film, Le petit soldat (1961), at age twenty, and would go on to appear in six more of his films during the sixties, including the iconic Vivre sa vie and Band of Outsiders (she and Godard would also cameo together in Agnès Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7). Though their cinematic collaboration seemed harmonious, behind the scenes, their relationship was tumultuous and bitter, made all the more difficult by the fact that it was under constant public scrutiny. Their three-year marriage ended in 1964, though they continued to work together until 1966. Karina stayed with film acting in the coming decades, working with such directors as Rivette, Luchino Visconti, George Cukor, Tony Richardson, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.