Masculine, Feminine

Masculine, Feminine is essentially a film that chronicles the lifestyles and opportunities available to a selection of Parisian youths, who represent the dichotomy not just between male and female but also between politics and popular culture; passion and superficiality; and obstinacy and caprice. More closely it documents the relationship between yet another Jean-Luc Godard beauty by the name of Madeleine (Chantal Goya); a woman of fashionable tastes and Paul a man who like other Godard heroes is possessed of a rebellious nature that finds an outlet through an anarchist demeanor. Like the character that Anna Karina has been known to play, Goya imbues her role with the same sexy, aloof, self-satisfied lethargy. She is a woman of Haute Couture who, because of her work, is not estranged to the glamorous, celebrity lifestyle, of which she so desperately wishes to be a part of. Paul on the other hand is a man who though bereft of educational resources is not deterred to instigate some societal changes; driven to succeed given his stint in the military. Unlike Madeleine, Paul has tasted the hardships and suffering of life and is desperate to escape the dispiriting routine of work, eat and sleep to a more rewarding profession where his reflective nature can flourish.

Such differences between the two seem appropriate given Godard's style of casually striking up a romance out of the blue between two disparate strangers. In this instance it begins with a man in a cafe, randomly conversing with a woman of whom he has noticed there before. Moreover it is not long before the relationship evolves almost without any real substance, in that Godard seems to skip the whole "getting to know you Bulls**t" and jumps straight into the ferocious candor that is the true test of any relationship. In an early scene, Paul is trying to connect with Madeleine and express his awareness of the deeper levels of tenderness and the importance of love as necessary to human survival; however she is slippery, questioning his motives, whilst touching up her looks and flippantly teasing him when he gets to serious. Later in the film Paul proposes to Madeleine and shortly afterwards the shot cuts to him angrily throwing a magazine at her that she was reading, eliciting nothing but a burst of laughter, furthermore showing how girlish fantasies of fame and fortune are too important to her to give any consideration to a genuine love that Paul is offering.

In his film, Godard deconstructs the French female stereotype into three categories. The proletariat woman, who due to working a nine to five job is too depleted of energy to have a social life; the chic, vogue obsessed manicurists and hairdressers who mimic the latest trends; and the trapped intellectual who though well educated, ends up being alienated from the real world. Of the categories it would seem that Madeleine shares the profile of the second of the three as she is a woman who is excessively concerned with her appearance, frequently combing through her hair, powdering her face and looking in the mirror every chance she gets. She conducts herself with the same heirs as the models in the photographs she is paid to organize. Her aspirations of being a "ye-ye" singer have led her to lose herself in vanity and develop a narcissistic obsession to become like those women of whom she sees day after day in the fashionable magazine that she works for. She puts on a front of an experienced and confident woman but her immaturity and naivety shines through when she giggles and scoffs at the direct, sexual, candor of Paul.

Despite Paul's romantic nature there is still an element of chauvinism and testosterone running through his blood, which spurts out when he is with his politically, militant like-minded pal Robert. When women walk by they whistle, make vulgar comments and rate their breasts. Unlike Paul though, Robert is unwilling to succumb to the superficial interests of women in money over love. Robert is a more pragmatic character who cannot accept the apathy of the females when it comes to matters of government regimes and conspiracies. An example of such apathy prevails when Paul interviews a "Miss.19" model for a teenage magazine and discovers that she idolizes the American way of life for its exciting, fast paced lifestyle and its liberal treatment of women. The irony here being that at the time the American government were responsible for a gross violation of freedom given their involvement in Vietnam. Though to no surprise, when he asks her if she is aware of any wars that are going on she replies that she is not. It has been said that this scene, as well as the other interview style scenes, was shot off-the-cuff, giving to it the authentic, hesitant and unsure responses.

Paul is a man who is more intellectually independent than Madeleine. He is more aware of the world around him and of issues that go beyond his own selfish desires. He has come to a maturity that she hasn't because of his realizations of the importance of forming ones own opinions. However he has still yet much growing up to do as the ways in which he goes about trying to spread his ideological messages, (graffitying slogans on cars and walls), amount to nothing more than petty vandalism with no real changes being affected.
Ultimately Paul and Madeleine are two French youths trying to carve out an identity that reflects the political and cultural developments of the time. It is a battle of the sexes between the masculine attempts at heroism, rebellion and dominance versus the feminine desire to be part of the American Hollywood glamour scene of riches and fame. Both sexes however seem to share the same obstinate and impulsive egoism.

At one point during the film an inter-title states that the film could have been called "The children of Marx and Coca-Cola" It would seem that Godard is again creating a distinction between the masculine socialist revolutionaries who are concerned with matters that have crucial humanitarian implications and the feminine culture junkie whose "I want it now" attitude and adoration of America has materialized in the form of a product that would be the benchmark for all other endorsements to follow. Amusingly, when Madeleine is asked if she is part of the Pepsi-Cola generation by a reporter she responds, “I love Pepsi-Cola!"

It would be unfair however to conclude that Paul and the male gender that he represents are the noble, objective leaders of tomorrow, as he is just as guilty of being unable to see the world from anything but an arbitrary perspective as the females are. His cross-section of questions from politics to sexuality aimed at deciphering the collective unconscious led him to a similar conclusion as that of Bruno Forestier in "Le Petit Soldat", that each man must come to his own decision when trying to develop a moral centre and, not rely on native concepts that are more concerned with nationalistic pride which only aims to gain territory rather than promote utilitarian change.