Godard Marathon
There are a lot of interesting ideas bubbling underneath the surface of Jean-Luc Godard’s Une femme mariée (1964). The plot is simple: a married woman is having an affair and when she discovers that she is pregnant, she does not know who the father is. The formal aspects of the film, however, are anything but simple or conventional. The love scenes are composed of a series of close-up shots of different body parts as the lovers carry on a more or less intellectual conversation. We never see them actively engaged in the act of love and the scenes are essentially drained of any eroticism despite the female nudity. What also struck me about these scenes, which bookend the film (there is also one in the middle that takes place with the husband), is how much they resemble the “chapter” in Godard’s earlier Vivre sa vie in which Nana is shown working as a prostitute. I’m hoping to explore the connections between these two films as a possible dissertation topic. I find it intriguing that Godard’s first two “essay” films are also his first two films to focus exclusively on a female character. I’ve only scratched the surface of this film, which is endlessly fascinating and perhaps Godard’s most intelligent film to date.
