A Woman Is a Woman (1961)
"Une femme est une femme" (original title)

A French striptease artist is desperate to become a mother. When her reluctant boyfriend suggests his best friend to impregnate her, feelings become complicated when she accepts.

Director:

Jean-Luc Godard

Writer:

Jean-Luc Godard (screenplay)

Stars:

Jean-Claude Brialy, Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
Jean-Claude Brialy	...	Émile Récamier (as Brialy)
Anna Karina	...	Angela (as Karina)
Jean-Paul Belmondo	...	Alfred Lubitsch (as Belmondo)

Storyline

Angela,a striptease artist, wants to have a baby and tries to persuade her boyfriend Emile to go along with the idea. Emile will have none of it so she goes after Emile's friend Alfred.

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Plot Keywords:

striptease | box office flop | strip club | wink | passive aggression | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

distributor's website

Country:

France Italy

Language:

French

Release Date:

6 September 1961 (France)

Also Known As:

A Woman Is a Woman

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

$160,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$13,213 (USA) (16 May 2003)

Gross:

$99,658 (USA) (12 September 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Euro International Film (EIA), Rome Paris Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A favorite film of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as reported by the New York Times.

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Goofs

When Angela first meets Alfred on the street, the red and blue armband he wears changes from his right to his left arm between the start and end of the scene

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Quotes

Alfred Lubitsch: Answer yes, and I owe you 100 francs. Answer no, and you owe me 100, okay?
Bar Owner: Okay.
Alfred Lubitsch: Here's the question: Can you loan me 100 francs?

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Connections

Featured in True Love (2006)

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Soundtracks

"Tu t'laisses aller"
Written and Performed by Charles Aznavour

User Reviews

With Full Breath

A Woman is a Woman belongs to the period when Godard was playful, uninhibited and really a wild child of the movies. So when he made a musical, in fact he made a childish and free imitation of a musical that at the same time showed, in an Godardian analytic way, how the Hollywood musicals usually depict life and love. In the film characters love and evade committing to love at the same time. There is music by Legrand and spontaneous looking movements which are aspirations to dance but at the same some oblique realism is at work. As with Godard, fantasy and realism interact in a dialectical way so that both seem indistinguishable after a while.

The trio of Brialy, Belmondo and Karina is great but Karina is obviously unique in that she makes the whole subject of performance seem out of place. She is there playing innocent, dumb, inviting, sad etc. and again at the same time she seems NOT THERE as though her mind is some place else. Her big eyes work and shine all the time but they don't give away the character. There is no argue about Godard's style which after so many years and so many innovations in the language of film has remained fresh and unsurpassed in vitality and an acute understanding of "Films as Games" or rather "Life depicted as a game within a game". However watching A Woman is a Woman after some years I still wonder at the their cinematic child: Acting as a sort of being there and being free to feel the film, breathing the air of movies. The plot is as unimportant as it can be. In its place moments show up, little but infinitely joyful moments of adults looking like teenagers amused and fascinated by the thought of being in a musical comedy. Was Godard the biggest daydreamer of the cinema or what?