“Jean-Luc Godard’s idea of a musical is, of course, the idea of a musical...
It’s the grande folie of Godard’s early career.”
–J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“Deliriously kooky… staccato bursts of adorable visual jokes, precocious editing and in-crowd movie asides (when he’s not asking Jeanne Moreau how JULES AND JIM is coming along, Belmondo is hot to catch a TV airing of BREATHLESS.) Godard’s playful side pops out in subsequent pictures, but in Woman his mischief is front and center. “
– Stephen Garrett, Time Out New York

(1961) “I want to be in a musical with Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly . . .choreography by Bob Fauce (sic)!” declares Anna Karina, and she almost gets her wish in this first color, Scope and mostly studio-shot film by then-husband Jean-Luc Godard, the second of their 7¹/₂ collaborations. A simple story – Karina’s Angela, an afternoon stripper in the sleazy Zodiac Club, yearns for motherhood “just because,” but live-in boyfriend Jean-Claude Brialy “isn’t ready yet,” though hanger-on Jean-Paul Belmondo (as “Alfred Lubitsch,” an homage to. . .see Lubitsch Series Coming Soon) is more than happy to help out – is festooned with enough eccentric musical moments to satisfy the most avant of gardists: a Charles Aznavour song almost arbitrarily rocketing on and off the soundtrack; Karina’s stripping ditties; Michel Legrand’s score thundering into split-second breaks in dialogue. Plus cinematic in-jokes galore (Belmondo not wanting to miss Breathless on TV; a straight-to-the-camera nod to Burt Lancaster in Vera Cruz; Jeanne Moreau in a bar being asked how Jules and Jim is coming along; Truffaut star Marie Dubois miming the title Shoot the Piano Player, as a machine gun rat-tat-tats on the track) and plenty of anarchic humor (Brialy’s bicycle ride through the apartment; a silent bedtime argument played out via book jacket titles; the backstage quick changes effected by cheekily obvious trick photography; men in the street, shot verité style, asked at random if they’d like to father Karina’s child), with 1961 Paris stunningly photographed by New Wave master Raoul Coutard (Breathless, Jules and Jim, Shoot the Piano Player, Contempt, Band of Outsiders). A jeu d’esprit of the New Wave that won a jury prize from the Berlin festival for its “originality, youth, audacity and impertinence,” while the enchanting Karina (in her first major role) was named Best Actress, “a revelation possessing qualities rare in a beginning actress.”
SUN/MON 1:00, 2:45, 4:30, 6:15, 8:00, 9:45
TUE 1:00, 2:45, 4:30, 6:15

A RIALTO PICTURES RELEASE.
Approx. 83 minutes. Color.