Film Review
Together with
Week End (1967),
Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle represents a brutally perceptive
and eloquent commentary of social decline in
the 1960s, one that remains surprisingly fresh and relevant four decades on. The
film comes from a period when the French New Wave's most radical
filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard was beginning to depart from the conventional narrative
form to a more abstract, free-flowing form of cinema. Whilst this makes the film
less accessible than his earlier works, this does not distract from the point he is making
(unlike some of his later films where style appears to take precedence over content).
This film in particular uses some stunningly effective imagery, such as close-ups of a
cup of coffee to represent the empty void into which human consciousness seems to be drifting.
The mid-1960s was a period that was ripe for this kind of intellectual criticism and deconstruction.
The West was becoming almost inured to the atrocities of the Vietnam war, rampant consumerism
was having a marked effect on lifestyles and social attitudes, there was a growing rift
between the left and right in France and a stirring social conscience. There was
never a better period to be a French film-maker, and Godard managed to reflect all these
aspects of contemporary life in his films of this era.
© James Travers 2000
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Jean-Luc Godard film:
La Chinoise (1967)
Film Synopsis
Paris is a city that is in a state of constant evolution, and so are the
people who live there. It has many visages, many guilty secrets, many
illusions - and so have the people who live there. There is modernity
amidst the desolation, construction alongside the decay and neglect.
Juliette Jeanson lives in the suburbs, married to Robert with a son, Christophe.
In their spare time, Robert and his friend Roger amuse themselves with their
ham radio set-up. Robert is unaware that when she is free to herself
Juliette indulges in a spot of prostitution with her friend Marianne.
Most of their customers are Americans with a taste for French women.
Prostitution is commonplace in Paris, and is as common in hotels as it is
in cheap flats that double as brothels. Paris is an eternal mystery,
an enigma that fails to be resolved, and so are the people who live there...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
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Film Credits
- Director: Jean-Luc Godard
- Script: Catherine Vimenet,
Jean-Luc Godard
- Cinematographer: Raoul Coutard
- Cast: Joseph Gehrard (Monsieur Gérard),
Marina Vlady (Juliette Jeanson),
Anny Duperey (Marianne),
Roger Montsoret (Robert Jeanson),
Raoul Lévy (John Bogus),
Jean Narboni (Roger),
Yves Beneyton (Young man),
Juliet Berto (Girl talking to Robert),
Helena Bielicic (Girl in Bath),
Christophe Bourseiller (Christophe Jeanson),
Marie Bourseiller (Solange Jeanson),
Robert Chevassu (Meter reader),
Jean-Luc Godard (Narrator),
Blandine Jeanson (Girl),
Benjamin Jules-Rosette (Man in basement),
Jean-Pierre Laverne (Author),
Jean-Patrick Lebel (Pécuchet),
Anna Manga (Woman in basement),
Claude Miller (Bouvard),
Hélène Scott (Girl playing pinball)
- Country: France
- Language: French / Italian
- Support: Color
- Runtime: 90 min
- Aka: Two or Three Things I Know About Her ;
2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle ;
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her