mst-5

Possible Spoliers: Though not Godard's best, Masculin, feminin is in many ways the prototypical Godard film, exhibiting as it does both his characteristic virtues and characteristic vices. The plot is simple and barley manages to hold the film together; a young man (Paul) conducts a shapeless relationship with a singer (Madeline), works on a cigarette trick, engages in politically oriented graffiti, wrestles with only moderate energy with his own political views, watches two strangers get killed and takes scant notice, etc. Friends and acquaintances of the pair drift in and out of the film, to no great effect.

The film, like most Godard films, should be dreadful, and to many it will appear to be just that. But it manages to develop a rhythm, largely thanks to interesting editing choices, and keeps the viewer interested, if not exactly riveted. One hangs on with a Godard film in an attempt to discern the pattern at work-there seems to be no organizing principle as such, nothing particular the filmmaker wishes to communicate, but one senses a method, or a semblance of one, to Godard's madness.

Nearly 40 years on, Masculin, feminin appears very much a product of its time, though not without some claim to universality. References to the Vietnam War and to De Gaulle along with detailed, and dreary, political texts read aloud by the actors, do date the film somewhat, and yet a good deal of ground is covered; love and sex, birth control, women's rights, democracy and liberty, France vs. America, Bob Dylan, the Final Solution, German war guilt, union agitation, random violence, vanity, pornography. Trouble is, neither the characters nor the film reaches any particular conclusions about any of these things; many of them are mentioned in passing-themes stillborn. But perhaps that's part of the point. Godard seems to be acting almost like a

documentarian-at this point in time these kinds of things were discussed, but desultorily, as a part of the process of living, but not as its whole. Will this interest you, the putative viewer? Who knows. In my opinion, this is hardly a great film. Scenes drag on and lead nowhere; dramatic events happen but have no bearing on the rest of the film and thus we are not inclined to care; the sound of gunfire and titles break the film into chapters for no justifiable reason; Godard appears as confused as his protagonists as to the value of art, politics, and action. Still, the film has a wholly original texture, and that cannot be faked.

An early Egoyan short. "Peep Show" does not provide a great deal of material for analysis, even for Egoyan fanatics, and in this respect is inferior to "Howard in Particular," another early Egoyan film. The film uses a curious, oddly imperfect, color layering technique which is visually interesting, but no more than that. The strange goings on in a photo booth do, however, presage "Amelie", as well as an X-files episode. This film, along with "Open House" and "Howard in Particular," is available on the "Family Viewing" DVD.

Interesting student short (I assume) from a 19 year old Atom Egoyan. A older man attends a retirement party for himself where he finds an audiotape of his boss reciting various incidents from the man's career. The main voice on the tape is Egoyan's, and the writing slips between juvenile and slightly more sophisticated irony. But the interest of the film lies not in its writing but in its central conceit: the disembodied voice of authority (c.f. Modern Times). Egoyan fans will immediately recognize the theme of technology as a filter and distorter of human communication as a major feature of a number of his films, most notably "Family Viewing" and "Speaking Parts." Egoyan uses stark black and white, and repeats three main images, the old man's face, the speaker, and the tape machine, with beguiling results. This film, along with "Open House" and "Peep Show," is available on the "Family Viewing" DVD.