Martin Bradley Taking as his jumping off point the American musical-comedies of the 1950's, Godard then totally subverts them, following his debut masterpiece "Breathless" with something even more radical. "Une Femme est une Femme" is, on the one hand, Godard's most accessible film while being, at the same time, totally unconventional, even perversely so. It's like a home-movie in Cinemascope and colour and his use of colour and widescreen is up there with Minnelli and Sirk even as his script and his actors veer off into places his mentors would never have considered.Anna Karina stars as the young stripper who wants to have a baby, either by Jean-Claude Brialy or Jean-Paul Belmondo, (she isn't too fussy), and she looks gorgeous. The camera loves her even if what she is doing up there on the screen might not quite approximate to 'acting' any more than what Godard is giving us could be called a typical film. This is the kind of movie that cemented his reputation and as many people hate it as love it. However, unlike many of his later films, (the out-and-out political ones), the last thing you could call this is boring.

JohnHowardReid Two or three very good jokes (the scene in which Belmondo is accosted by a creditor and they end up hurling insults at each other as they cross the road in different directions, and the sequence in which so many people bludge a light off Belmondo's cigarette, he ends up with an unsmokable stub) and a very promising opening give little indication of the seemingly endless dreariness to come when Jean-Claude Brialy cycles on to the scene and the characters settle down to a boring array of routine recriminations in the one dreary set. It looks like the producer was unable to afford only two indoor sets. Admittedly, the director has tried to circumvent the shortage with a bit of location work, but this is neither skillfully chosen nor cleverly employed. Worse still, the obviously hand-held camera wobbles to an incredible degree. No doubt, a lot of this was done deliberately in order to disguise the ineptness of the direction and the lack of francs in the producer's pocket. But there was really no need for this display of deliberate ineptitude. The rest of the movie in itself provides evidence enough. And to make matters worse, Anna Karina acts like a wet rag, nothing like the delightfully animated personality she unveiled in "She'll Have To Go".

Blake Peterson If Cyd Charisse, Bob Fosse, and Gene Kelly don't mean anything to you, then A Woman Is a Woman probably won't either. But if they do, then the film will be a hell of a lot less meager, having some spice amidst all the pop art sugar. In 1961, Godard was a hot shot director, riding off the massive success of '60's Breathless, which remains to be his finest hour. Unavoidably, A Woman Is a Woman is minor, showing the director paying homage to the Hollywood musical with varied success.Godard's muse/wife Anna Karina portrays Angela, a young and overtly naïve stripper who longs to have a baby. Her boyfriend, Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy), refuses to commit to the decision. Desperate, Angela turns her attention towards Emile's best friend, Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo).A Woman Is a Woman pays one homage after the other, and in return, the film is more of a love letter than an actual film. Whenever Emile turns Angela's advances down, she responds with a babyish that's-not-fair! frown that mirrors the ingenue sensibilities of Debbie Reynolds or Sandra Dee. Angela works at a strip club that has all the exoticness of the one Barbara Stanwyck danced for in Ball of Fire (meaning there is zero exoticness to be found). Emile is the sensible Fred Astaire type and Alfred is his charming Van Johnson counterpart. But the characters never feel quite original; they're nearly echoes of the people Godard is trying to emulate.I find myself having the exact same problems in the majority of Godard's films. They bewitch you with their style, crowding the landscape with snappy American style advertisements, chic actors, and an eye for color that can range from the ice cold pizazz of a film noir to the gaudiness of a Technicolor musical. Yet it's as if Godard puts the story in his mouth and shreds it with his teeth; even if it's straightforward, it's detached, almost blasé. His films are so concentrated on flipping a genre movie onto its head that they seem to forget to be even somewhat compelling.But A Woman Is a Woman isn't without its charms. Godard's manipulation of sound swings the supposed score around and smashes it into a wall; the few musical sequences are inspired in their delivery. Karina, always a pleasure to watch, is simply lovely; Belmondo is lightly smug and ready to please as Brialy's foil.Nevertheless, A Woman Is a Woman is more self-serving than it is accessible. It is one of Godard's most elegantly shot films, but it lacks the heart of Breathless or Bande á part. Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com

cgodburn A Woman is a Woman is certainly Godard's most accessible work if you've never seen one of his films. Unfortunately for the rest of us, Godard's 1961 effort leaves the viewer yearning for the taste of his better work. That's not to say that "A Woman is a Woman" is a waste of time. The performances of Anna Karina, Jean-Claude Braily and Jean-Paul Belmondo are never less than fun to watch, and Godard genuinely seemed to have a good time teasing his audience by playing simple tricks, which include blasting an old fashioned score only to arbitrarily cut it out moments later. The score helps the film become a sort of pseudo- musical in which even the fights between the Karina character and Braily's become a sort of staged production. Scenes in which the two lovers insult each other by holding up book titles as well as a few glimpses of his master touch, keep this motorboat from stalling. On the other hand...It could be because he shot the film with only a loose outline and not a full script, or it could be that with all his references to Francois Truffaut's "Shoot the Piano Player,"Burt Lancaster and his own work, M. Godard is a little high on himself. Those references mean nothing to what's happening in the film and are intended to be amusing winks and nudges to the audience, most will enjoy this, others will feel their eyes starting to roll. When all is said and done, this film is the closest thing to "commercial" as Godard gets. The scenes in which Belmondo and Karina begin imitating each other seem like something out of a musical, and yet no one breaks out into song. The music is used instead to emphasize what is happening on screen, so much so that it comes off as less of an homage to the musical, but rather a satirical sucker punch. The music is so bombastic at times that it trivializes what they are arguing about, making the tiff between the two lovers seem almost unimportant. In fact, it makes what they're discussing quite comical. Initially, Godard does seem interested in exploring actions taken in relationships. Unlike, say, most American films about relationships, there doesn't seem to be a discussion of any of the people's moral character. Godard seems focused on how people act, not necessarily why. Love, is a human emotion that can't be explained, but what people do when they're in love can be filmed. It's frustrating that Godard didn't delve into this theme any deeper instead of concentrating on style...as stylish as it is. The film isn't for some, even most people. And although it has it's flaws, no one should be discouraged from watching A Woman is a Woman.