Title: Masculin Feminin
Year: 1966
Director: Jean Luc Godard
Country; France
Language: French
The French New waved freed Cinema from the grip of the studio system. Using a low budget, shooting on-location, with amateur actors gave films like Truffaut's The 400 Blows (1959) & Masculin Feminin (1966) a cinema verite docutmentary feel. These auteurs made filmmaking feel accessible and gave influenced how modern movies are made.
Paul (Jean Pierre Leaud) is young, just demobbed from national service in the French Army, and disillusioned with civilian life. As his girlfriend (Chantal Goya) builds herself a career as a pop singer, Paul becomes more isolated from his friends and peers.
Masculin Feminin is a window into Parisian society in the 1960's. It is about youth, consumerism, sexual politics and the effect capitalism has on society. Told in a series of vignettes, one intertitle says "These are the children of Karl Marx and Coca-Cola." You'd think that these ideas would seem dated - but actually the themes still matter in today's culture.
The presentation of Masculin Feminin is familiar; Godard using jump cuts, tracking shots and dialogue heavy scenes to establish a relationship between the audience and his characters. He asks us to analyze their choices and make our on judgements on their ethics. It's a film you'll be thinking about after the credits roll.
A mix of satire, melodrama, and comedy Masculin Feminin is an engaging picture that is still poignant and relevant today. I will buy the Criterion Collection Blu-Ray in the near future. 
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