Two or Three Things I Know About Her

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This article was published 03/11/2008 (6210 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILM REVIEW: TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER
By Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune Movie Critic
4 stars
“Two or Three Things I Know About Her” is one of the most beautiful films of the young Jean-Luc Godard, a great French cineaste, poet and frustrated lover. All of Godard’s various roles and grand illusions fuse in this ironic and passionate 1967 work: a largely improvised examination into 24 hours in the life of a young, working-class woman, Juliette Janson (Marina Vlady), married to a garage mechanic (Roger Montsoret), living with him and their son (Christophe Bourseiller) in the suburbs of Paris and working as a hooker to supplement the family income.
The “Two or Three Things” scenario is based on a series of articles in the French newsweekly “Le Nouvel Observateur,” pieces that exposed the then-current phenomenon of prostitution among “average” Parisian housewives. Godard treats the material partly as if his film were a TV documentary framing a Cinemascope romantic drama. He shows frequent shots of the reconstruction of the city. He has his actors and actresses – in a cast that includes Vlady, Anny Duperey (as her friend Marianne), producer Raoul Levy (as a crass American Vietnam War correspondent named Bogus) – repeatedly address the camera. He himself narrates the film, musing on politics, philosophy and “Being and Nothingness.” We are always strongly aware that we are watching a film, and that it is Godard’s voice that keeps speaking to us.
It is clear that the director is infatuated with the Russian-French Vlady, as he and his great cinematographer, Raoul Coutard, bathe her in light. (Godard proposed to Vlady twice during the movie and was turned down.) It is clear also that he adores Paris, the “her” of the film’s title. One of the movie’s most memorable shots lyrically evokes Godard’s state of mind in the intellectuals’ Paris of cafes and chatter: an overhead shot of a cup of coffee, with swirling froth and bubbles, over which the filmmaker ruminates. So sad he sounds, so pensive. In the end, he didn’t win the woman or the political struggle that obsessed him, but he did give us two or three other things.
“Two or Three Things I Know About Her”
Directed and written by Jean-Luc Godard; based on articles in Le Nouvel Observateur by Catherine Vimenet; photographed by Raoul Coutard; edited by Francoise Collin; music by Ludwig van Beethoven; produced by Philippe Dussart. In French with English subtitles. A Rialto Pictures release; opens Friday at The Music Box Theatre. Running time: 1:24. No MPAA rating (sexual themes, nudity and language).
Juliette Janson – Marina Vlady
Robert Janson – Roger Montsoret
Roger – Jean Narboni
Marianne – Anny Duperey
John Bogus – Raoul Levy
Bouvard and Pecuchet – Claude Miller and Jean-Patrick Lebel
Narrator – Jean-Luc Godard