Jean-Luc Godard is never one to make conventional movies. At his peak in the 1960’s he used his auteur status to experiment with film style. This resulted in movies that in many cases had no story or plot. His 1967 movie, “Two or three things I know about her”, does not even contain any real characterization within its cast. It is just a movie of intellectual, as well as cinematic, ideas. The question is whether that is enough to make the movie watchable.
The movie on its face value follows 24 hours in the life of a middle-class Parisian housewife who lives in a new, and ugly, suburban, Highrise complex, and needs to turn to prostitution to make ends meet. There should be a fascinating story within this premise and Godard himself used a similar premise to create one of his most watchable movies, “My life to live”. In,” 2 or 3 things…”, he does not care about the actual housewife, Juliette (Marina Vlady), but only uses her predicament as a premise for his left-wing criticism of the United States, and the commercialism of France.
Godard makes use of a trick that calls for all the characters in the movie to speak directly into the camera in numerous shots, looking confused and uncertain while doing this. The reason for this is that Godard had an earphone implanted in their ears and would ask them questions, which were previously unknown to them, and for which they were required to respond to. This was happening at the same time as he was shooting the scene. In a sense he was playing with a documentary style within a fictional movie. Meanwhile incorporated into the proceedings through characters such as Juliette’s husband and son, were numerous politically charged speeches, mostly about American action in Vietnam. The small son is given a monologue about a dream that is an analogy on the current war and the belief that removing the Americans would lead to a united and peaceful Vietnam.
Another important element to the movie is the, new at the time, development of high-rise block residences in the suburbs of Paris. Directly opposed to the beauty of this great city, these construction sites and completed monstrosities represent the cultural ruin of France through American style commercialism. Godard is directly hinting here at the topic of prostitution being a means of maintaining this barren lifestyle. My perception of the movie was that the prostitution of Juliette’s body is the same as the prostitution of her soul to profit making commercialism. We are shown loud, harsh, and noisy scenes of construction and at one-point there is a shot of American products strewn on the ground, for all to see, like a metaphor. There is also one rooftop scene that is a 180-degree tracking shot centered on Juliette and spanning the totality of this suburban nightmare. In fact, Godard tells us at the beginning of the movie through his deep whispering narration that the, “she”, he is referring to in the title is the City of Paris.
All this sounds rather clever and I am sure that Godard and many others thought it was. Unfortunately, I found everything rather pretentious and preachy. For me stating an opinion and comparing prostitution to an opposing lifestyle choice is not very convincing. It also does not help that this movie with its lack of emotion or story is extremely boring.
1001 Movies before you die 