Une Femme Coquette

February 17, 2017 1:29 PM

An early and rare Godard short film, Une Femm Coquette, has been uploaded to youtube. [via].
posted by Think_Long (4 comments total)

If this film sounds familiar, it may be because it's the "holy grail" film of critic Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, whose article about trying to find a copy of it was posted here at MetaFilter. And if you're wondering if he's heard about it yet, he has.
posted by Awkward Philip at 1:42 PM on February 17, 2017 [6 favorites]

Well that got ugly at the end.
posted by octothorpe at 3:59 PM on February 17, 2017

Boy, that was fun—thanks so much for the post! I vividly remember the Vishnevetsky essay posted here, and how badly I (another JLG obsessive) wanted to see it; now I've checked it off my own list. Not a great movie, needless to say, but delightful and full of Godard obsessions, like panning along rows of windows and the myth of Amphitryon (see Hélas pour moi). This is the kind of thing I come to MeFi for!
posted by languagehat at 4:54 PM on February 17, 2017 [3 favorites]

Thank you so much for sharing this! Godard loves provocation, and I get the sense that a lot of his work would be looked upon harshly here...but a lot of his films are so steeped in second wave feminism that they make a colorful offset to Mefi's most cherished idées reçues. The man changed the history of cinema forever, and he did it without social media. That is truly an accomplishment!

Here is a link to the Maupassant story upon which the short film is based. I think it actually makes an interesting contrast to the modern way we tend to think about flirtation, sex work, and romantic propriety. It was written, after all, before the turn of the century. The last century...not the most recent one.

Godard was high minded, but he also had a sense of humor. Here are two great jokes in this short film: he credits himself in the title as "Hans Lucas" (The last of the credits says "Realisé par Hans Lucas.") This is a Germanization of his name, and it's not clear why he did this. It was either because his ego was so large that he wanted to downplay it, or because he actually had a shred of humility. I've seen enough of his work that I'm convinced it was the former. Also, the prostitute's first first client (the man who is wearing dark glasses and walks into the apartment from the sidewalk early in the film) is Godard himself.
posted by Mr. Fig at 6:39 AM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]