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"One of Godard's most rewarding films"

Written By: Le_Samourai

A large blue, white, and red colored block lettered placard initially defines the referential elle of the film title as the Paris region as an off-screen narrator (Jean-Luc Godard) speaking in whispered, barely audible tone provides a contextual reference of the year 1966 through the annotation of Paul Delouvrier's appointment as prefect of the newly created Paris region juxtaposed against the images (and din) of heavy machinery, construction, and urban traffic. A subsequent vignette provides a secondary definition of elle, as the narrator provides an abstractly clinical description of the film's lead actress, Marina Vlady, a photogenic young woman of Russian ancestry who recites the Brechtian methodology to "speak as though quoting the truth" before truncating her pensive reflection in mid sentence and turning away from the camera to the right of the screen, revealing her strikingly luminous profile. A quick, unmatched cut of the actress in medium shot, still overlooking a high-rise building from the balcony of a comparably high-density residential complex, introduces a third elle into the variable equation: the attractive, but intriguingly inscrutable heroine, Juliette Jeanson (M. Vlady), the wife of a financially struggling, yet seemingly content and undermotivated mechanic (and passive intellectual) named Robert (Roger Montsoret) who, as the actress herself had similarly performed earlier, articulates a passing idea through a half finished sentence - this time, in reference to popular (and prolific) detective and mystery author Georges Simenon and his novel, Banana Tourists - before turning to the left of the screen ...an opposite, but equally reflexive gesture that, as the narrator once again comments, is of no importance. The three elles ultimately define the film's discursive plane as the camera follows Juliette in the course of a typical day in the life of the young wife and mother as she performs her domestic tasks, shops, meets friends, and prostitutes herself to make ends meet in the uncertain socioeconomic climate of postwar Paris as the newly created regional administrative goverment rushes headlong towards rapid urbanization.

Two or Three Things I Know About Her is a highly eccentric and audaciously complex, but sincere, passionate, and infinitely fascinating exposition on identity, modernization, international politics, and consumerism. Articulated though the repeated reflection, "a landscape is like a face", Jean-Luc Godard juxtaposes images of large-scale urban construction with character opacity and depersonalized sexuality in order to intrinsically correlate the incalculable human consequence of reckless government policy: an irresponsibility that is not only evident internationally, in the increasingly complex and aggressive U.S. foreign policy stemming from the Cold War (and particularly, its effect on the prolongation of the Vietnam conflict), but also domestically, as the Paris regional government constructs an alienating and culturally neutered modern industrial landscape in the wake of globalization (an economic reality that Godard, rather than characterize as an inevitable consequence of technological progress and innovation, unfairly identifies as another symptom of American aggression). Godard's compositions of impersonal structures and desolate cityscapes - an undoubted influence on the cinema of Chantal Akerman - serve as a visual abstraction of urbanization and cultural flux that inherently reflect Godard's deconstruction of images (or pre-defined filmic cues) in order to convey the syntactical difference between an object's meaning and its significance. It is the filmmaker's personal quest to find the unifying root of this implicit duality that is captured in the recurring image of the attenuating vortex of a cup of black coffee - an allusion to organic genesis in its coincidental resemblance to spiral galactical formation and nuclear mitosis - a desire to return to the origin of the fracture: to reconcile one's abstract, intellectual knowledge with real, tangible, true human understanding.

"This is one of the most self-indulgent films I have ever seen in my life."

Written By: Ron

I really do not understand what is so great about Godard? He has got to be one of the most self-indulgent filmmakers ever. There's no narrative, plot nor characters in "2 or 3 Things I Know About Her." There's plenty of director's point-of-view--but that's about it. All right--so he's against the establishment. Ho hum. What else is new? At least he could've shown it in an interesting way instead of telling it to us in a boring manner. I personally think Godard gives arthouse filmmaking a bad name. All kinds of words come to mind if I had to describe Godard, such as pretentious, esoteric and overrated.

"a housewife moonlights as a prostitute"

Written By: Ted

This review is for the Criteiron Collection DVD edition of the film

2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, released in France as "2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle" is a film about a married woman with two children who starts working as a prostitute to make extra money. The film was inspired by a letter to the editor of a French newspaper.

It was directed by Jean-luc Godard and one of three films he produced in the year of its release.


The film includes some great scenes of the business district of Paris and the cinematography is excellent.

The supplements are quite good also.

There is a TV special featuring actress, Marina Vlady, on the set of the film and another of director Jean-luc Godard discussing the ethics of prostution with some other people. There is also a video essay about the film, a new interview with theater director, Antoine Bourseiller, who is a former friend of Godard, a theatrical trailer, and audio commentary by Australian film scholar, Adrian Martin.

The liner notes also include the letter to the editor which inspired the film.

"GODARD, IN COLOR AND IN HIS PRIME"

Written By: Randy Buck

Many critics consider this 1967 Godard film to be among his very best, with several stating flatly it's the hands-down winner. (Amy Taubin makes an interesting case for this point of view in her essay for the current Criterion release.) I don't share that opinion, nor would I recommend this film as an introduction to Godard's work for the novice viewer. That said, there's still plenty to fascinate. Most of his usual markers (gorgeous actress front and center, prostitution as a plot device -- in this instance, used to pay for the heroine's middle-class lifestyle -- contempt for America and the Vietnam war, use of alienation devices that make Brecht look like Walt Disney) are on display, with varying degrees of impact. Godard's whispered narration is wearying; even with subtitles, that constant hissing annoys. But what a pleasure, after years of bad art-house prints, to see the cinematography, vibrant in its restoration, snap, crackle and pop with the comic-book vigor intended. This movie's gorgeous, the visuals are frequently laugh-out-loud funny, and, despite its obscurities and eccentricities, leaves the viewer pondering its message for days. Repays investigation for the dedicated viewer.

"hmmmmmmmmmmmmm............................oh i get it."

Written By: David Treneff

Godard's most intensive foray into the meaningless, blather of French philosophy in the 1960's. Throughout, you are treated (unfairly) to the director's whispering voice-over, which is unbearable, while the content of his narration is even worse. Even the child is a pretentious little wanker. Overall, an extremely indulgent film that does nothing, says nothing and above all means nothing. Godard is much more clever and effective when he uses techniques such as these in a more subtle, restrained fashion, such as in Pierrot Le Fou. More proof why Existenialism, Post-Modernism, and Structuralism should be laid to waste. I don't like Foucalt mixing with my Godard. Perhaps a treat for those who admire this particular school of thought, but I really cannot stomach it. Sorry.