Paul is a young man living in Paris who has recently finished his military service and is now looking for places to work, a place to live, and a place to belong. Madeleine is a photo editor with a French fashion magazine looking for a place to belong. When they meet in a café, they fall in love. However, despite their emotional relationship, they never connect intellectually and remain distant.
According to one of the flashcards in the film, Jean-Luc Godard could have called his film Masculin, féminin “For the children of Marx and Coca-Cola.” Paul struggles to find a cause to believe in, wavering between his relationship with Madeleine, his job, and socialist causes. Despite his desire to remain true to his beliefs, he always comes back to Madeleine.
Even his friend Robert, who chastises Paul for not being more of an activist, abandons his ideals and attempts to go out with one of Madeleine’s friends. As she eats an apple, Catherine-Isabelle explains to Robert that she is not interested in him yet continues to symbolically tempt him.
Modern life seems to become rubbish and pop culture overpowers politics. Both seem repetitive. When signing a petition, Paul remarks that “Last week it was Madrid, this week it’s Rio de Janeiro; where will it be next week?” and Robert replies that it could be Lisbon, Baghdad, or any number of cities. He asks citizens a number of questions during his work as a pollster but feels that irrespective of the question, nobody really tells the truth and chooses instead to hide behind a mask.
Paul becomes so disillusioned with life and believes it is almost meaningless. During the film, he watches number of people die violently: a woman shoots her husband, a man immolates himself protesting Vietnam, another stabs himself, and two prospective muggers pull a gun and shoot a woman on the Metro. Later, Paul dies in a totally random incident that is not even captured on film, only recounted by witnesses at a police station.
Goddard shot the film on a shoestring budget and employs many of his famous methods, such as jump cuts between non-sequitor scenes, monologues that ignore characters on screen and break down the fourth wall, and scenes filmed on location near Place Dupleix in the 15ième arrondissement. It’s a memorable, although slightly confusing, Nouvelle Vague film. ***