2 or 3 Things I Know About Her

2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle; art-film, France, 1967; D: Jean-Luc Godard, S: Marina Vlady, Roger Montsoret, Anny Duperey, Joseph Gehard, Jean Narboni

Paris. The narrator is talking how the government is enlarging the city without any care about the quality of life of it's 8 million inhabitants. Juliette is a married woman. Her husband is a journalist writing about the Vietnam War and occasionally likes to philosophize about life. Their daughter is constantly crying while their son is talking about his dream in which two twins became the same person that's a symbol for Vietnam. Since Juliette doesn't have enough money to buy everything she wants, she gets a honorary job as a prostitute. While walking on the streets she is thinking; "The world is me, I'm the world". With her friends she meets a lot of strange clients, like the American who let's them walk with bags on their heads. At the evening she returns to her family.

Jean-Luc Godard once again proves to be one of the most stylishly inventive directors of all times with his unusual art-drama "Two Or Three Things I Know About Her"; in the opening shots the voice of the Narrator can be heard, yet not talking with normal voice, but whispering (!), criticizing the new buildings that are being built around Paris. Since in all other films the Narrator is talking with a normal sound of voice, this one is a funny addition that creates an interesting atmosphere. Later on, the main actress Marina Vlady shows up in once scene and the Narrator says; "This is actress Marina Vlady. She has a blue sweater and brown hair. Now she turned her head towards right, but that doesn't mean anything". Then the same actress is seen from a different camera angle and the voice continues; "This is Juliette. She lives here. She has a blue sweater and brown hair. Now she turned her head...". "2 or 3" gets a little tedious and overlong near the end, and despite its qualities it would have deserved a grade less had it lasted even a minute longer. Godard is a very unusual director; his hermetic cinema language is incomprehensible for a lot of viewers. He simply cannot engage on the level of a story, only on the level of cinematic techniques and style. Some will argue that he is such an intellectual that his movies are too complex, too high to be understood by everyone. Others will argue that it's senseless to make films nobody gets. Since the anti-capitalistic story about a woman who becomes a prostitute for money in order to buy things is non-linear and without a climax, many will think it's irritating and unwatchable, but the author is cleverly symbolising the critique of consumerism that sucked in all her life.

Grade:+++