A Married Woman

Jean-Luc Godard's 1964 modern portrait of love and sex in the media-saturated ‘60s serves up a collage of the life of a young wife who is having an affair. Macha Méril stars as Charlotte (a role that was clearly meant for Godard's wife and longtime muse Anna Karina, but they were separated at the time), a married woman who is not so much an individual as she is a product of her culture, defined by the bra ads that literally loom over her as she walks the streets. Married to an older intellectual who has a condescending attitude, this superficial beauty seeks release in an affair with a handsome actor but refuses to choose one man over the other. A Married Woman opens on a montage in which Charlotte is reduced to parts—legs, arms, back, lips, midriff (isolated glimpses suggesting those erogenous zones that could not be photographed in a mainstream feature film)—caressed by her unidentified lover. Shot in creamy cool black-and-white by longtime cinematographer Raoul Coutard with a strikingly handsome formality that is both erotic and removed—suggesting a physical intimacy and an emotional disconnection even in the most intimate scenes of lovemaking and pillow talk—the film was a cause célèbre in France after the censorship board initially banned it, going on to become one of the most financially successful films of Godard's career (although overshadowed by his more overtly political and more stylistically daring films). Today, it stands out as one of his most emotionally sympathetic movies, with Godard's feeling for the lost married woman coming across as quite genuine. Bowing on DVD and Blu-ray in newly restored editions, extras include interviews with Méril, fashion designer and film producer Agnès B., and Godard scholar Antoine de Baecque. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)