This movie is so happy! It's the ultimate date movie, has a virusoso cinematic technique and is as cute as my little puppy. Aww....
The movie stars the adorable (Edwin's words were never more true) Anna Karina as Angela, a burlesque dancer who wants to have a baby. She cohabits with Emile (Jean-Claude Braily), who doesn't. She's also best friends with Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo, the cool guy from Breathless) and thinks that perhaps he might be able to get the job done. There's not much more to the story than that, but you didn't think this was going to be about story anyway, did you? It's all about atmosphere, and style, and the cute things that Anna Karina says and does.
The movie is often said to be a musical. That only half true- music does play a huge role in this movie, but most of it is in recitives and is talked instead of sung, a la Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady. There is only one real song, which Karina performs at her semi-seedy club. Goddard plays with the element of sound in the film- music begins and stops abruptly, sometimes being louder than the dialouge. Sometimes he chooses to cut out the music and sound effects, and some shots have no sound at all.
We never forget that we are watching a movie, but somehow this just makes it easier to be emersed in the world of the film. There are few experiences betters than watching a film by a director who clearly loves the medium. Every element works- the acting (particularly by Karina and Belmondo), the sound, the widescreen photography, the cutting and the truly funny humor. A Woman is a Woman is sweet, in both senses of the word.
A Woman Is a Woman (1961)