Une Femme Mariee (1964)

A wife (Macha Meril) aimlessly drifts between morning affairs with her lover (Bernard Noel) and her paternalistic husband (Philippe Leroy).  Unsure if she loves either man, she must eventually come to terms with her emotional infidelities. Directed by Jean Luc Godard. Like a lot of Godard's films, UNE FEMME MARIEE is both fascinating and irritating, very often in the same frame. What are we to make of Godard’s heroine (beautifully embodied by Meril)? She doesn’t seem very bright but she’s constantly asking questions, probing. She seems more concerned with how others react to or perceive her yet she seems somehow more in touch with herself than the more intellectual men, husband Philippe Leroy and lover Bernard Noel, in her life. Godard photographs his actors in fragments of body parts: hands, arms, neck, stomach, backs and in Meril’s case, legs (and who can blame him?) but since Meril is often naked (which the men aren’t), if I didn’t know Godard better I would swear he was objectifying her. What’s it all about? Like Godard’s heroine, I haven’t a clue but it’s a compelling watch.