Ostensibly approachable, this film from French icon Jean-Luc Godard is an homage to/butchering of classic Hollywood musical tropes, built around the flimsy drama of a stripper (Anna Karina) trying to convince her boyfriend (Jean-Paul Belmondo) to have a baby with her. There are hardly any full musical numbers – mostly just snippets of song and dance, mid-scene, that exist only to call attention to themselves. The same could be said of most of the film. For all its pseudo-philosophy – “What are you thinking?” “I think I exist” goes one exchange – and sexual politics (questionable at best), A Woman is a Woman ultimately feels like something a self-impressed film student made over the weekend with his friends. It’s Godard breaking down the past, but unlike in Breathless (his previous feature), he doesn’t seem as sure about what to do with the pieces.
