I'll tell you why so serious

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Shot back-to-back with Made in U.S.A. (his farewell to ex-wife Anna Karina), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her is one of Jean-Luc Godard most visually arresting, insightful and personal films. Inspired by an article in Le Nouvel Observateur about housewives prostituting themselves in Paris to fund their consumerist lifestyles, Godard uses this as the foundation to explore many other themes throughout the film, tackling everything from philosophy, politics, the ongoing Vietnam War, sexuality and, probably most important of all, France itself (the 'Her' of the title).There is little plot to the film, and instead Godard uses every film-making technique in his arsenal to take the audience on a journey through the Paris suburbs, having his characters delve into rambling monologues, often responding to questions or regurgitating lines fed through an ear-piece by Godard himself. The main focus is Juliette (Marina Vlady), who occasionally prostitutes herself so she can buy pretty clothes or perhaps just to relieve herself of the boredom of the consumerist lifestyle, while her husband Robert (Roger Monsoret) listens to speeches on the radio regarding America's involvement in Vietnam.It's with his over-simplified characterisation of Juliette that 2 or 3 Things fails to hit the mark. She is beautiful and intelligent, but seems to only truly love shopping or catching the eye of a handsome man in a cafe. There's little of the free-spirited charisma that Karina embodied in her various roles under Godard, but perhaps that's the point. Themes are often explored with a remarkable lack of subtlety, with the director's obvious opposition to the illegal war in Vietnam cropping up many times throughout the film, with photographs of victims of the war spliced into a rather silly scene involving an 'American' photographer (with a heavy French accent) and his odd fetish with placing bags over ladies heads and having them act out a routine.Far more impressive are the visuals, with the celebrated shot of a swirling espresso while Godard whispers about his own inadequacy being the most memorable image, and the sheer ambition of a project shot so quickly. Godard is both criticised and adorned for being simply too intellectual and obtuse for film, and 2 or 3 Things is one of the greatest examples of his unwillingness to craft a digestible film for his select audience. The dialogue is often wonderful and poetic, yet sometimes it's rambling nonsense, spoken by characters who have no place in the story, almost as if Godard got bored and moved his camera to a conversation he found more interesting. It's both frustrating and fascinating to see a director of such singular vision, and while there is little of the excitement and energy of his early New Wave work, 2 or 3 Things is an experience like no other.

Director Jean-Luc Godard came from the old school of filmmaking, the way Andrew Sarris approached looking at a film, watching a movie and understanding it as if it was a novel or some literary product- you could start at the beginning, and follow a line of thought through to the end. Breathless may have been his biggest hit, because it was his most easily accessible film, referencing Film Noir and Bogart all the way through to tap into the American love of thriller.Living in a constantly renovating Paris, Juliette Janson (Marina Vlady) lives with her husband struggling daily with making more money and keeping pace with the ever-expanding consumerism of the urban environment. Juliette has taken to prostitution to make more money for the household and in an afternoon meeting she and a friend supply pleasure for an American gentleman. The act has a depleting effect on her but she accepts it in order to keep up with the growing economic pressures of marriage and family.2 or 3 Things I Know About Her feels like a far more mature work as the director uses a variety of techniques to get his point across. In one scene where Juliette and a friend entertain the fetishistic attentions of a "John" in and afternoon tryst while wearing airline carrying bags over their heads is, even by today's standards, super-kinky and LMAO-funny as well. This is definitely not one of those easily accessible movies that consist of a comic book mentality, but one that trusts its audience to be interested and stick with it until the last brittle image of a variety of consumer products laid out across a green suburban lawn.Writer Catherine Vimenet, and Jean-Luc Godard make the most of a sound track that has the director practically whispering conspiratorially to an audience as he tells the tale of the main character. It's a mammoth project, and very sophisticated, but Godard doesn't spoon-feed any of us. He's got something to say, and to make sure you listen he whispers it with urgency on a soundtrack that alternately explodes with the sounds of construction in the city of light.Far from being out of the ordinary, this particular style of filmmaking is something Goddard seems to prefer over the structured narrative forms of some other "New Wave" filmmakers. The narrative includes a distancing effect on the viewer so that no mistake can be made between story teller and intended listener. One particular stand-out section includes an extreme close up of sugar being stirred into a cup of coffee as Goddard's narration reflects on the sound track about how meaning in our lives is achieved through perception- a typical Goddard viewpoint that her was in its incipient stages.If 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her leaves you cold, it may be due to your own perception of what cinema is and how film narrative functions to involve the viewer. Goddard is still a filmmaker at heart, and his use of cinematographer Raoul Coutard to create an alluring visual palette for the viewer is impressive to say the least. Coutard is known for his work on a handful of characteristically "New Wave" films, Breathless in 1960, Jules and Jim in 1962, Z in 1969, and Pierrot le Fou in 1965. The imagery he creates here serves the film well, and may have you coming back for more.

Godard is a God ard. Some people find his films easy. Some find his films hard, Godard is a cinema BardWith "Breathless," Godard created new wave cinema in 1960. With this movie, Godard created postmodern cinema. The amazing thing is how much this film captures a moment in time and space. In fact, in one scene, we are told that it is being filmed on August 17, 1966. We can say that this the date when the Postmodernist world was born.One has to see it as a transition from Pop Art to Postmodernist art. Part of the film is obsessed with the artistic nature of household products. Part of the film is a meditation on our lack of being and our amazing relationship to language.Godard's treatment of woman is quaintly pre-feminist. He is treating them as sex objects,yet at one moment he asks a woman to speak about the sex between her legs. The woman rebukes her and tells her its stupid. Another astonishing moment in a film that has many.The film is non-narrative for the most part. It is Brechtian theater translated into cinema. Godard proves that non-narrative cinema can provide a great deal of pleasure, foreshadowing the future - present cinema.Godard is a God ard.

Godard made '2 ou 3 Choses...' more or less at the peak of his creativity. It was also made 'at the same time' as 'Made in USA'. The latter film is, for me, the beginning of the end of Godard as a major contributor to cinema, This, on the other hand, seems to be quite wonderful.Godard had always been interested in 'prostitution', literally and metaphorically. Here he monumentalises his theme. Juliette Jeanson is a fabulous intensely feminine creation, magnificently played by Marina Vlady. Augmenting her housekeeping money by prostitution as a rather more down-market version of 'Belle de Jour', she muses about her life and its meaning.This is a film in which it is not the 'plot' or the 'narrative' or even the dialogue that conveys meaning, it is the counterpoint between the images, the dialogue and the situation. This is massively enhanced by the director's use of his own voice as a kind of commentary. 'Shall I speak of Juliette or the leaves on the trees...' etc.In a way, the film is also an essay on subjectivity and the way that people are treated as objects in certain aspects of capitalism. I hasten to add that I do not swallow Godard's uncritical Marxism, but there is quite enough in this film to make you think long and hard about modern society - today just as much as when it was made.But the great thing about the film is that it is not just an intellectual exercise, less a piece of unthinking propaganda. It is a film with a heart and Juliette is one of the most lovable female characters in 60s French cinema.The downside for the here and now is that, of all of the serious films of its era, this is arguably the one that least fits on a television. The Techniscope seems to be the widest image that the cinema allows and trim anything from the edges of Godard's images at your peril. So the trick is to see it in a cinema!