A Woman Is a Woman

A Woman Is a Woman (Une femme est une femme, 1961) is Jean-Luc Godard's only comedy and his first colour film. The story follows a love triangle: exotic dancer Angéla (Anna Karina, then Godard's wife) longs for a child, but her boyfriend Émile (Jean-Claude Brialy) is not yet ready, so he suggests she become pregnant by their mutual friend Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo). The film is a playful homage to Hollywood musicals and simultaneously a parody of them — Godard works with Michel Legrand's music, employs characteristic jump-cuts and direct looks from actors into the camera, deliberately breaking the illusion of the cinematic world. In its tone, the film approaches the poetics of Jacques Demy and references other key films of the French New Wave. At the 1961 Berlin Film Festival, Anna Karina won the Silver Bear for Best Actress, and Godard received a special jury prize. The screening takes place at Kino Aero on Prague's Žižkov, one of the oldest film clubs in the Czech Republic.