''Two or Three Things I Know About Her'' (french: Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle) is a 1967

French New Wave French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...

film written and directed by

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran ...

, one of three features he completed that year. As with the other two ('' La Chinoise'' and '' Weekend''), it is considered both socially and stylistically radical. ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'' critic

Amy Taubin Amy Taubin (born September 10, 1938) is an American author and film critic. She is a contributing editor for two prominent film magazines, the British ''Sight & Sound'' and the American ''Film Comment''. She has also written regularly for '' The ...

considers the film to be among the greatest achievements in filmmaking.

Description

The film does not tell a story so much as present an essay-like study of Godard's view of contemporary life; Godard wrote that "I wanted to include everything: sports, politics, even groceries. Everything should be put in a film." Godard narrates the film in a whispered

voiceover Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non- diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. ...

in which he discusses his fears about the contemporary world, including those related to the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. The film frequently cuts to various still shots of bright consumer products and ongoing construction. As with many of Godard's works, the film does not follow the

narrative arc A story arc (also narrative arc) is the chronological construction of plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, board games, vide ...

of conventional cinema with an introduction, conflict and resolution. Instead, it presents 24 hours in the sophisticated but empty life of Juliette Jeanson, a seemingly bourgeois married mother and prostitute. Juliette begins her day by dropping her screaming child off with a man who provides care for the children of prostitutes. Her uneventful daily routine of shopping, housework and child-rearing is interspersed with client encounters. All of the film's sexual interplay is banal rather than erotic, and one client, an American wearing a shirt with his country's flag, demands that the women whom he has hired wear airline shopping bags over their heads. Although the film had a script, the cast often breaks the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

, looking into the camera and delivering seemingly random monologues about life and themselves. Vlady and other actors wore earpieces through which Godard asked surprise questions, often catching her off-guard because she was required to give spontaneous answers that were appropriate to her character. The film features

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

's String Quartet No. 16 in

F major F major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative minor is D minor and its parallel minor is F minor. The F major scale is: : F major is ...

, Op. 135.

Cast

Marina Vlady Marina Vlady (born 10 May 1938) is a French actress. Biography Vlady was born in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine to White Russian immigrant parents. Her father was an opera singer and her mother was a dancer. Her sisters, now all deceased, were the ac ...

as Juliette Jeanson * Roger Montsoret as Robert Jeanson *

Anny Duperey Anny Duperey (born Annie Legras; 28 June 1947) is a French actress, published photographer and best-selling author with a career spanning almost six decades as of 2021 and more than eighty cinema or television credits, around thirty theatre pr ...

as Marianne *

Raoul Lévy Raoul Levy (14 April 1922 – 31 December 1966) was a French film producer, writer and director best known for a series of movies he made starring Brigitte Bardot. He was born in Antwerp. Biography He committed suicide after losing most of his fortu ...

as John Bogus, the American * Jean Narboni as Roger *

Juliet Berto Juliet Berto (16 January 1947 – 10 January 1990), born Annie Jamet, was a French actress, director and screenwriter. A member of the same loose group of student radicals as Anne Wiazemsky, she first appeared in Jean-Luc Godard's ''Two or Three ...

as girl talking to Robert *

Christophe Bourseiller Christophe Bourseiller (; born Christophe Gintzburger; born 27 September 1957 in Paris) is a French actor, writer, freemason and journalist. He began as a child actor and starred in Yves Robert's '' War of the Buttons'' (''La Guerre des boutons'') ...

as Christophe Jeanson * Marie Bourseiller as Solange Jeanson

Background

Godard began production in the summer of 1966. Shortly afterward, he was approached by producer Georges de Beauregard to quickly make a film to offset a financial shortfall incurred after

Jacques Rivette Jacques Rivette (; 1 March 1928 – 29 January 2016) was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine '' Cahiers du Cinéma''. He made twenty-nine films, including '' L'amour f ...

's film '' The Nun'' (1966) was banned by the French government. Godard agreed and began production on '' Made in U.S.A'' (1966), his last film with

Anna Karina Anna Karina (born Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer; September 22, 1940 – December 14, 2019)

. Godard would shoot ''Two or Three Things I Know About Her'' in the morning and ''Made in U.S.A'' in the afternoon simultaneously each day for one month. The film was first inspired by an article by Catherine Vimenet in ''

Le Nouvel Observateur (), previously known as (1964–2014), is a weekly French news magazine. Based in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, it is the most prominent French general information magazine in terms of audience and circulation. Its current editor is Cécil ...

'' about prostitution in the suburbs, titled "Les étoiles filantes" ("The Shooting Stars"). Godard stated that during the film he wanted "to include everything: sports, politics, even groceries" and that the film was "... a continuation of the movement begun by Resnais in '' Muriel'': an attempt at description of a phenomenon known in mathematics and sociology as a 'complex'." The film's most famous shot is a lengthy

close-up A close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production, photography, still photography, and the comic strip medium is a type of shot (filmmaking), shot that tightly film frame, frames a person or object. Close-ups are one of the standard s ...

of a cup of coffee. In an essay, Godard stated that "... basically what I am doing is making the spectator share the arbitrary nature of my choices, and the quest for general rules which might justify a particular choice." He added, "I watch myself filming, and you hear me thinking aloud. In other words, it isn't a film, it's an attempt at a film and presented as such."

Themes

Juliette lives in one of many luxurious high-rises being erected in the ''

banlieue In France, the term banlieue (; ) refers to a suburb of a large city. Banlieues are divided into autonomous administrative entities and do not constitute part of the city proper. For instance, 80% of the inhabitants of the Paris Metropolitan A ...

s'' (suburbs) of Paris. Though the structures were meant to provide housing to families working in the growing capital during the prosperous post-war years, Godard sees the ''banlieues'' as the infrastructure for promoting a value system based on

consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the su ...

, a term he equates with prostitution itself. Godard argued that a consumerist society demands a workforce living in regimented time and space, forced to work jobs they don't like, "a prostitution of the mind."''Zoom'', 25 October 1966, available on the ''Criterion Collection'' DVD edition of the film. On 25 October 1966, Godard appeared on the television program ''Zoom'' to debate with government official Jean St. Geours, who had predicted that advertising would increase, as the basic impulse of the French society at the time was to increase its standard of living. Godard explained that he saw advertisers as the pimps who enslave women to the point at which they give their bodies without compunction, because they have been convinced that what they can buy has more potential to bring happiness than does the loving enjoyment of sex. As with many of Godard's films from the mid-1960s onward, ''Two or Three Things I Know About Her'' demonstrates his growing disenchantment with the United States. This contrasts with his earlier

films such as '' Breathless'' (1960) that make admiring references to American cinema and actors.

Title

A promotional poster for the film offered different meanings for the "her" of the title, each one a French

feminine noun In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns ...

: * HER, the cruelty of neo-capitalism * HER, prostitution * HER, the Paris region * HER, the bathroom that 70% of the French don't have * HER, the terrible law of huge building complexes * HER, the physical side of love * HER, the life of today * HER, the war in Vietnam * HER, the modern call-girl * HER, the death of modern beauty * HER, the circulation of ideas * HER, the

gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

of structures.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "''Two or Three Things I Know About Her'' marks a turning point in Godard's filmography – one that may confound more narratively dependent audiences, but rewards repeated viewings."

Awards

''Two or Three Things I Know About Her'' won the Prix Marilyn Monroe in 1967 from a jury that included

Marguerite Duras Marguerite Germaine Marie Donnadieu (, 4 April 1914 – 3 March 1996), known as Marguerite Duras (), was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker. Her script for the film '' Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959) e ...

and Florence Malraux. Many regard the film as being among Godard's most significant works. It received 19 top-10 votes (16 from critics and three from directors) in the 2012 ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

'' poll of the greatest films ever made.

American re-release

The film was re-released in

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

on 17 November 2006 for a two-week run at

Film Forum Film Forum is a nonprofit movie theater at 209 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. It began in 1970 as an alternative screening space for independent films, with 50 folding chairs, one projector and a $19,000 annual budget. Kare ...

in New York City.

References

External links

* *
''2 or 3 Things I Know About Her: The Whole and Its Parts''
– an essay by

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Two Or Three Things I Know About Her 1967 films 1967 comedy-drama films 1960s avant-garde and experimental films 1960s French films 1960s French-language films Films about prostitution in Paris Films based on newspaper and magazine articles Films directed by Jean-Luc Godard Films produced by Anatole Dauman Films shot in Paris French avant-garde and experimental films French comedy-drama films