THE SOUND OF A GENERATION THINKING ALOUD.

A group of young Parisians bounce between politics, pop music, love affairs, and idle conversations, searching for meaning in a rapidly changing world. At the center is Paul (Jean-Pierre Léaud), an earnest romantic trying, and often failing, to connect with Madeleine (real-life yé-yé girl Chantal Goya), an emerging pop singer more attuned to fame than ideology.

Part essay film, part romantic comedy, part social document, Jean-Luc Godard’s Masculin Féminin captures the pulse of 1960s youth culture with wit and fragmentation. Jumping between interviews, slogans, and intimate moments, the film captures the contradictions of a generation caught between revolution and consumerism and shaped how youth culture would be documented on screen.

Selected for Letterboxd Video Store by guest curator Richard Linklater

In French with English subtitles available.