Past Film/Video | Classics | Series & Festivals

A Woman Is a Woman

(Jean-Luc Godard, 1961, France)

35MM Print

A woman waves her hat, she is wearing a white sailing outfit.

One of the most playful films of the French New Wave, A Woman Is a Woman is both a tribute to and a parody of classic musicals.

Jean-Luc Godard described A Woman Is a Woman as “a neorealist musical—that is a contradiction in terms.” Featuring some of the most iconic superstars of the French New Wave, it is perhaps the warmest and most accessible of the director’s innovative body of work. The film tells the story of an exotic dancer (Anna Karina) as she attempts to have a child with her lover (Jean-Claude Brialy). When he refuses, she becomes torn between him and his best friend (Jean-Paul Belmondo), resulting in a dizzying delight full of color, humor, music, and tributes to cinema itself. Featuring a score by Michel Legrand (best known for his work on The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, screening July 6!), the film received the jury prize from the Berlin Film Festival for its “originality, youth, audacity, and impertinence.” In French with English subtitles. (84 mins., 35mm)

See the entire Musicals! Summer World Tour lineup.

IMAGE CAPTION
A Woman Is a Woman, courtesy of Rialto Pictures.

"Celebrates female empowerment and takes sly jabs at Hollywood film conventions."
Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

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COPROMOTIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Getaway Brewing
Seventh Son
Antiques on High

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY 
National Endowment for the Arts 
Ohio Humanities

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY 
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY 
Ohio Department of Development

Greater Columbus Arts Council

The Wexner Family 
Institute of Museum and Library Services

Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts 
CampusParc 
Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme 
The Columbus Foundation 
Axium Packaging 
Nationwide Foundation 
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY 
Mike and Paige Crane 
Nancy Kramer 
Ohio State Energy Partners 
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection 
Larry and Donna James 
David Crane and Elizabeth Dang 
Bruce and Joy Soll 
Melissa Gilliam and William Grobman 
Rebecca Perry Damsen and Ben Towle 
Jones Day 
Alex and Renée Shumate

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A Woman Is a Woman