Charlotte and Her Boyfriend (1960)

Jean-Luc Godard's Comic Short from the Breathless Criterion DVD

Apr 20, 2009

Godard's 13-minute short film about a man who wastes no time in explaining why his girlfriend is to blame for their break-up holds wide appeal for cinephiles.

An American watching Charlotte et son Jules, or Charlotte and Her Boyfriend, may be inundated with past visions of men berating women in similar fashion, in similar scenarios, in similar films, like Spike Lee’s She's Gotta Have It.

Anne Collette is Charlotte in Jean-Luc Godard’s Charlotte et son Jules as Tracy Camilla Johns was Nola Darling in Spike Lee’s 1986 homage to Godard; as Charlotte et son Jules was Godard’s homage to Jean Cocteau’s one-act play Le Bel Indifférent.

Before the flashbacks to Spike Lee’s debut film dissolve from memory, one may further consider the striking contrast between the bright, colorful politically charged films Mr. Lee would go on to make after the black and white sex farce She’s Gotta Have It, and how that trajectory mirrors Godard’s transition from sexy comic romps to skewering the body politic.

Don't Say Anything, I Know What You're Going to Say

Charlotte et son Jules is set in a hotel room in Paris, where a man waits impatiently for his girlfriend to return. Upon her return, the man, Jean, played by the soon-to-be superstar Jean-Paul Belmondo (Breathless) begins what will be a non-stop monologue listing among other things, the faults and failures of Charlotte.

The comic tone of the film is set as soon as Charlotte arrives and flashes her brilliant smile, devouring the over-bearing sour puss Jean. The hotel room is tiny, and the amount of effort it must have taken to maneuver around the room, as an actor, had to have been quite challenging.

Jean-Paul Belmondo never misses a beat in his constantly expanding laundry list of reasons for their relationship’s demise. Jean circles and paces the room like a caged animal, as Charlotte skillfully teases and prods the thin-skinned tiger, with her sly looks and come hither eyes.

For a brief, fleeting instant, a mind pickled in cinematic memories may wonder if Jean is raging against a ghost, the way Bruce Willis sat picking over the bones of his marriage in the restaurant scene from M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense.

Don’t say anything, says Jean anytime Charlotte as much as hiccups, I know what you’re going to say. Charlotte says nothing. And soon Godard makes a quick cut to the street outside the hotel room window, where a young man awaits impatiently in his convertible sports car, blowing his horn for Charlotte.

Cinema is an Illusory Art

As will be a Jean-Luc Godard trademark in future films, Jean makes the audience acutely aware that they are indeed watching a movie; for it seems Charlotte has left Jean to be an actress in a local film production.

In the course of questioning Charlotte’s decision, Jean accuses her of sleeping with the director, in order to land the role. This leads to the first and only face to face encounter between the two, where actual eye contact is made.

Jean proclaims his distaste for movies and movie makers (for those who do not know, Godard was a film critic before he was film maker): A big head making faces in a room; Cinema is an illusory art; where upon Godard makes the bold and strikingly shrewd decision to turn the camera to an acute angle, placing the actors in a cock-eyed frame; the actors stand tilted, shaken, and temporarily blurred.

Anne Collete caps the 13-minute short film with her only complete line of dialogue, in answering Jean’s question as to why she came back; a very funny punch line that leaves Jean frozen, and at long last, speechless.

Charlotte et son Jules is available on the Criterion DVD release of Breathless.

The copyright of the article Charlotte and Her Boyfriend (1960) in European Films is owned by Martin G. Wood. Permission to republish Charlotte and Her Boyfriend (1960) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.