MISS 19

This window literally frames her the entire time; the camera never cuts from this and she never moves her position. The audience has no choice but to only look at Elsa the entire time.

Fifty eight minutes into Jean-Luc Godard’s 1966 film Masculin féminin, Godard introduces the intertitle “DIALOGUE WITH A CONSUMER PRODUCT”. In the six-minute scene that follows, the protagonist Paul interviews a woman named Elsa (also known as Miss 19) who recently won a beauty contest hosted by a commercial magazine. With her new status, she receives perks such as a nice car, and she basks in the consumer items she receives for no cost simply because she won this shallow contest. Though Godard attempts a satirical approach to condemning capitalism through labeling Elsa as a “consumer product”, this title ultimately objectifies her further. In this scene, he critiques the way she turns her body into a fetishized commodity while also fetishizing the commodities around her and reaping the benefits of the broken capitalist system.

During an early conversation between Paul and Madeleine, Paul flirts as Madeleine combs her hair in a mirror. The use of mirrors is a notable example of a way in which the male gaze visually manifests itself, as the female figure is literally replicated through the image of their reflection.

The castration anxiety a female character’s operating under the male gaze is Paul’s example of a man

During this conversation, we see Madeleine applying lipstick in a compact mirror; Godard portrays her as someone far more interested in herself and her appearance than Paul’s attention.