‘A Woman Is a Woman’ Trailer: Jean-Luc Godard’s Most Playful Film Gets a New 4K Restoration

French New Wave fans, rejoice. One of Jean-Luc Godard’s most colorful, joyful, and unapologetically playful masterpieces of the 1960s has received a new 4K restoration. And New Yorkers will have the chance to catch it on the big screen this February.

Godard’s 1961 musical romantic comedy “A Woman Is a Woman” will screen at Film Forum in New York City from February 7-20, which will mark the U.S. premiere of the restoration.

Released in 1961, a year after the Cahiers du Cinema veteran secured himself filmmaking immortality with “Breathless,” “A Woman Is a Woman” was Godard’s tribute to Hollywood’s Technicolor musical comedies. Featuring the bright color scheme that he would return to for films like “Contempt” and “Pierrot Le Fou,” the film stars Godard’s then-wife and frequent collaborator Anna Karina as a dancer who, eager to have a child, entertains the romantic pursuits of two men (Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean-Claude Brialy) at the same time. The film is both a snapshot of evolving gender relations in the 1960s and an example of Godard’s endless passion for cinema that still feels fresh to this day.

The movie is filled with clever visual gags as Godard eagerly amuses himself by demonstrating the new cinematic language that he and his friends were creating. In addition to the Hollywood references for which Godard was quickly becoming known, the film is also eager to engage with other works of the French New Wave. Everything from Bob Fosse and François Truffaut to Godard’s own “Breathless” is referenced in the film, turning it into a document of the ways that a new generation of cinema was actively being shaped by the previous one’s passion for movies.

The whimsical musical filmmaking went on to influence musicals for decades to come, from Jacques Demy’s “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” (also recently restored and released at Film Forum) to Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land.” And to Godard enthusiasts who have studied the decades of increasingly radical (in both the political and formal senses of the world) filmmaking efforts that followed, “A Woman Is a Woman” lives on as a reminder that the French master was just as capable of crafting escapist entertainment.

The 4K restoration of “A Woman Is a Woman” runs February 7-20 at Film Forum. Watch the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below. A Rialto Pictures release, the new restoration of “A Woman Is a Woman” was overseen by Studiocanal with the support of the CNC. It was scanned in 4K from the original 35mm negatives by Hiventy.