Charlotte et Véronique, also known as Tous les garcons s'appellent
Patrick, was one of five shorts Jean-Luc Godard made in collaboration
with his Cahiers du Cinema cohorts in the late '50s and early '60s,
prior to embarking on feature films. The script was written by Eric
Rohmer and is a slight, but charming, story about two girlfriends
(Nicole Berger and Anna Collette) who are seduced by lothario Patrick
(Jean-Claude Brialy) over sidewalk café Cokes and on Tuileries park
benches. When both Charlotte and Véronique arrive for the date, Patrick
brings another woman. The story is told in a fairly straightforward
style. Godard's early love of youthful frivolity, pop culture, and
referential film geekery are in abundant evidence (the girls' apartment
walls are decorated with film posters, they mimic their idols) and there
are some tentative steps taken with visual and audio jump cuts. The
short is available as a special feature on Criterion's release of A
Woman is a Woman (Une femme est une femme), a Godard feature where
Brialy plays one of the two male leads.
