which Paul opposed. Paul reportedly fell from a window, which Catherine asserts must have been an accident rather than a suicide. Madeleine, still pregnant, tells the officer that she is not sure what she will do next. Cast Jean-Pierre Léaud as Paul, a romantic young idealist Chantal Goya as Madeleine Zimmer, a young singer Marlène Jobert as Elisabeth Choquet, Madeleine's roommate Michel Debord as Robert Packard, a journalist Catherine-Isabelle Duport as Catherine-Isabelle, Madeleine's other roommate Yves Afonso as the man who dies by suicide by stabbing (uncredited) Elsa Leroy as "Mademoiselle 19 ans", a young French woman whom Paul interviews for an IFOP poll (uncredited) Brigitte Bardot and Antoine Bourseiller make uncredited appearances as an actress and a director in the café. Françoise Hardy also makes an uncredited appearance as the wife of an American officer. Production In 1965, Anatole Dauman, the head of Argos Films, wanted to re-edit and re-release Alexandre Astruc's 1952 44-minute film The Crimson Curtain. He decided that he also wanted another medium-length film to accompany Astruc's film and offered the project to Godard, suggesting that Godard adapt Guy de Maupassant's short story The Signal. Godard had been interested in filming The Signal for several years and agreed to the project. Eventually Dauman suggested that Godard also adapt Maupassant's short story Paul's Mistress and secured the rights to both short stories. When filming began, Godard discarded both Maupassant short stories and Maupassant's publishers later agreed that the film was in no way an adaptation of the author's work. The only parts of either short stories that appear in the film is the fact that the main characters name is Paul and the "film within the film" that the main characters go to see at a movie theater was initially inspired by The Signal. Godard did not have a shooting script; instead he relied on a spiral notebook filled with ideas, sketches, and dialogue he had handwritten the previous evening. Godard was interested in working with singer Chantal Goya because she was neither a film nor stage actress when she was introduced to him by Daniel Filipacchi on November 7, 1965. Shooting began on November 22, 1965. Godard used natural lighting and a minimal crew throughout the production. Reception Due to the portrayal of youth and sex, the film was prohibited to persons under 18 in France—"the very audience it was meant for," griped Godard. At the