Les enfants de Marx et de Coca-Cola

There are two things that have formed the notion of the 60s/70 s in my mind - Jean-Luc Godard's film Masculin, féminin and Hilary Mantel's novel An Experiment in Love. This was, I reckon, the era of the young with everything mixed up: love, politics, wide use of contraception, fear of prejudice, mini-skirts, expectations.
I first watched the film completely unaware of what La Nouvelle Vague was about. So I have a pure impression of it, merely what I felt right after I've watched it. Do you remember the opening scene? Paul (Jean-Pierre Léaud) sitting in the café, watching Madeleine (Chantal Goya). And Madeleine is fascinating! Immediately I fell in love with this plain white sweater of hers that represents to me youthfulness and fragility. This film, I remember it felt like what my life is going to be: complex, nice-looking, with me staying half-indifferent to both the brilliant and the frightful things that happen. And sexually involved.
The novel is about a young girl who moves to London to study law, and faces the complications of her new life. It's all about girls, but it's not girlish, in a bad sense. No silly romance, only quiet observations. And lots of details. Everything tells a story - the collar of your coat, the rings you wear, the way you unbutton your blouse and the way you sip your coffee. That's precisely the kind of prose I like. Full of material things, not abstract. It never fails to inspire me.

P.S. As a title I used a quotation from the film (which is actually an intertitle between chapters): "This film could be called The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola".
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