The 1960s were ruled by Jean-Luc Godard, one of the founders of the French New Wave. And his film A Married Woman is near the middle of that period (it was made in 1964). There is simply nothing wrong in this work, which concerns a married woman (Macha Méril), her lover (Bernard Noël), and her husband (Philippe Leroy). The end will break the heart of one of these men.

Also in the film are the wife’s maid, her stepson, and people she runs into. But the story is, to be frank, inconsequential. What matters in A Married Woman is the art of composition: where people stand in relation to other people, interior spaces, and things (windows, mirrors, beds). Godard’s eye is as pure as a cello solo—I’m thinking of Bach’s “Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 4 In E-flat Major: Prélude.”

A Married Woman plays at the Grand Illusion March 4-9.