`THINGS' THAT WILL CONFUSE YOU.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

Jean-Luc Godard's ``Two or Three Things I Know About Her'' was so ahead of its time that a lot of people -- even French New Wave enthusiasts -- are just now catching up to it, nearly 40 years after its release.

Unlike other Godard masterworks -- ``Breathless,'' ``Contempt,'' ``A Woman Is a Woman,'' take your pick -- it has been rarely screened and isn't available on DVD, making its one-week run at the Nuart worth a look-see for the adventurous.

The Christmas week scheduling (it opened Friday) of ``Two or Three Things'' seems a little perverse given Godard's cool, patience-trying presentation and the film's apparent subject matter (24 hours in the life of a Parisian housewife/part-time prostitute). Then there's Godard's complete lack of narrative focus, which makes David Lynch's ``Inland Empire'' feel like a sitcom (without the rabbits), and the fact that the character with the most dialogue is not Marina Vlady's hooker but Godard himself, who whispers Marxist musings ad nauseam throughout the movie.

Godard's got a lot on his mind, mainly outrage at the French government's ongoing construction of a new Paris. The city is actually the ``her'' from the title, and Godard inserts shot upon shot of a city under chaotic assault, not unlike what Vlady's prostitute is enduring at the hands of her johns. For Godard, this is progress in name only, enriching corporations at the expense of the citizenry.

Does that lament sound familiar? Here we have a woman selling herself and her soul for a new dress and some shiny baubles, which Godard finds scandalous and a little funny, too. For all the whisperings, the movie's most famous scenes might be the electric company representative delivering a bill to a woman taking a bath (were the boys from Monty Python watching?) and the long, long close-up on the cup of espresso, its contents swirling like the cosmos.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

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TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER - Three stars

(Not rated: sexual content, nudity)

Starring: Marina Vlady.

Director: Jean-Luc Godard.

Running time: 1 hr. 24 min.

Playing: Landmark's Nuart in West Los Angeles.

In a nutshell: Nothing says happy holidays like this little-seen Godard movie (sort of) about a housewife hooking on the side to add to her wardrobe. Go for the espresso close-up, stay for the movie.