While Godard rapidly changes the color of the light — making us aware of the manipulated, air-brushed, artificial nature of screen goddesses — costar Michel Piccoli enumerates Bardot's physical attributes in a literary device known as blason, gleefully mixing high and low culture.
Literally, as she plays the goddess Venus, emerging naked from the surf via clamshell, her hair strategically draped, in an homage to Botticelli's famous painting.
Nicholson's grouchy retiree is pretty funny, but the bold Bates steals the movie's biggest laugh.