Top image: Still, Une femme coquette (1955) dir. Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard‘s first narrative short (and second film work overall), 1955’s Une femme coquette (translation: Pretty Woman), has been uploaded to YouTube after decades of being unavailable and presumed lost.

The source of much frustration for film fanatics, this 9-minute adaptation of a Guy De Maupassant short story shot on 16mm on the streets of Geneva has long been an illusive blur in the director’s prolific oeuvre (film critic Ignatiu Vishnevetsky wrote an essay about his quest for the film calling it “the most elusive rarity of the French New Wave”).

Unearthed 62 years after its creation, the film – credited to “Hans Lucas”, Godard’s film critic alias – the short features many of the French director’s now signature playful traits and provides a crucial visual marker on his development as one of cinema’s most influential filmmakers. Hit play below and enjoy, de rien.