{"id":5963,"date":"2009-06-25T20:26:51","date_gmt":"2009-06-26T03:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5963"},"modified":"2023-12-22T14:41:37","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T21:41:37","slug":"breathless-1960","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5963","title":{"rendered":"Breathless (1960)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I always get interested in girls who aren&#8217;t right for me.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Breathless-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Breathless-Poster-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-66755\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Breathless-Poster-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Breathless-Poster-87x128.jpg 87w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Breathless-Poster-183x270.jpg 183w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Breathless-Poster.jpg 540w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAn amoral thief (Jean-Paul Belmondo) kills a policeman and tries to convince his aloof American lover (Jean Seberg) to flee to Italy with him.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Betrayal<\/li>\n<li>French Films<\/li>\n<li>Godard Films<\/li>\n<li>Jean Seberg Films<\/li>\n<li>Jean-Paul Belmondo Films<\/li>\n<li>Outlaws<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nJean-Luc Godard &#8220;intended his debut film&#8221; &#8212; which was &#8220;inspired by a newspaper item about a young thug who killed a policeman and hid out with his girlfriend, who later betrayed him&#8221; &#8212; to &#8220;merely be an homage to earlier gangster films, but it became the most influential film of the New Wave, an existential masterpiece.&#8221; In a deliberate act of cinematic anarchy, Godard &#8220;broke all&#8230; rules&#8221;, failing to use &#8220;transition shots between scenes&#8221; or &#8220;establishing shots or matching shots&#8221;, and heavily utilizing &#8220;jump cuts both to convey a chaotic atmosphere and to express the reckless nature of his youthful characters&#8221;, who &#8220;jump through time and space&#8221;. Technique aside, <em>Breathless<\/em> (<em>A bout de souffle<\/em>, in French) is notable for Godard&#8217;s &#8220;Paris street photography&#8221; (shot by &#8220;innovative cameraman&#8221; Raoul Coutard, who &#8220;was willing to hide in a wheelbarrow for street shooting and to roll along in a wheelchair with the camera in his lap&#8221;); Godard&#8217;s &#8220;score, which mixes jazz and Mozart; [and] his many movie-reference- in-jokes&#8221;, among other traits. <\/p>\n<p>As for the story itself, Peary notes that &#8220;alienated French youth&#8221; at the time &#8220;could identify with Belmondo&#8217;s casual lawbreaker and his disloyal girlfriend&#8221;, &#8220;lovers who act impetuously without regard to consequences&#8221;. More mature audiences, however, may find Michel (Belmondo) less a &#8220;hero&#8221; than simply a shiftless thug who deserves jail time for the murder he so callously commits at the beginning of the film; at the very least, he deserves the cool reception he receives from &#8220;beautiful, dimpled Seberg&#8221;, who &#8220;is his match as the hard-bitten, free-spirited American expatriate who is afraid of commitment and emotionally vacuous&#8221;. Seberg &#8212; though extremely photogenic (see stills below) &#8212; was never a great actress, and her French accent here is so godawful that it&#8217;s a major distraction (though to be fair, her reading surely wasn&#8217;t helped any by the fact that Godard gave his actors their lines the day of shooting). Her character&#8217;s motivations (or lack thereof) are just as enigmatic as Belmondo&#8217;s, and thus we never really understand her or relate to her in any depth. While <em>Breathless<\/em> is far too important cinematically to miss seeing, don&#8217;t be surprised if it leaves you strangely cold. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jean Seberg&#8217;s luminous visage<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/breathless-seberg3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/breathless-seberg3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5966\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/breathless-seberg4.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/breathless-seberg4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5967\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/breathless-seberg2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/breathless-seberg2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5965\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Jean-Paul Belmondo as Michel<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/breathless-belmondo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/breathless-belmondo.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5973\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Raoul Coutard&#8217;s natural-light-drenched b&#038;w cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/breathless-light.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/breathless-light.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5969\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Excellent use of Paris locales<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/breathless-paris1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/breathless-paris1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5970\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/breathless-paris2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/breathless-paris2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5971\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Godard&#8217;s groundbreaking (albeit &#8220;accidental&#8221;) &#8220;fast cut&#8221; editing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nMost definitely, as a groundbreaking New Wave classic. Discussed at length in Peary&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?page_id=5986\"><em>Cult Movies 2<\/em> (1983)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cult Movie<\/li>\n<li>Foreign Gem<\/li>\n<li>Important Director<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> (<span style=\"color:red;font-weight:bold;\">Listed in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-static\/1001Movies.htm\"><em>1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die<\/em><\/a><\/span>) <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0053472\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1961\/02\/08\/archives\/screen-sordid-view-of-french-life-breathless-in-debut-at-the-fine.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/great-movie-breathless-1960\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s2431bout.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jigsawlounge.co.uk\/film\/breathless.html\">Jigsaw Lounge Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/a-bout-de-souffle\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I always get interested in girls who aren&#8217;t right for me.&#8221; Synopsis: An amoral thief (Jean-Paul Belmondo) kills a policeman and tries to convince his aloof American lover (Jean Seberg) to flee to Italy with him. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Betrayal French Films Godard Films Jean Seberg Films Jean-Paul Belmondo Films Outlaws Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: Jean-Luc Godard &#8220;intended his debut film&#8221; &#8212; which was &#8220;inspired by a newspaper item about a young thug who killed a policeman and&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5963\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5963"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94221,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5963\/revisions\/94221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}