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Breathless (1960)
A bout de soufflé (original title)
Dir: Jean-Luc Goddard
Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo. Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger
Summary
A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle police officer. Wanted by the police, he reunites with a modern American journalism student and attempts to persuade her to run away with him to Italy.
Review
Breathless is my first foray into New Wave Cinema, and overall I enjoyed it although I’m not sure it is the style of film I would spend our watching. There is a modern feel to the movie reminiscent to me of the more recent cinema quality television dramas of the modern age.
According to Roger Ebert Breathless is a film which set the start of many films to come such as Badlands, Bonnie and Clyde and Michel as the countless modern character portrayed by Al Pacino, Jack Nickelson and the like and have to agree. The handheld camera work allows for a more natural feel to scenes you feel like you are looking in on the daily lives. There isn’t the contrived or stilted look of a set scene that occurred in the studio controlled Hollywood movies of the same era.
The story is relatively simple and perhaps the so are the characters on the surface, but there is always more to something in this movie than meets the eye. The is an amorality to the main leads, but it doesn’t alienate us from them Michel is a killer, a wannabe gangster and pursuing (and perhaps the made her pregnant) while already married. Patricia is a wannabe student, is going to enrol in the Sorbonne or is just living a rebellious life in Paris making ends meet. She also seems to be unconcerned about all the thing she finds out a Michel – any morality does not fuel her eventual betrayal.
The film uses jump cuts throughout is editing process which flows with the handheld camera work and keeps interest in the longer scenes. Overall this is an enjoyable film which warrants a second watch.