Breathless (1961)
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger, Jean-Pierre Melville, Henri-Jacques Huet
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
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The movie that heralded the French New Wave movement, this lean and exciting 1959 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard (A Woman Is a Woman, Weekend) broke new ground not only in its unorthodox use of editing and hand-held photography, but in its unflinching and nonjudgmental portrayal of amoral youth. Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg play two young lovers on the run from the law after Belmondo kills a cop and steals a car. Soon they are on an odyssey through the streets of Paris searching for some money he is owed so that he and his American girlfriend can escape to Italy. As a chase picture it features some startling photography on the streets of Paris, but as a romance it defies expectations, existing as part tragedy and part Bonnie and Clyde crime movie. The result is a wholly original film experience. Inspiring not only a remake starring Richard Gere but numerous films and television series, Breathless is an essential part of motion picture history. --Robert LaneAlso Recommended...
1 out of 4 people found this review helpful:
French Free-form FilmThe movie opens up with a young thief, Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) stealing a car and eventually shooting a cop. He runs from the crime and steals a car to get to Paris and shacks up with Patricia (Jean Seberg), an American who sells the New York Herald Tribune International on the streets of Paris. Michel hides out in her hotel room while trying to sell Patricia on a plan to go with him to Italy. She soon realizes that includes a journey into criminal life, which is overwhelming.
The film is in black and white, with subtitles. The conversations are constantly cut and pasted throughout, you feel you are hearing just parts of conversation. The thief, Michel, is a bit odd in all his car-jacking and running around like a cartoon figure at times.
It is full of prattlings on life and goals, and some scenes go on forever with close-ups of the lovely Jean Seberg. It seemed to be a film to frame her talents and beauty, but frustrating in weak plot and abrupt scene changes.
If you like foreign films, and the beginnings of a new free-form style, this would be interesting study. As for entertainment, it was insipid
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful:
Godard,iconoclast..deliberate destroyer of cinemaChabrol,who served as supervising producer on `Breathless',famously warned that great subjects rarely make great films.And Godard gnomically said:"All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl."This was the basis of the brief scenario that Truffaut,an admirer of film noire and pulp fiction,provided for Breathless.The couple talk of lifeand literature in a seedy hotel,make love and visit the movies while he tries to get money owed to him by criminal associates.The police close in,Patricia betrays him.The style is everything,a calculated destruction and remaking of traditional film grammar.The camera is hand-held,the editing is abrupt and inconsistent.Raoul Coutard's masterly monochrome photography is harsh,hard-edged,reliant on natural light.Melville,director of existential gangster pictures,makes an appearance as himself,the first of such cameos in a Godard picture.He evokes other directors,Fuller,Preminger,Aldrich and Bogart's image looms.We are kept at a distance by Brecht's alienation effect,told that we are watching a film,but also that movies,like our lives are halls of mirrors.Godard deliberately created confusion to `achieve a greater possibility of invention',shooting in the busy streets of Paris.This film,like 400 Blows,is a must-see for any true lovers of cinema.In cinemas this June and DVD in September by Optimum Releasing
0 out of 3 people found this review helpful:
Worse condition than I thought it would be in1 out of 1 people found this review helpful:
"Breathless" definitely receives the Criterion Collection treatment... AWESOME!Godard is a unique director who attracted attention for his innovative editing and his use of jump cuts, his style of not giving his talent a script until the morning of and using improvisation and utilizing film techniques that most directors would never do. In fact, his filmmaking even infuriated his producer because instead of using a full day to shoot a film, sometime he was in the mood to do only 12 minutes. But then again, Jean-Luc Godard is not your typical director and in 1960, no one knew what to expect from him.
Many looked at him as a rebel as he wanted to challenge the conventions of traditional Hollywood cinema and for those who watched his films evolve year after year, the more we get to see Godard in his characters but also his political ideologies as well.
But "Breathless" was a film that helped change cinema. For decades, many followed the Hollywood tradition and sure, Jean Renoir did something unique and special decades earlier with "The Rules of the Game" (unfortunately, no one at the time was ready for the film until three decades later and people acknowledge that his film was ahead of its time) but it was "Breathless" that inspired young directors and showed them that directors, auteurs can do something different.
From the use of jump cuts to capturing Paris with a hidden camera, the film and its director was hailed for its innovation and it was the beginning of the French New Wave. Interesting enough, although the film made Jean-Luc Godard a popular name, the director himself was not as thrilled by all the attention and popularity of "Breathless" that led him to create "Le Petit Soldat" (The Little Soldier) which was highly political and banned in France for three years. Regardless of whether or not Godard enjoyed the success of the film, the film was unique and an inspiration to many filmmakers.
For over 40 decades, "Breathless" has been regarded as a film that cinema fans must watch and eventually own and in 2007, The Criterion Collection released "Breathless" in a 2-disc DVD set (with a slipcase cover) and booklet.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
"Breathless" is presented in black and white in its original aspect ratio of 1:33:1. The film looks absolutely great and the Criterion Collection once again does a wonderful job with the transfer. According to Criterion, the transfer is approved by director of photography Raoul Coutard. The new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35mm fine-grain master positive. Thousand of instances of dirt, debris and scratches were removed using the MTI Digital Restoration System.
As for audio, the audio is in French Monaural and was mastered at 24-bit from a 35 mm optical track print, and audio restoration tools were used to reduce clicks, pops, hiss and crackle. The Dolby Digital 1.0 is clear and understandable but for a more immersive soundtrack, I chose to have my home theater receiver set with audio on all channels.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
"Breathless" comes with a good number of special features plus an 82-page book featuring writings from Godard, film historian Dudley Andrew, Francois Truffaut's original film treatment, and Godard's scenario.
DISC 1:
* INTERVIEWS - (27:00) Featuring interviews with director Jean-Luc Godard, actors Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg and filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville, recorded for French television between 1960 and 1964.
* Theatrical Trailer - (2:02) The original theatrical trailer.
DISC 2:
* Coutard and Rissient - (22:28) Cinematographer Raoul Coutard (who worked with Godard for 14 films) and cinephile Pierre Rissient, assistant director on "Breathless" recall working with Godard and working on his first film.
* Pennebaker on Breathless - (10:32) Documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker talks about working with Jean-Luc Godard and his film "Breathless".
* Jean Seberg - (18:54) A video essay written by Mark Rappaport (From the Journals of Jean Seberg) reveals the beginning of Jean Seberg and her life ending in tragedy.
* Breathless as Criticism - (11:09) A video essay written by film historian and author Jonathan Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum explores the cinematic and literary references in "Breathless".
* Chamber 12, Hotel De Suede - (1:18:26) A 1993 documentary by director and popular French TV host Claude Ventura who tracks down, over nine days, the locations and the people who were involved in the making of "Breathless". Interviews include actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, filmmaker Claude Chabrol, cinematographer Raoul Coutard, assistant director Pierre Rissient, editor Cecile Decugis and more.
* Charlotte et Son Jules - (12:42) One of the short films from 1959 starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anne Collette. The short film is about a boyfriend who continually admonishes his girlfriend.
JUDGMENT CALL:
For anyone interested in French New Wave films, "Breathless" is a film that is recommended watching. It's a film that changed cinema and launched the career of director Jean-Luc Godard.
What I loved about the film is the acting. The whole 25-minute improvisation scene in the bedroom is incredible. I've learned through the special features that the scene involved Godard yelling and instructing the Belmondo and Seberg on what to do and also learned that the jump cut scenes were accidental but yet made the film quite creative, unique and artistic.
But is it one of the best Godard films? This is difficult to answer because personally, there are so many Godard films that I do enjoy but yet this is his first and is an important film in his career. But the problem is, to enjoy Godard films is to know Godard films. You appreciate his films, the more you watch several of them and learn his unique style of filmmaking.
Also, the film has been given so much credit for its innovation that so many people come to the film expecting something like Orson Welles "Citizen Kane" or a film that with this groundbreaking story and people who experience this Godard film are perplexed and don't understand what the big deal is. And I think that is what has perplexed Godard after the success of the film. Godard was very critical of the film to the point that he distanced himself from it and thus created the film "Le Petit Soldat".
But as mentioned, to enjoy Godard is to know Godard and that is watching his films and learning about them. Fortunately, The Criterion Collection does a fantastic job with this release of "Breathless" in presentation and also its content. Not only do you get the film but you get to see the various interviews with the talent, interviews with those who worked with him and easily enough, different interpretations of what people got from the film. The 1993 documentary "Chamber 12, Hotel de Suede" is a magnificent addition to the film as we get to see and hear from those who are involved with "Breathless", giving us some insight to Godard and his unique filmmaking style.
As far as my enjoyment of the film, I absolutely enjoyed it! Godard and Belmondo had a magical partnership during their short time together and as for Jean Seberg, this is an actress that had a bad experience in her earlier years as an actress, given a chance in "Breathless" (and worked once more with Godard) and had a rollercoaster of a career that ended in tragedy. If there was one positive, she is immortalized through her role as Patricia in this film.
"Breathless" is a film about two different people, their words and what they mean are different, they talk about themselves but yet never really talk to each other. Are they even listening to each other? Do they even care for each other?
There's no doubt that one can rewatch "Breathless" and see something different each time. May it be the two talking about paintings, the two talking about Faulkner, this dialogue between the two is something that I found so enjoyable (as I have with Eric Rohmer's moral tale "My Night at Maud's" with also a magnificent, smart and enjoyable long bedroom dialogue scene). There is something about the tone about the film that is just so enchanting.
Despite Michel being the uncaring young bad guy, somehow you can't help but be intrigued by his character. He's a dangerous man but yet Patricia is even more dangerous in some ways. Compared to other films showing around the world during its time, "Breathless" was fresh, unique and different from what was seen in traditional cinema.
Cinematography for "Breathless" is absolutely beautiful. Because timing and space was a concern, Godard elected to use a wheelchair to film. Not wanting to use expensive lighting, Godard wanted to capture a realistic feel of these two characters by using natural light. So, many different techniques employed in this film.
In fact, when they were seen in public, cinematographer Coutard was hidden in a cart as the two are seen walking down the street. No one around the two actors are aware that the scene was being filmed. And of course, I go back to the jump scenes and the editing but accidental as it may be, it was definitely a major part in introducing the world to nouvelle vague and changing the scope of cinema.
If you are a Godard fan or a cinemaphile, "Breathless" is an important film worth owning in your film collection. Is it Godard's best film? For me, I enjoy "Band of Outsiders", "Pierrot le fou" and "Mascullin Feminin" even more. But in the context of importance, "Breathless" is the feature film that launched Godard's career and for that, I'm so grateful that The Criterion Collection gave fans a magnificent release for this film.
Highly recommended!
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classicThis is arguabley the first French New Wave film, and contains the ingrediants. Lots of jump cuts, ten minute shots, uniuqe camara angles.
Watch the scene where Belmondo steals the car, or where he is in the room with Jean Seaberg, where the same shot is held for the whole dialouge, panning camara.
Breathless is a pretty simple crime film: steel car, accidental murder, elude police, romantic interest. But it is the way that Godard uses film technique to tell the story that makes it work. You see a old stroy told in a fresh way.
These shooting and editing techniques are now used constantly on TV to make the medium look hip, but in 1960, these were truely experimental and enhanced the STORY. Godard remebered here, story came first.