Breathless by Alexandr Beran

Title/Year: Breathless -- 1961 american (IMDB)

Director/Birth Country/Year Born: Jean-Luc Godard -- France -- 1930 (IMDB)


Budget: 400,000 french (IMDB)

Gross: $336,705 american (IMDB)
 
Synopsis: A French womanizing car-thief tangles with an American student and burgeoning reporter just after shooting a French police officer in cold blood. He tries to get her to run away with him to Italy, but instead, she tests their love in various ways around the city during the encroaching man-hunt.   

Narrative and Visual Keywords: The narrative is fast-paced with romantic moments that allow the film to breathe -- French New Wave, black-and-white

Characterization/ Dialogue: He, a sociopath with a lust for crime and sex; she, a naive romantic with a passion for newsprint and beat-reporting -- natural dialogue of young lovers who play off each other in successful and unsuccessful ways.

Camera/lighting/editing technique: Long hand-held shots connected by quick cuts -- natural lighting -- quick cuts would happen within an existing frame that looked unnatural but were extremely stylistic.

Political/ Social Commentary: This film made living dangerous look cool leaving threat of consequence by the way-side. Dynamic French characters in this film come off as cocky but make profound statements none the less. 
 
Historical Relevance/ Recognition: MovieMaker Magazine named Godard the fourth most influential filmmaker of all time, with Breathless being one of his best known films. The use of quick cuts in this movie were unprecedented and this, along with other aspects, allowed this film to help define French New Wave. Leading actress Jean Seberg had very little box-office draw before this film.
 
Notable Collaboration: Francois Truffaut wrote the story for Breathless along with writing The 400 Blows, the latter marked the beginning of French New Wave in 1959. (IMDB)
 
Random fact, Etc.: Godard wrote many of the film's scenes in the morning while filming them in the afternoon.



Week 2 Reaction Questions: 
(1) The scenes with the romantic couple seemingly happened in a vacuum, as if the world waited for the central characters to make a move. This lead to the feeling of an omnipresent director, as if he had control of what happened, never leaving events to chance--except for when on the city streets when the public was not made up of extras. This is when the director allowed the pursuing detectives access, and Michel was allowed to evade until the final minutes when it seemed the central characters had given in to it.


(2) Patricia's idea of "being in love" was a driving theme throughout the story. What would she do and not do for love. If she informed the police of Michel's whereabouts, did it mean that she was not in love with him? She  assumed that she must not be in love from that action, but by the end Patricia realized that love is much more complex than that. The movie celebrates the idea that a man could be a complete bastard to a woman, and yet she could still be in love; that there was some unyielding connection between the two--unescapable love.


(3) Godard was a cool character. Style seemed more important than substance, and with the shooting of Breathless taking place on the streets of Paris without permission, he exuded the essence of a guerrilla filmmaker. The character Michel knew just what to say in a pinch, and he had a certain control over women. He also lived each moment in the most dynamic way possible because that's what made life worth living. Godard shot in this way as well, with haste, purpose and passion. He was in and then out, and the audience is left to parse through the wake.