Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger

Michel is a young thug who romantically models himself on Humphrey Bogart. While driving a stolen car, Michel shoots a policeman who follows him onto a country road. Penniless and on the run from the ...( read more  read more... )police, he turns to his American girlfriend Patricia, a student and aspiring journalist. Patricia agrees to hide him and the two spend their time evading the police, making love and stealing cars to raise money for a trip to Italy. As the police net tightens, Michel's bravado and desperation grow...

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91% liked it

31,363 ratings

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96% liked it

28 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 30 min.

Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard

Release Date: February 7, 1961

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DVD Release Date: November 20, 2001

Stats: 2,032 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (2,032)


  • October 2, 2009
    Extremely influential and a favourite of portentous film snobs, all modern cinema started here. The new wave wasn?t/isn't to everybody?s taste but, honestly, who can resist Jean-Paul Belmondo's horney wannabe gangster and such brilliant dialogue such as 'My ambition is to find th...( read more)e secret of eternal youth, and then die!'. I love it!
  • May 13, 2009
    Maybe I was sucked in by all the hype, but I just wasn't impressed. I wanted to to like this one a lot more than I did. Maybe I'm just not as much of a movie snob as I thought, or perhaps my pallet needed to be cleansed after a steady diet of old Hollywood war movies and classi...( read more)c westerns? Whatever the reason, I found À bout de souffle to be good but not great.
  • May 8, 2009
    the great belmondo stars in this film often seen as godards masterpiece. while the film had a likeable quality and an engaging concept, it was oversimplified and a bit too expirimental for my tastes. significant and worth while, a must see film that is easily forgetable.
  • February 20, 2009
    "between grief and nothing, I'll take grief" - faulkner, embodies the temperament and the story arc of one of cinema's greatest character portraits. The movie is a cinephile's delight and the DVD commentary by David Sterrit is a must-hear. There's so much more that I'd like to sa...( read more)y about this film, but I don't know where to begin! If you truly love movies/cinematography/photography, please do yourself a favor and watch it.
  • January 25, 2009
    I'm not quite sure how to give a rating to a movie like "Breathless". On one hand, you must consider it's effectiveness as a narrative in 2009. On the other, however, you must consider it's revolutionary ideas that have inspired literally hundreds of films since it's release in 1...( read more)960. Rating it in terms of cinema history, it seems like a surefire five stars. To me, however, I didn't find it as engrossing as some other films from the period that i'd consider perfect. I give it four stars because I didn't find some of the drama fully accessible and compelling, however it's a film that everyone should certainly see if only to appreciate it as a landmark in film history.

    "Breathless" is considered one of the, if not the first film that launched the Nouvelle Vague (French New Wave), a film movement that revolutionized the movie industry through new ideas and voices. Jean-Luc Godard was a pioneer in this period, and the film's cast also contains a who's who of other innovative directors of the period. Francois Truffaut, for instance, is credited with the story.

    Roger Ebert considers "Breathless" to be the most significant debut film since Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" in 1942, and undoubtedly the most influential. Godard introduced the modern technique of "jump cuts", cuts that occur in the middle of a scene and break the continuity. For instance, a man will be at the end of a sidewalk, and suddenly he'll be at the other side. It's said that Godard's technique was born only because of the excessive length of the original cut of "Breathless", but intentionally or not his use of this technique is many years ahead of it's time.

    Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is a wannabe gangster - idolizing Humphrey Bogart and pretending to shoot everyone in adjacent cars as he joyrides. His past is left mostly in mystery to the audience only because we know we shouldn't believe a single thing he tells us. It's not uncommon for Michel to literally scowl in the mirror and adjust his face to achieve the best thug persona. At the beginning of the film, Michel is chased by cops. He gets out of his car and shoots one of them. Michel is forced to retreat to Paris and get some cash that had been owed to him in order to make a clean getaway.

    Paris is also the home to his former lover, Patricia (Jean Seberg), an American girl who sells the New York Herald-Tribune on the streets. Michel assumes Patricia will comply with being an accomplice to his escape. She's an accessory to him, just another piece of apparel to complete the gangster facade. Later in the film, Patricia will tell Michel that she believes she's pregnant with his child. Suspiciously, this note is ignored throughout the rest of the film

    The jump cuts in the film assist the relentless pacing and the uneasy feeling of pursuit. Much of the film feels hectic, save for a memorable scene that takes place in Patricia's room. This also was the one scene in the film where you forget it's a cat-and-mouse film. Perhaps it's my fault that my expectations were all wrong, but I had wanted a film with more scenes like this one.

    The best thing about "Breathless" is how limitless it feels. The form is not concrete and there's breathing room despite centering around a familiar gangster storyline. In scale, it all feels so much smaller than it's American equivalents, and that's certainly for the better. It's through the relationship between Michel and Patricia that the film finds it's voice and it's charm.

    "Breathless" is a pivotal film in history, and this is due more to it's technique than it's narrative. It's a good film with a gigantic scale of importance, however I didn't find that I saw the classic story that many other critics and acquaintances did. I'm glad I saw it, but I didn't find it as compelling as other works from the French New Wave.
  • November 15, 2009
    The most random yet genius film I've ever seen. It is a very fast-paced film, as the French seem to love so much, but since the cinematography is so stunning, you have to cherish each moment of it in order not to miss anything. The plot barely has a purpose, but is nevertheless a...( read more)bsolutely fascinating and the brilliant dialogue and great sense of humour make up for it. Before Breakfast at Tiffany's came along, this was the most stylish film.
  • November 14, 2009
    I don't see why this movie is so popular and loved by many, because I only liked Jean Seberg in this movie. Her acting was lovely and that's probably the only reason why I give it 2.5/5! The filming style was also good I admit.
    For the rest it's just a silly movie, with the "hero...( read more)" loving a woman in his own weird way and always wants to have sex with her.
    The end was absurd and as the whole movie, even the end didn't make any sense!
  • November 9, 2009

  • November 7, 2009
    Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo), protagonist and anti-hero, is a young criminal on the run from the police, after stealing a car and killing a cop. He has an affair with a beautiful young American, Patricia (Jean Seberg), an aspiring journalist who sells the New York Herald Tribune i...( read more)n the middle of the Champs Élysées (Eva Green in Bertolucci's "The Dreamers" paid her tribute for this scene). Patricia is also expecting Michel's baby. She helps Michel to dodge the police, while they steal cars together in order to raise money for a trip to Rome.

    Breathless is all style. The story line is interesting, but it is just an excuse. It's Godard's aesthetics, production modes, subject matters, and storytelling methods that are key. First of all, the whole movie was shot on a hand-held camera, just like most all New Wave pictures. It was, however, only shot by two people (Godard and his cinematographer, Raoul Coutard) on a budget that did not top $50,000, a mere fraction of what most pictures cost at the time (another facet of the New Wave). It was shot completely on location in Paris, and utilized new film-making techniques that would be used by film-making students for decades to come (such as putting the camera in a mail cart on the Champs Elysees and following Belmondo and Seberg). Note Godard's use of American cinema influence, and how the montage art of the 1950s impacted this aesthetic. [with thanks to a. parondi and izmatt]
  • November 3, 2009
    I'm not into movies of Jean-Luc Godard, but this one is very nice!!

Critic Reviews


August 5, 2003
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Modern movies begin here, with Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless in 1960. No debut film since Citizen Kane in 1942 has been as influential. full review

View more Breathless (À bout de souffle) (By a Tether) reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • cheesyradioheadfan
    September 20, 2006
    so. unbelievably. stylish.
    and what does the strange hand across mouth thing even mean? who knows.
    there cant be many characters as swish and suave as the two leads in any film ever made, its just not possible.

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