Recent Reviews for Breathless (À bout de souffle) (By a Tether)
Recent Reviews
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MCT:September 30, 2008This is the kind of movie that makes me want to shoot a cop and die in the street. Or at least take up heavy smoking.
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MCT:September 28, 2008My first experience of godard - even being a simple love story, very different from those cliched love stories!
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MCT:September 17, 2008A film I have wanted to see for the longest time and just did. Absolutely beautiful and fantastic. I mean, just looking at how fast Godard bypassed the first act was genius in every way. I was immersed in this world which was so unreal and charming and brought out this charm in a city and yet by showing how it is charming without having to show the typical cliches or stereotypes.
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MCT:September 13, 2008I don't get what the big deal is. Someone explain. I was recommended this film from many of my friends and I just thought it was okay. I think it falls apart at the end, the beginning of the film is the best.
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MCT:September 12, 2008I liked some parts. I don't know how the jumpy editing came about exactly, but that was fine too. The last 30 minutes are great. But I'm sorry, some of the stretches of dialogue were duller than Iowa.
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MCT:September 4, 2008saw 20 minutes in a film class. i think it will be a waste of my life to see it, but i still wouldn't mind seeing it.
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MCT:July 31, 2008i absolutely loved the end of this film and jean seberg is stunning; godard got so many beautiful shots of her.
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MCT:July 24, 2008
An incredible homage (or parody in my opinion) to American film. Yet it's still so incredibly unique! Unbelievable acting and out of the ordinary film making make Breathless a groundbreaking film.
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MCT:July 20, 2008
The film that introduced me to French New Wave and i think still my favourite of the movement,certainly my favourite Godard film.I'm such a fan of Jean-Paul Belmondo,along with Jack Nicholson i think he's the most charismatic,cool actor out there and Jean Seberg was one of the sexiest most stylish actresses so an ideal pairing for me.With those two,Godard and ace cinematographer Raoul Coutard it was bound to turn out well.It's a very simple story,Godard's Attempt at an American Style Gangster movie to me it's a film all about style and cool.Shot on handheld cameras using natural light/sound and more cigarette smoke than is imaginable it seems improv and has a docu/verite feel to it.It wasn't improv but Godard didn't let the actors learn their lines so it would appear more realistic.Belmondo and Seberg have wonderful onscreen chemistry and it's the role that would make Seberg an icon of French cinema.A girl,a gun,jazz and jump cuts,it's a film i come back to again and again,fantastic!.
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MCT:July 12, 2008
The masterpiece of Godard's masterpieces!
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MCT:July 1, 2008
So much had been made of this film I was almost certain that I was going to be disappointed, in fact the truth is I've now watched this three times in as many weeks. Minutes into the film you can sense the text book being ripped up and even 45 years later it appears more daring, original and dangerous than a whole year's worth of Hollywood product. Simply put this is a great film that I couldn't recommend highly enough.
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MCT:June 30, 2008
"There's no need to lie. It's like poker. The truth is best. The others still think you're bluffing, so you win."
Even several decades after its initial release, French director Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless is still considered a defining, influential classic drama. Every few decades, a film emerges that presents a breakthrough in filmmaking. In the case of Breathless, the technical innovations and its incredibly groundbreaking style are still inspirational into the 21st century. Other revolutionary aspects include the impeccably impetuous pacing, elegant editing, potent atmosphere and the considerable substance present during a scene of drama. Godard's work is still held in high esteem; with film schools around the globe using this fine artistic slice of moviemaking as a reference...this is a tribute to an extraordinary director who achieved amazing things during his career.
Breathless is austerely remarkable even with an extremely straightforward plot. Its brilliance is drawn from the director's ability to achieve something so simple and yet so amazing. Michel Poiccard (Belmondo) is a sociopath and a small-time crook with a gangster persona who idolises the work of Humphrey Bogart. Michel becomes the subject of a manhunt when he flees after stealing a car and impulsively murdering a policeman that pursued him on a country road. Michel, now wanted by the authorities, returns to Paris where he finds a former American girlfriend named Patricia Franchini (Seberg) who studies journalism and supplies the streets with copies of the New York Herald-Tribune. Michel succeeds in seducing Patricia again, and desires for her to accompany him to Italy when he raises the money. Even with his face dominating the local newspapers and being the centre of a media frenzy, Michel seems unmindful of the police dragnet that slowly tightens its grip around him. He spends most of his time with Patricia evading police and enjoying pleasures in bed. Michel's desperation develops as the police pursue him, while he recklessly pursues his love of American movies and his strong libidinous interest in the beautiful young Patricia.
The storytelling techniques of Jean-Luc Godard are possibly the most mesmerising aspect of the film. To your typical modern audience, the jump cuts may seem lame. However, an audience must observe these editing methods from a historical perspective: never had any filmmaker utilised these prior to Godard's masterpiece. This is precisely why Breathless is such an important movie - virtually every technique is revolutionary. Through the eyes of current movie-goers, these are so submerged in filmmaking practices now that Breathless seems typical. Yet in 1960, these techniques were simply unprecedented. Director Godard's talent is also in the fantastic way the plot progresses. Each shot is framed with style and demonstrates the elegance frequently employed by Godard. All sets, locations and characters carry a certain degree of potency. For those who've studied the period, it's easy to notice the significant facets of life that are represented with great veracity. No exaggerations, no attempt to dilute the period.
Even the characters are constructed from aspects of life! These characters are wonderfully executed by a talented cast. Frankly I did not care for the film until the inclusion of an extremely long sequence in a bedroom. The drama evinces substance and magnificent artistic integrity in the filmmaking as well as the acting. The chemistry between Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg sizzles. Belmondo is charismatic in the title role. It's vital that the audience are able to empathise with him despite the character being a criminal on the run from the law. His charm in line deliveries and facial expressions boost the attraction of his on-screen persona. Jean Seberg is young, beautiful and angelic. Interestingly enough, the actress failed at American movies and fled to Europe. She was at a tender age of 21 when director Godard added her to the cast of his movie. These characters are archetypal and legendary. Look at Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty...men whose characters have descended from Belmondo's outstanding performance.
Breathless is a landmark in French cinema, as well as filmmaking worldwide. The originality in the fascinating plot is irresistible, and the viewer is drawn in by the solidity and strength of Godard's directing. To indulge in the magic of this movie is to visit a film as important as Citizen Kane, although sadly the film is less recognised and further overlooked in this current cinematic age. The film is simply a magnificently entertaining film that is the work of an artist. All film students must add this film to their collection and begin taking notes. Breathless is cinematic art that will leave you breathless! (Pun absolutely, positively intended!) -
MCT:June 19, 2008Maybe people seem to enjoy this movie so much just because it's a film that marked the beginning of the french new wave. I have to be honest with my rating and say that well, it was ok but I just didn't enjoy it as some people seem to do. I appreciate that it's something different and I enjoy the things they had to say but apart from that...
I could live without the jump cuts. -
MCT:June 15, 2008
There was before Breathless, and there was after Breathless. With its lack of polish, surplus of attitude, crackling personalities of rising stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, and anything-goes crime narrative, Jean-Luc Godard's debut fashioned a simultaneous homage to and critique of the American film genres that influenced and rocked him as a film writer for Cahiers du cinema. Jazzy, free-form, and sexy, Breathless (A bout de souffle) helped launch the French new wave and ensured cinema would never be the same.
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MCT:June 8, 2008
It's interesting to see Godard juxtapose the pursuit of American-movie cool in French film and to build this film around it, sparking something that subsequently took off in a big way. I really dug the chemistry between Belmondo and Seberg.
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MCT:May 13, 2008
A reflective film that mirrors its own medium, Breathless is a film that seems to enjoy shooting down the merits of cinema while at the same time praising them, in this expressive and inventive art piece from Godard. Michel is the embodiment of living the life of a movie-star, "living dangerous until death", as he uses his Bogart impersonations; this twisted, absorbed persona drained from cinema, to live life as he sees it - through a screen.
But forget Godard's wonderful techniques and imagery, just watching Jean Seberg is enough to keep a smile throughout this film. -
MCT:May 12, 2008
Breathless is one of three films often considered the start of the French New Wave, that quirky little period of cinema history where film critics in France began to take the reigns of French cinema into their own hands by force, making cheap movies inspired by Hollywood and Italian Neorealism. As a genre setting film, Breathless really establishes itself. From the first few minutes, it leaves the audience disoriented and perplexed even to this day. Godard uses jump cuts with overlapping sound, smashing a clear sense of time. He clouds one of the most important parts of the film, the shooting of a police officer, with trick cutting and extreme close ups. He lets us wander off on long tracking shots with ambling dialogue and no clear point. Breathless is a movie that breaks as many rules as possible, sometimes just for the sake of breaking them, and in its quirky rebellious spirit, it captures us. Sometimes a film breaks ground in an odd enough way that you can't help but love its stubborn mindset. Because of the undertones in the film, we can more easily accept its loose plot and disorienting format. It doesn't hurt either that our leading character Michel is an exciting enigma, a mysterious criminal wandering around Paris like its his playground, hopelessly chasing an American girl that he can't get over for reasons slightly unclear to us. Part of the charm of the French New Wave is the ambiguity, the way that things sometimes aren't perfectly clear to us. Michel hangs around Paris when he's a wanted man as if he has no purpose, the American girl denies and rejects him on the turn of a hat, leading to a conclusion that comes out of left field and is bogged down with specious reasoning on the parts of the characters. Breathless is inventive, engaging, emotional, and more than deserving of its status as a classic.
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MCT:April 19, 2008
Fantastic movie! Biggest expression of the French Nouvelle Vague! The jump-cuts, the amazingly entertaining dialogue, the realistic characters, the whole concept are just some of the things that makes this movie one of the most influential of the decade. I can even see that Arthur Penn was inspired by this to make his masterpiece Bonnie and Clyde. Jean Seberg is just gorgeous and very likeable. Jean-Paul Belmondo is also very good. A must-see.
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MCT:March 26, 2008
Godard and Truffaut had made an excellent work.The dialogues are simple,but still very captiving and deep.The actors worked very well,specially the gorgeous Jean Seberg.
An obrigatory movie. -
MCT:March 20, 2008
I can't believe it, but I've loved it... However it was so strange listening to jean seberg talking French with that almost sicilian "R"!!! :-)
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MCT:March 19, 2008
French New Wave explodes on screen with this exhilarating and fresh revolution. Godard breaks the rules along with his protagonist in what is definitive cinema verite. French cinema at its finest.
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MCT:March 17, 2008
I did a study on this film at university. There is little doubt that this film has much resonance, yet there is much to dislike. Many of the rules of conventional filmmaking are there for a reason and Godard has disrupted these rules for the mere sake of disruption. Some perhaps changed cinematic techniques for the better, but many for the worse. Critics admire him so much because he was one himself and he used his knowledge to change cinema. Breathless is very overrated, directed by a man simply looking to draw attention to himself. It worked! Well done Monsieur Godard! French cinema was doing perfectly well until you and your pals came along with the French New Wave crap. Auteur Theory??? Get lost, you hack!
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MCT:March 15, 2008
Story of American influence on young people in France, presented with a love story between French man and NY girl.
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MCT:March 12, 2008À BOUT DE SOUFFLE (1960)
directed by Jean-Luc Godard
starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel BoulangerThis film is one of the icons of the French New Wave. Its very self-aware, it makes inside jokes about Le Cahier du Cinéma, in which both Truffaut - co-writer - and Godard used to complain about movies. While Truffaut took a whole different direction Godard decided to experiment editing and have a playful script.This is a different take on the classic film noir, Godard even shows us a picture of Humphrey Bogart, the classic American film noir actor and Jean-Pierre Melville as a small part, he was a French director famous for making film noir as well, but its also a character study and here comes Truffaut's touch with the relationships issues.
À bout de souffle is an extremely influencial film cause of its new style of editing and introducing a new way of acting, closer to reality and closer to improvisation.
It all starts with a man stealling a car, getting caught in a chase with the cops and he end up killing one. Then he goes back in the city and deals - or struggle - with his relationship with a girl, why the cops are still after him.
Jean-Paul Belmondo is extremely natural - for some reason he is always seen smoking, even in bed - and he gives his character a lot of depth, while Jean Seberg deals with her accent and never lets Belmondo take over her character despite being somehow naive.
Godard had a lot to say with his first feature - it doesnt feel like a first feature, it feels like the man had been making movies for years cause he is so much in control of his picture - and he puts those words in his charaters mouths and it all come out in casual conversations that are always interesting.
This is a film with lots of ideas, its smartly written and directed, there are some funny dialogues and some intresting scenes, some moments are pure genius.
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MCT:March 2, 2008
This film contains some of the most famous images and moments in French cinema. Godard is distinctive.
