BREATHLESS
France, 1960, 87 minutes, Black and white.
Jean- Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Jean- Pierre Melville.
Directed by Jean- Luc Godard.
Breathless is the directorial debut of New Wave writer-director, Jean - Luc Godard. The screenplay is based on a treatment of three pages by fellow director, Francois Truffaut. A third New Wave director, Claude Chabrol, is billed as Artistic Supervisor.
The film exemplifies the energy and interest in style of the French New Wave of the late '50s. All kinds of devices are used to enhance characters and action. The film relies on the gangster genre and even relies on iris fades, blacked out screen and other old devices. The editing gives the impression of stream of consciousness and the erratic behaviour of the hero. The black and white photography captures the atmosphere of Paris and the French highways.
Jean- Paul Belmondo, soon to emerge as a significant French star, emphasises the homage to Humphrey Bogart. Jean Seberg, after her initial roles in Saint Joan and Bonjour Tristesse, became a favourite actress of continental directors.
The film reflects something of the nihilism of the late '50s - the psychopathic hero, his seeming consciencelessness. This was to remain a feature of so many of the New Wave films in the coming decades. In fact, Jim McBride remade Breathless in the United States in 1983 with Richard Gere as an American version of Belmondo.
1. The impact of the film? Its classic status? Exemplifying the New Wave? The subsequent work of Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol? The blend of the flip and the serious?
2. Black and white photography: Marseilles, Paris and locations, atmosphere and detail? The contemporary world? Streets, shops, theatre, airports, apartments? Newspapers? The style and the transition from a traditional presentation of gangster films to a reliance on technique and devices? Musical score: songs, Mozart?
3. The plausibility and credibility of the plot? The actors -improvising their scenes? Michel as a type? Patricia as a type? The situation: character, encounter, love, test and betrayal? The title?
4. Michel as a contemporary French hero? youthful, energetic? Conscience? Type? Mannerisms? Thumb and lip? Bogart homage? The stealing of the car? On the road and breathless? The gun, the shooting of the policeman? Motivation? The killers? Deaths? Squealers and burglars? Michel propelled forward in his life, Patricia, encounters, contacts? Continuing to steal cars and his techniques? His relationship with Patricia, following her, the night with her, sexual encounter, love? her pregnancy? Wandering the town? Needing money? Papers? The police? Following with the paper? His hiding, taking Patricia with him, her phone call? His staying? His death - and his final comment on her: Bitch? A lively character, purposeless?
5. The contrast with Patricia, work with the Herald Tribune, interviews, the airport, at the office? Her presence in Paris? Friends? The encounter with Michel, fascination with him? Going out, the night? The basis of the relationship? Love or not? Her pregnancy? Sharing with him? The truth? His leaving, her going with him, strained? Her decision to ring the police? To make him go on? The story of the two together, her change of heart? His death? enquiring what his final word meant? The finale with her looking to the camera?
6. The presentation of the police: pursuing Michel, the cinema chase, Michel and the shooting of police?
7. Gangsters, hotels, agencies, car-yards, tip offs? assistant? Contacts? Modelling theatre?
8. The drive of the film and its energy? Interest? An exercise in film-making? and feeling? Audience involvement? Sympathy? Brilliance of surface? Content? meaning?
