Film Review: "Breathless" (dir. Jean Luc Godard) 1960

For whatever reason, the phrase "French New Wave Cinema" conjures a certain level of disdain, especially from the casual movie goer. Which is unfortunate: for all their perceived pretentiousness, many of the French New Wave classics, especially The 400 Blows and Breathless have remarkably universal stories and themes. Furthermore, since most of these movies are almost fifty years old, some of the camera techniques and imagery are so ingrained in our movie going subconscious that they no longer seem as radical as they might have been at the time.

While some of the stylistic aspects have been dulled by time, the excitement that pulses through these films has not been. I attribute this zeal directly to these auteur's unabashed love of film, worn proudly on the (video) sleeve. Godard and Truffaut love film, especially American cinema (see: the Bogart references in Breathless, Truffaut's idolization of Hitchcock) and there is a certain amount of Hollywood romance in Michel and Patricia's dialogue that gives the film a classic feel.

I won't rehash the plot of Breathless. It will be enough to say that it is about a charmingly devious man named Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) , a two-bit mobster (and a bad one, at that). He experiences an underwhelming amount of camaraderie and spends a great deal of the film obsessing over/stalking/lying to/seducing/pestering an American girl named Patricia (Jean Seberg) while on the run from the law in Paris, France.

What makes Breathless so engaging is the nervous, twitchy (handheld) camera work, a polarizing hallmark of early Godard films. In Breathless, this technique works to highlight the tension on screen, since the actors barely register any distinguishable emotions. Although Patricia is unaware of the rising action and thus her calm is expected, Michel, while squirrelly, never looks very stressed. In fact, he looks downright resigned, especially in his doomed final scenes.

The other highlight of Breathless is the lengthy apartment scene that abruptly pauses Michel's gangster story line to meander through Michel and Patricia's relationship. I found the pacing of film to be similar to Godard's most commercial film, Contempt, in which Godard sets up his story of art vs. commerce and decaying love, only to insert a 25 minute real time argument between the lovers before advancing the plot along again. While the scene in Contempt highlights the lovers failing communication, the apartment scene in Breathless serves to highlight that these two lovers never really communicated to begin with. Both scenes are marred with frustration and restlessness: the characters seem to move around endlessly, as if they are trying to run away but realize that there is no escape, at least yet.

And then there is the superficial cigarette smoking cool of Belmondo's Michel. His audacity seems infinite and he exudes a French indifference that has become a hallmark all it's own. Note: Belmondo is actually Sicilian! Apparently, Godard let Belmondo write a lot of his own dialogue (which, according to Belmondo, was usually written minutes before they were getting ready to shoot) and use phrases that felt the most comfortable to him. Belmondo manages to make his anti-hero both completely detestable and totally endearing. He is careful to balance Michel's willingness to selfishly deceive with an acute affability so that the tragic ending is focused more on one final miscommunication and not Michel's demise.

Interestingly enough, that final miscommunication is oft-disputed and worth reading about after you've seen the film.

A perfect introduction to 60's foreign film.

Further reading: a less favorale criticism of Breathless.