PART I: French New Wave (1958-62) - À bout de souffle / Breathless, 1960
A bout de souffle/ Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) Not only was Breathless Jean-Luc Godard’s first feature film but also Jean-Paul Belmondo’s first appearance as a cinema actor. Breathless is the story of small-time gangster Michel (Belmondo) who while imitating American cinema icons tries to escape from the police but is eventually betrayed by one of his girl-friends, Patricia (Jean Seberg). It is less the rather conventional story than the cinematic style and innovative analysis of cinematic traditions and modern consumer culture that makes Breathless one of the most significant and globally influential works of the French New Wave. -Heiko Stang "one never does exactly what one intended. sometimes one even does the opposite. at least this is true of me; but at the same time i am responsible for everything i do. after a certain time, for instance, i realized that breathless was not at all what i thought. i thought i had made a realistic film...but it wasn't that at all." -godard on breathless,1962
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Runtime: 90
Director: Jean Luc Godard Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger, Jean-Pierre Melville |
breathless, 1960
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A bout de souffle/ Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) Not only was Breathless Jean-Luc Godard’s first feature film but also Jean-Paul Belmondo’s first appearance as a cinema actor. Breathless is the story of small-time gangster Michel (Belmondo) who while imitating American cinema icons tries to escape from the police but is eventually betrayed by one of his girl-friends, Patricia (Jean Seberg). It is less the rather conventional story than the cinematic style and innovative analysis of cinematic traditions and modern consumer culture that makes Breathless one of the most significant and globally influential works of the French New Wave. -Heiko Stang "one never does exactly what one intended. sometimes one even does the opposite. at least this is true of me; but at the same time i am responsible for everything i do. after a certain time, for instance, i realized that breathless was not at all what i thought. i thought i had made a realistic film...but it wasn't that at all." -godard on breathless,1962