BREATHLESS

(February 1961, U.S.)

Jean-Luc Godard's BREATHLESS is among the inaugural films of the French New Wave and was derived from a scenario by fellow New Wave director, François Truffaut. At the time, the film attracted much attention for its bold visual style and the film editing use of jump cuts. At the time, these jump cuts were considered extremely innovative. Today, like everything else that has been copied a thousand times over in filmmaking, it has been brought to the brink of overkill. Just watch any of director Tony Scott's films over the last ten years and you'll see what I mean.

Michel Poiccard (played by Jean-Paul Belmondo) is a young, petty criminal who models himself on the film persona of the great Humphrey Bogart. In just the first five minutes of the film, he's already stolen a car and murdered a policeman just as simply as if he were eating breakfast. In fact, in the stolen car department, he does it as many times in a day as others would sneeze. He's a sleazy man who knows and is even proud of the fact of how sleazy he is, both in crime and his relationship with women. Just look at the many close-ups of his face with his dark glasses and fat cigareete to see what I mean. You are compelled to hate this man from the moment you meet him. It's actually quite incredible that his American love interest, Patricia (played by Jean Seberg), cannot suspect who and what he is. When she finally finds out, she appears turned on and is prone to help him until she inevitably turns him in to the police and he's shot dead.

Godard's BREATHLESS is only the second foreign film in my collection that I am discussing, but it has long and justifiably been considered one of the essentials of art house cinema, thanks to it's breakthrough style of editing and black and white cinematography.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Michel Poiccard (voice-over): "After all, I'm an asshole. After all, yes, I've got to. I've got to!"