Review of Breathless (1983) by Phil B — 19 Jul 2010

Jean-Luc Godard's audacious and seminal debut feature which marked the beginning of the end of the studio system. The film is free, spontaneous and jazzy just like its setting which isn't a studio built set, it's Paris.

"Breathless" is a film extremely alive in the present tense. Michel and Patricia (our leading couple) do not hesitate or deliberate over their actions. They do and ask questions later. The in the moment nature of these characters is added to by Godard's extensive and daring use of the jump-cut. Conversation gets cut short and to the point, everything is to the point, the necessities are there and the rest is cut and tossed away. Godard breaks the conventions of cinema but then goes on to break the rules too (such as the often broken 30 degree rule) because that's what our protagonists and the picture is about with them quite simply - anything goes.

The film defines the Nouvelle Vague. A movement inspired by the Italian Neo-realists as well as an adoration for classic Hollywood. References to other film are countless we even see a girl trying to sell the magazine Godard (and so many other New Waves) famously wrote for: Cahiers du Cinema. "A Bout de Souffle" expresses film's place in our lives, it's influence on people, as our Humphrey Bogart-obsessed Michel even dies in the manner that Bogart would in film.

Godard would never make conventional film and this film marks his fearlessness to express autonomously, a true Auteur and a truly cutting-edge film.