Review of Breathless (2009) by John S — 22 Sep 2010

4: I'm experiencing what for me is a rather interesting phenomenon. My opinion of a number of French New Wave pictures has gradually been reduced over the past couple years. Things of this nature have occurred at other times in my life, for instance some of the films I enjoyed in my high school years or younger are no longer as effective, but this is the first time this has happened in my collegiate and post-collegiate years.

At one time, Breathless was #6 on my list of all-time favorite films and it has now been reduced to 4 stars and is probably closer to #200. Similar movements have occurred with other Godard pictures like Pierrot le fou, Vivre sa vie, and Le Mepris.

I don't have enough data at this point to declare that I've begun to move beyond the French New Wave, as I've yet to watch many of the films of Truffaut, Chabrol, Rivette, or Varda again in the past couple years, but I can say very definitively that I've soured on Godard.

I've even seen my high opinion of some of Resnais's pictures take a hit. The reason this phenomenon makes sense is that the New Wave films were about stepping beyond the conventional and embracing a new and exciting way of filmmaking and storytelling.

However, films since that time have not failed to develop further and build upon not only the more classical styles of filmmaking seen prior to the New wave, but also upon the New Wave. Many of the techniques and conventions embraced by the New Wave have since become old hat themselves.

In turn, my tastes have grown more sophisticated over the years and continued to develop. I could already sense a shift away from Godard and towards Truffaut about 4 years ago. The films of Godard have lost some of their freshness, ability to shock, and iconoclastic draw for me.

Breathless is still a fantastic and groundbreaking film, but I don't love it like I used to. The jump cuts are still effective, but they don't make my eyes pop like they used to. The manner in which the story is told is still engaging, but it doesn't seem nearly as radical or inventive as it did at one time.

Part of this could be that Godard's style is so obviously rough and underdeveloped compared to what it would eventually become. In the end, I'd rather see a real Bogart picture.