Review of Breathless (2009) by Anastasia B — 07 Nov 2009

Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo), protagonist and anti-hero, is a young criminal on the run from the police, after stealing a car and killing a cop. He has an affair with a beautiful young American, Patricia (Jean Seberg), an aspiring journalist who sells the New York Herald Tribune in the middle of the Champs Élysées (Eva Green in Bertolucci's "The Dreamers" paid her tribute for this scene). Patricia is also expecting Michel's baby. She helps Michel to dodge the police, while they steal cars together in order to raise money for a trip to Rome.

Breathless is all style. The story line is interesting, but it is just an excuse. It's Godard's aesthetics, production modes, subject matters, and storytelling methods that are key. First of all, the whole movie was shot on a hand-held camera, just like most all New Wave pictures. It was, however, only shot by two people (Godard and his cinematographer, Raoul Coutard) on a budget that did not top $50,000, a mere fraction of what most pictures cost at the time (another facet of the New Wave). It was shot completely on location in Paris, and utilized new film-making techniques that would be used by film-making students for decades to come (such as putting the camera in a mail cart on the Champs Elysees and following Belmondo and Seberg). Note Godard's use of American cinema influence, and how the montage art of the 1950s impacted this aesthetic. [with thanks to a. parondi and izmatt].