Review of Breathless

Introduction

After faffing around with Cahiers du Cinema mates Claude Chabrol and Francois Truffaut, penning glib critiques, shooting perfunctory shorts and watching lots and lots of movies, Jean Luc Godard decided to actually make a proper film (of sorts), and stunned the world in the process. `Breathless`, from an original synopsis from Truffaut was the result, a fast and loose romantic thriller brimming with referential trimmings and youthful energy that allowed the Nouvelle Vague to hit the ground running.

Video

Well, given that `Breathless` was made in `59 its hardly surprising the DVD transfer isn`t state of the art. What is surprising is that it looks several years older. Fullscreen, scratchy and with quite a lot of artifacts flying around the place, this is perfectly satisfactory given the source, but only a few shades higher than VHS.

Audio

Mono audio track in French with English subtitles. At least it isn`t dubbed.

Features

Some interesting stuff: a trailer for the US Richard Gere remake of `Breathless`, short poster and stills galleries, the wonderfully jagged original theatrical trailer and some concise production notes. There`s a Godard short called `Charlotte et Son Jules`, roughly translated as Charlotte and her Bloke Jules (also starring Jean Paul Belmondo), which is sharp, rambling and very funny. There`s also an extremely cool Saul Bass inspired menu sequence.

Conclusion

Not as profound or resonant as Godard`s later masterpieces `Alphaville` and `Weekend` nor as brilliantly belligerent as pretty much every one of Truffaut`s New Wave concoctions, `Breathless` nevertheless is an engaging and invigorating anti-conformity spin on traditional genre and character types. Belmondo is relaxed, laconic con-man Michel (aka Laszlo Kovacs), whose off-the-cuff lifestyle leads to the eventual slaying of a police officer and self-induced exile in the largest city in France. While there, he courts the beautiful and independent American reporter who he loves, Patricia Franchini (Jean Seberg) after bumping into her on the Champs Elyées.

Their love-hate relationship thickens and hovers in the nicotine clouds in that oh-so-French self-loathing paradoxical way until the net closes on dear old Michel for a memorable conclusion. Brash, disorientating and not nearly as formally technical as later New Wave films, `Breathless` is jazzy, jump-cut freeform filmic self-love. Reckless use of style is never over-bearing and Belmondo and Seberg sizzle together. Its dated a little, and it`s a little hard to be honestly dazzled by the occasional pretence and idiosyncrasies that are studded throughout (the insistence on breaking the forth wall as punctuation is amateur night). However, Belmondo`s sense of cool, Martial Solal`s unforgettable jazz-enriched score, Jacque Maumont`s brilliant use of sound and Godard`s observant eye for human foibles are simply timeless.