A Bout De Souffle: StudioCanal Collection

Although there is some dispute as to which film really kickstarted the Nouvelle Vague, there is much less of a debate as to which were the most important films with directors like Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol all vying for the top spot with many innovative and breathtakingly ambitious films. Along with Truffaut's Les quatre cent coup (The 400 Blows), the most recognisable of the French New Wave films is Godard's A bout de souffle, known in English as Breathless. Godard employed so many new and inventive techniques that many critics and cinephiles recognise Breathless as a film that rewrote much of the accepted cinematic language in a similar way that Orson Welles did in 1941 with Citizen Kane.

The film has a strangely non-linear narrative with massive jump cuts going from one event to the next without any explanation about what has happened in the meantime or where something happened. It follows a petty criminal, Michel, who steals a car and races from Paris into the countryside, speeding past a group of policemen, shooting the one who finds him. Returning to Paris to see his on-off girlfriend, Patricia, an American selling of the New York Herald Tribune on the Champs Elysee, he sees the headlines about the murdered policeman and eventually identifying him as the prime suspect so tries to gather as much money as he can to get out of there.

This is really a film about doomed lovers but, to be honest, the plot isn't as significant as the technical aspects of Breathless. Don't get me wrong, it is a fascinating and extremely well written screenplay, on which Godard worked with François Truffaut and, with Claude Chabrol as the technical adviser, drew three of the 'big guns' of the Nouvelle Vague together.

There is some debate as to the reason why Godard used so many jump cuts with opinion split between the assertion that it was an aesthetic choice designed to create an elliptical narrative and the other, perhaps more believable, contention that the first cuts clocked in at over 130 minutes and, rather than remove scenes as was the norm, Godard chose to simply shorten each scene by removing various numbers of frames. I don't really care which version is true as you have the same result with Godard taking the accepted method of making films and simply doing something different, revolutionising the way in which films would be seen and made from then on. Not only is the film fascinating the sheer number of jump cuts and ellipses, it is remarkable for the number of times the actors break the fourth wall, turning to the camera and either addressing or motioning to the audience.


Godard also decided against a large crew and bulky equipment, taking new lightweight cameras onto the Parisian streets and shooting extremely quickly with cinematographer Raoul Coutard putting down a marker that would establish him as one of the greatest directors of photography who have ever looked through a camera lens.

Jean-Luc Godard started filming with one star name, the American actress Jean Seberg, but once the film had been released, there was another actor whose name was on everyone's lips: Jean-Paul Belmondo. In Breathless, he is the embodiment of cinematic cool with a thick cigarette always dangling from his bottom lip, a confident swagger and a hat always perched at a jaunty angle on his head. Belmondo's interplay with Seberg is fascinating and he really commands attention as he prowls the streets, hotels and shops as if he owns the city.


This is compulsory viewing for anyone who considers themselves a serious film fan as it works on several levels: as a romantic thriller, a character-led drama and as a lesson in how to break the rules and get away with it, making a masterpiece in the process. Breathless is a film that never seem stage and it is as cool now as it has ever been.

The Disc

Extra Features
There are over two hours of supplementary material on the disc with one brand-new/previously unreleased high definition, the 48 minute documentary Godard: Made in the USA. This is a fascinating and extremely revealing film about the great filmmaker, his work and universal appeal.

Films in the StudioCanal Collection usually have a filmed introduction by an expert in the appropriate field and, in this case it is Colin McCabe who explains why Breathless is such a great film, what Godard did that was so revolutionary and about the two lead actors.

Room 12, Hôtel de Suède clocks in at 79 minutes and is named after the hotel room in which Jean-Luc Godard stayed during the shoot and consists of one man's crusade to find out all he can about Godard and the making of Breathless, interviewing anyone who is alive or willing to talk to him including Claude Chabrol (who denies being the technical and artistic advisor) and actor and press attaché Richard Baldolucci he reveals how little the script there was and some days they only shot for a quarter of an hour before finishing because there wasn't any more script!

The fairly brief Jean-Luc According To Luc piece is from German television and consists of filmmaker and part-time actor Luc Moullet talking about his friend and 'progenitor'.

There is also a photo gallery, trailer and poster to go with the brilliant booklet written by the French film journalist Yves Alion.


The Picture
I've never seen the film looking so crisp, so rich in detail and with such impressive contrast levels. The 2K restoration work, supervised by Raoul Coutard, has led to an absolutely stunning picture which really shows off the difference between Blu-ray and upscaled DVD.

For a film that was shot so quickly, it is to Coutard's eternal credit that he acquiesced to just about every one of Godard's demands, shooting the film with such style, energy and attention to detail that it is unsurprisingly recognised as a technical marvel.


The Sound
Just as the picture looks better than I've ever seen it, the sound (presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono) is crisper and clearer than ever before and there is a noticeable difference between this and on the DVD of Breathless that I have seen several times before.

The jazz music that plays over the film is perfect as it is the music where people are encouraged to play at different tempos and against expectations so I can't think of a more appropriate musical style to accompany a filmmaking style that is almost like jazz in its approach to convention.

The subtitles don't seem to be different to the DVD release but they benefit from the high definition picture with sharper edges so they are easier to read and clearer than on the DVD.


Final Thoughts
Breathless is one of the greatest films ever made and, in terms of cinematic language, one of the most important. I don't know if it is taught in every film studies course (I didn't study at a university for my International Film MA) but it should be compulsory viewing for everyone who treats film seriously and as an art form with serious merit.

This is practically a 'must buy' package whether you own this on DVD or not as the vast improvements in AV quality along with the hours of extra features, one of them new, (plus the booklet and poster) makes this so much of an improvement on the standard definition release that anyone who loves film and either loves Breathless or is just intrigued as to what all the fuss is about should add this to their collection.