slide A bout de soufflé presentation

Introduction

I found “A bout de souffle” an engaging, captivating movie. What I like most is the natural dialog, the
way Jean Luc Godard constructed the main characters , the innovative jump cuts that wouldn’t let me
lose focus on the action. And most of all, it sets the premises for my existence in France, 1960.

Slide….(of all the films now being made…)

Historical background

At the time A bout de souffle was made, France was globally acknowledged as the film capital. If we go
back in time, during the World War Two, we see an unfree France. The occupation cinema was
controlled by the German, meaning that the freedom of expression was severely restricted.
Cinematheque francais which until that moment had screened French, European and American films,
was demolished.

Slide….

But the liberation was as disruptive to the cinema as the occupation; the American films weren’t
restricted anymore, but a quota of French films to be screened was introduced, rising to 38 per cent in
1948.

During the next period, until 1959, called the ‘cinema du papa’ , the influentials film journals were
founded: ‘Cahiers du cinema’ and ‘Positif’. Andre Bazin, one of the founders of Cahiers du cinema, was
the first to truly examine the ‘ontology’ of cinema. Bazin believed that a film should capture the
director’s personal vision, theory that would be developed in “politique de auteur”. Cahiers du cinema
along with “cinematheque francaise where directors received much of their film education, were
essential on the creation of the Nouvelle Vague

The new wave filmmakers rejected the cinema of the 1950’s. they tried to recreate cinema by breaking
the cinematic codes and conventions. Claude Chabrol, Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer
and Jacques Rivette were discussing, criticizing french , american, european movies in the pages of
Cahiers du cinema.

Jean Luc Godard by 1959 made five shorts films, not a single feature length film and was already 29. He
was pushed by the time to make a future length movie in that year, A bout de souffle(Breathless).

The plot of ‘a bout de souffle’ is simple in my opinion, the beauty I think stays more in dialog and in the
mise en scene, than in the action itself. Michael poiccard played by jean paul belmondo smoking a
cigarette, which becomes a motif in this film, he then jumps in his car and talks to the audience from
inside the car, while smoking. In short time, we see a close up with the gun. There is a chase scene with
the French police. He stops the car, one policeman is after him. As he says ‘freeze’ , he is shot by
Michael. Michael is trying to escape to Italy afterward, and to take his American girlfriend, Patricia, with
him. Most of the movie is their relationship, finished by the betrayal of her, who rings the police in the
end of the movie. She warns Michael, but he’s not going to hide. He is tired and he wants some sleep.
The films finishes with Michal running with the bullet in his back. He dies, before making an almost
comic amused face.

Slide….

A bout de soufflé began as an outline written by Truffaut. Godard reworked much of the script.

I like the most how his characters are created. The American girl is caught in the affair with Michael, but
she realizes she can’t mess with the French Police, she doesn’t want to ruin her dream of becoming a
journalist, so telephones the police in the end. This is an act of courage.

Michael on the other hand has to rick everything, as we see on the poster ‘live dangerously until the
end’. Belmondo was the key icon of masculinity in his period.

The film was produced by Georges de Beauregard.

Theoretical concepts used in the film

slide

The critic and founder of Cahiers du cinema was a great influence on new wave directors. This film was
definitely Godar’s vision. He wanted to show he can make a movie by attacking the laws of grammar, a
movie in which everything goes.

slide

He revealed his own ideas through the medium of his characters. as he just made 29 and was desperate
to make a film, michel poiccard at the beginning of the film says: “after all, I’m an idiot., after all, I must.
I must”

We can easily recognise a Godard movie and I think this is the best proof of the auteur theory.

Metaphors and symbols

slide

The metaphor of the impossibility of communication is relieved in the scene where Michael and Patricia
are in the Swedish women flat. Michel and Patricia are walking up and down in the room, and the
camera follows each separately. Michael says: “whenever we talk, I talk about myself, and you talk
about yourself. But you should have talked about me, and me about you” . sometimes they
misunderstand or don’t understand each other: “qu’est-ce que c’est dingue?”

The poster- metaphor of the risc the character has to take in film by shooting the policeman and feeling
in love with Patricia, as the director for making this movie.

When he shots at the sun, Michael is defying Gods , forgetting that is destiny who can save him

A motif is the repeated action of Michael, touching his lips. In the end, after he dies. We see Patricia
doing the same thing.

The cinematic language

slide

Jean luc godard shot a bout de soufle(breathless) in four weeks during the summer of 1959, in a non
turistic paris, using a light-weight camera that gave cinema a sense of spontaneity.

slide

Jean luc godard is an instinctive creator, he shot a bout de soufle as he felt on the moment, including in
shots everything he felt would work in the film. he wanted the film to be fresh, that’s way the lines were
written as they went along. In some days, because he didn’t feel good, maybe creative enough he
wouldn’t go shooting.

slide

In a normal movie a director whould shot 20000 or 30000 metres of footage, but for a bout de souffle
they used only 8000. they repeted a scene only if it went really bad.

His main goal was to demonstrate there is another way of making films, so usual mistakes are
intentional in ‘a bout de soufle’ like crossing the eye line.

According to raoul cutard he had an unusual way of directing the camera. The process was similar with a
photojurnalistic one, and he would say only what he doesn’t want to appear in a scene, than saying
what he does want.
Sound and music

Slide

i think the music because is repeating during the film is a sort of emblem or motif for the movie and
remains etched in our minds.

It was composed by Martial Solal. A french jazz pianist and composer, known mostly for the music he
wrote for ‘a bout de souffle’.

The soundtrack has its own time, regardless of the links with the images. This because the film was shot
without sound, as there was no hand hold 35 mm camera who permited to shoot with sync sound.

Montage

slide

‘A bout de souffle’ was 2 hours and a half in the first point, and after the first cut lasted 2 hours.

Jean Luc Godard used the innovative jump cuts partly to shorten the movie without cutting entire
scenes. He adopts a fast editing style with hyper fragmentation of the image and rapid montage with a
continuous long take. Jump cuts are cuts in shots where frames don’t differ enough to be a new shot. So
it looks like they overcome time.

The establishing shots which usually help us identify a location and were traditionally used to
introduced a scene are cut off in ‘ a bout de souffle’.

Final

slide

The film was a success. It was enjoyed by an audience made of ‘public at large’, the average public.

Personally I prefer more the movies in which he uses the color like ‘pierrot le fou’, though breathless
remains an icon for Godard and for Nouvelle Vague