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Breathless (1960)

Breathless (1960) was directed by Jean-Luc Godard and stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg. It is widely considered to have launched the French New Wave film movement. The film breaks many cinematic conventions of the time through its documentary-style camera work, jarring editing techniques like jump cuts, and characters who directly address the camera. The plot follows a criminal on the run in Paris who steals a car and later meets his demise, though the story itself is less impactful than the innovative filmmaking.

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2K views2 pages

Breathless (1960)

Breathless (1960) was directed by Jean-Luc Godard and stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg. It is widely considered to have launched the French New Wave film movement. The film breaks many cinematic conventions of the time through its documentary-style camera work, jarring editing techniques like jump cuts, and characters who directly address the camera. The plot follows a criminal on the run in Paris who steals a car and later meets his demise, though the story itself is less impactful than the innovative filmmaking.

Uploaded by

kanwaljeet
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Breathless (1960) or “À bout de souffle”

Director: Jean-Luc Godard


Story: François Truffaut

Breaking the norms


Breathless is a 1960 French film which is often regarded as the start of the French new Wave
film movement. There are many things that separate this from the regular Hollywood movies at
the time. I would put the genre as crime noir style but one could also argue it is like a
documentary too.
If we start from the beginning of the movie, it opens with a snarky comment from the protagonist
himself, then the plot immediately picks up as he steals a car that would later lead to his demise.
When he hits the road, he breaks the fourth wall by talking to the audience, looking right at the
camera talking about France. This happens again right at the end of the movie when Patricia rubs
her lips like Michael while looking right the camera.
Speaking of the camera, the shooting and the editing style is miles apart from the formulaic style
of the Hollywood films of the time.
At the start of the film when Patricia and Michael are talking a walk on the streets of Paris, the
camera is following them from the back, being slightly titled and a Shakey like it is a handheld
camera, circling back the documentary style I talked about before. This happens again when the
camera this time follows in from of them.
The editing style is also incredibly unique. The liberal use of jump cuts at places. Jump cuts are
often used to contrast a situation or keep the continuity going so that the audience is immersed in
the film and forget that it is all fake. The jump cuts in breathless are sometimes jarring and in
quick succession making the audience aware that it is a film. Like when Michael drops Patricia
off and they have a conversation in the car, there are many jump cuts as Patricia asks Michael
why is he sad. The direction does assume that the audience is dumb. When a character moves
from one space to another there's no “transition” scene like a wide shot of a car travelling on a
road or a few silent seconds of a character walking. For example, in vertigo a film we saw a
while back there are many scenes of the protagonist’s car travelling from the city road to the
forest road to show they are moving from one space to another, in breathless it just cuts to there
with the characters.

The Story, is in my opinion maybe the weakest part. There was no reaction from me, neither tear,
joy, happiness, or sadness. Even in the end when Michael dies, I was not too phased or sad about
his death. It was like the colour beige. That is intentional. The dialogue is very existential and
thought provoking, its Hadly feels like a conversation but people asking each other questions and
philosophizing about their emotions and life so that was very enjoyable.

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