A Bout De Souffle. (PG.)
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard.
Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger, Richard Balducci, Jean Pierre Melville. 1960. 89 mins. 60th Anniversary 4K restoration. Blu-ray, DVD and EST. Black and White French with subtitles.
My breathless moment in the cinema came in the early eighties with Raiders Of The Lost Ark. I remember staggering out of that in a state of ecstatic agitation: who knew films were allowed to be that much fun. If I'd been born two decades earlier, perhaps it would've been Godard's debut film. Back then, its innovations - the handheld camera, the jump cuts, 4th wall breaks and location shooting with passers-by staring into the camera – represented this great unleashing of energy. Who knew cinema could be so wild and free?
Of course, Hollywood movies now are so packed with fun that they're often a bit of a chore and viewers coming to A Bout De Souffle/ Breathless for the first time may be a bit surprised that this cheap-looking amateurish film is some kind of big deal. The film is so crude it often resemblances a group of friends who have just tumbled out of a cinema, wandering the streets of Paris re-enacting scenes from the crime drama they have just seen.
What helps set it apart is the unique chemistry between Belmondo as the small-time criminal who has killed a cop and is trying to persuade Seberg, his American squeeze and would-be writer, to skip town with him. Of course, they are both too in love with themselves to ever make the relationship work.
Though there's a 20-minute section in the middle where the film stops for them to talk in her bedroom, the Godard-wary should know that Breathless is fun and enjoyable, in the way normal movies are and most Godard films aren't – there's a story, and stuff happens. It's like all the other films, yet somehow not. Its innovations are now old chapeau, but the feeling of breaking free is still palpable. Seeing Jean Seberg with her stripy top and pixie hair crying "New York Herald Tribune" as she walks down the Champs Elysees is to be gripped by a very poignant magic. Once it was revolutionary, now it's painfully nostalgic.
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard.
Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger, Richard Balducci, Jean Pierre Melville. 1960. 89 mins. 60th Anniversary 4K restoration. Blu-ray, DVD and EST. Black and White French with subtitles.
My breathless moment in the cinema came in the early eighties with Raiders Of The Lost Ark. I remember staggering out of that in a state of ecstatic agitation: who knew films were allowed to be that much fun. If I'd been born two decades earlier, perhaps it would've been Godard's debut film. Back then, its innovations - the handheld camera, the jump cuts, 4th wall breaks and location shooting with passers-by staring into the camera – represented this great unleashing of energy. Who knew cinema could be so wild and free?
Of course, Hollywood movies now are so packed with fun that they're often a bit of a chore and viewers coming to A Bout De Souffle/ Breathless for the first time may be a bit surprised that this cheap-looking amateurish film is some kind of big deal. The film is so crude it often resemblances a group of friends who have just tumbled out of a cinema, wandering the streets of Paris re-enacting scenes from the crime drama they have just seen.
What helps set it apart is the unique chemistry between Belmondo as the small-time criminal who has killed a cop and is trying to persuade Seberg, his American squeeze and would-be writer, to skip town with him. Of course, they are both too in love with themselves to ever make the relationship work.
Though there's a 20-minute section in the middle where the film stops for them to talk in her bedroom, the Godard-wary should know that Breathless is fun and enjoyable, in the way normal movies are and most Godard films aren't – there's a story, and stuff happens. It's like all the other films, yet somehow not. Its innovations are now old chapeau, but the feeling of breaking free is still palpable. Seeing Jean Seberg with her stripy top and pixie hair crying "New York Herald Tribune" as she walks down the Champs Elysees is to be gripped by a very poignant magic. Once it was revolutionary, now it's painfully nostalgic.
