I have noticed
that the French have a love-hate relationship with the United States, with the
love part generally due to Hollywood. One of the greatest examples of that loving
relationship is Breathless (1960) a
film directed by French film critic Jean-Luc Godard, starring a character
attracted to the film persona of American actor Humphrey Bogart, and a
French-speaking American expatriate as his girlfriend. The film’s plot is
pretty simplistic, but at the time its use of jump cuts was something entirely
new, and Godard’s style actually ended up influencing many American filmmakers
such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, and Robert Altman.
This movie is a
part of cinema history, but upon first viewing it seemed dated to me. I don’t
mean the black and white cinematography, that is objectively gorgeous, but
rather the story and characters. The movie was played as a double feature at a
film club when I was at the University of Sherbrooke and it seemed to me the
rest of the audience was also struggling to take it seriously. The next film, Pierrot le fou (1965), was not much of
an improvement given the meandering plot and ridiculously bizarre ending. That
being said, I can’t argue the two leads in Breathless
embody the definition of cool in the 1960s.
Jean-Paul
Belmondo, in a career-defining role, stars as Michel, a petty thief who goes on
the run to Paris after stealing a car and shooting a police officer. Yet for a
criminal Michel is very well-dressed with a suit, hat, sunglasses, and of
course a cigarette frequently attached to his lips. No way around it, this guy
looks like a movie star, and the same can be said for his love interest
Patricia (Jean Seberg), a student and aspiring journalist who sells American
newspapers in the streets.
That’s about all there
is to say in terms of plot. These two meet up, talk a lot, spend time in
Patricia’s bedroom, and eventually the law comes calling. The film is only
about 90 minutes long, and sometimes it quickly shifts through events thanks
the aforementioned jump cuts. Instead of lingering on the shooting that sets
off the events in motion, the filmmakers quickly cut through it as though
Godard is short for time. Reading about how the film was made I learned a lot
of it was improvised, and it definitely seems as though some of the lines and the
way they are delivered were unrehearsed. The film’s title thus seems to have
more than one meaning.
A lot could be
written about the film’s style, its meaning in regards to French society, or
the significance of its loose narrative structure, but I guess I am just not
knowledgeable enough when it comes to cinema history to write about that.
However I am enough of a film fan to see the influence of Breathless in the film’s of Quentin Tarantino, from the
cool-looking criminals to the loose story structure. True Romance in particular, with its amateur criminal with a love
of movies who goes on the run with the love of his life, seems to owe a lot to
Godard.
Given its
influence on modern day movies, I can appreciate Breathless’ place in cinema history, but it is not a movie I would enjoy
watching repeatedly. That being said, I love the work of the directors it has
inspired. If it wasn’t for Godard, we might not have Clarence and Alabama
sporting cool sunglasses as they shoot their way to Los Angeles.
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