HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Breathless'' (french: À bout de souffle, lit=Out of Breath) is a 1960 French
crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
written and directed by
Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as FranĂ ...
. It stars
Jean-Paul Belmondo Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor and producer. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward. His best known credits ...
as a wandering criminal named Michel, and
Jean Seberg Jean Dorothy Seberg (; ; November 13, 1938August 30, 1979) was an American actress who lived half of her life in France. Her performance in Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film ''Breathless'' immortalized her as an icon of French New Wave cinema. Seb ...
as his American girlfriend Patricia. The film was Godard's first feature-length work and represented Belmondo's breakthrough as an actor. ''Breathless'' is an influential example of
French New Wave French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...
(''nouvelle vague'') cinema. Along with
François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...
's ''
The 400 Blows ''The 400 Blows'' (french: Les Quatre Cents Coups) is a 1959 French coming-of-age drama film, and the directorial debut of François Truffaut. The film, shot in DyaliScope, stars Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, and Claire Maurier. One of ...
'' and
Alain Resnais Alain Resnais (; 3 June 19221 March 2014) was a French film director and screenwriter whose career extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included ...
's ''
Hiroshima mon amour ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (, lit. , ), is a 1959 romantic drama film directed by French director Alain Resnais and written by French author Marguerite Duras. Resnais' first feature-length work, it was a co-production between France and Japan, an ...
'', both released a year earlier, it brought international attention to new styles of French filmmaking. At the time, ''Breathless'' attracted much attention for its bold visual style, which included then unconventional use of
jump cut A jump cut is a cut in film editing in which a single continuous sequential shot of a subject is broken into two parts, with a piece of footage being removed in order to render the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera positions of the subje ...
s. Upon its initial release in France, the film attracted over two million viewers. It has since been considered one of the best films ever made, appearing in ''
Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'' magazine's decennial polls of filmmakers and critics on the subject on multiple occasions. In May 2010, a fully restored version of the film was released in the United States to coincide with the film's 50th anniversary.


Plot

Michel is a youthful, dangerous criminal who models himself on the film persona of Humphrey Bogart. After stealing a car in Marseille, Michel shoots and kills a policeman who has followed him onto a country road. Penniless and on the run from the police, he turns to an American love interest, Patricia, a student and aspiring journalist, who sells the ''
New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'' on the boulevards of Paris. The ambivalent Patricia unwittingly hides him in her apartment as he simultaneously tries to seduce her and call in a loan to fund their escape to Italy. Patricia says she is pregnant, probably with Michel's child. She learns that Michel is on the run when questioned by the police. Eventually she betrays him, but before the police arrive, she tells Michel what she has done. He is somewhat resigned to a life in prison, and does not try to escape at first. The police shoot him in the street, and after running along the block, he dies "Ă  bout de souffle" ("out of breath").


Closing dialogue

The film's final lines of dialogue cause some confusion for English-speaking audiences. The original French is ambiguous; it is unclear whether Michel is condemning Patricia or condemning the world in general; it is unclear if the Police Inspector Vital is intentionally twisting Michel's meaning. It is also unclear whether Patricia is questioning Michel's scorn, questioning the meaning of a French word as elsewhere in the film, or unable to understand the concept of what Michel is saying as it is translated to her by Vital when the two catch up with the dying Michel.
MICHEL: ''C'est vraiment dégueulasse.'' PATRICIA: ''Qu'est-ce qu'il a dit?'' VITAL: ''Il a dit que vous êtes vraiment "une dégueulasse".'' PATRICIA: ''Qu'est-ce que c'est "dégueulasse"?''
This translates as:
MICHEL: It's really disgusting. PATRICIA: What did he say? VITAL: He said you are really disgusting. PATRICIA: What is "disgusting"?
In French, "dégueulasse" also has the connotation of "nauseating", or making one want to throw up; in reference to a person, it can be loosely translated as a "disgusting person", i.e. a "louse" or "scumbag". In the English captioning of the 2001 Fox-Lorber Region One DVD, "''dégueulasse'' is translated as "scumbag", producing the following dialogue:
MICHEL: It's disgusting, really. PATRICIA: What did he say? VITAL: He said "You're a real scumbag". PATRICIA: What's a scumbag?
The 2007
Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
Region One DVD uses a less literal translation:
MICHEL: Makes me want to puke. PATRICIA: What did he say? VITAL: He said you make him want to puke. PATRICIA: What's that mean, "puke"?
This translation was used in the 2010 restoration.


Cast

*
Jean-Paul Belmondo Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor and producer. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward. His best known credits ...
as Michel Poiccard/Laszlo Kovacs *
Jean Seberg Jean Dorothy Seberg (; ; November 13, 1938August 30, 1979) was an American actress who lived half of her life in France. Her performance in Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film ''Breathless'' immortalized her as an icon of French New Wave cinema. Seb ...
as Patricia Franchini *
Daniel Boulanger Daniel Boulanger (24 January 1922 – 27 October 2014) was a French novelist, playwright, poet and screenwriter. He has also played secondary roles in films and was a member of the Académie Goncourt from 1983 until his death. He was born in Compià ...
as Police Inspector Vital * Henri-Jacques Huet as Antonio Berruti *
Roger Hanin Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ...
as Carl Zumbach * Van Doude as Van Doude * Liliane Dreyfus as Liliane *
Jean-Pierre Melville Jean-Pierre Melville (; born Jean-Pierre Grumbach; 20 October 1917 – 2 August 1973) was a French filmmaker and actor. Among his films are ''Le Silence de la mer'' (1949), ''Bob le flambeur'' (1956), '' Le Doulos'' (1962), ''Le Samouraï'' (196 ...
as Parvulesco *
Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as FranĂ ...
as an informer * Richard Balducci as Tolmachoff *
Philippe de Broca Philippe de Broca (; 15 March 1933 – 26 November 2004) was a French movie director. He directed 30 full-length feature films, including the highly successful ''That Man from Rio, That Man from Rio (''L'Homme de Rio'')'', ''Le Magnifique, The M ...
as an extra *
Jean Douchet Jean Douchet (; 19 January 1929 – 22 November 2019) was a French film director, historian, film critic and teacher who began his career in the early 1950s at ''Gazette du Cinéma'' and ''Cahiers du cinéma'' with members of the future French N ...
as an extra *
Jean Herman Jean Vautrin (17 May 1933 – 16 June 2015), real name Jean Herman, was a French writer, filmmaker and film critic. Life and career After studying literature at Auxerre, he took first place in the Id'HEC competition. He studied French lite ...
as an extra * Andre S. Labarthe as an extra *
Jacques Rivette Jacques Rivette (; 1 March 1928 – 29 January 2016) was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine '' Cahiers du Cinéma''. He made twenty-nine films, including '' L'amour f ...
as the body of the man hit by a car


Themes

American philosopher
Hubert Dreyfus Hubert Lederer Dreyfus (; October 15, 1929 – April 22, 2017) was an American philosopher and professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. His main interests included phenomenology, existentialism and the philosophy of bo ...
saw the film as exemplifying
Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
's conception of ("active" versus "passive")
nihilism Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...
. On this reading, Michel and Patricia are attracted to each other because both live life as essentially meaningless. As an active nihilist, Michel responds to this condition with "cheerfulness, intensity, and style" (modelled on Bogart, whose humorous gestures he adopts), throwing himself fully into momentary engagements, including reckless crime and his love for Patricia. Patricia, as a passive nihilist, however, rejects all engagements, dissatisfied with and afraid of the very meaninglessness that Michel enjoys. In the end, she turns him in to the police so that he will be forced to leave and the love affair will end; but he instead throws himself into death with undiminished gusto. Her puzzled reaction to his final performance leaves its impact on her attitude open.


Production


Background and writing

''Breathless'' was based loosely on a newspaper article that
François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...
read in ''The News in Brief''. The character of Michel Poiccard is based on real-life Michel Portail and his American girlfriend and journalist Beverly Lynette. In November 1952, Portail stole a car to visit his sick mother in Le Havre and ended up killing a motorcycle cop named Grimberg. 1993 French television documentary (78 minutes). The documentary (with English subtitles) is included as a special feature of the Criterion Collection DVD releases of ''Breathless''. Truffaut worked on a treatment for the story with
Claude Chabrol Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...
, but they dropped the idea when they could not agree on the story structure. Godard had read and liked the treatment and wanted to make the film. While working as a press agent at
20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
, Godard met producer
Georges de Beauregard Georges de Beauregard (23 December 1920 Marseille â€“ 10 September 1984 Paris) was a French film producer who produced works by many of the French New Wave directors. In 1968, he was a member of the jury at the 18th Berlin International Film ...
and told him that his latest film was not any good. De Beauregard hired Godard to work on the script for ''
PĂŞcheur d'Islande ''An Iceland Fisherman'' (french: PĂŞcheur d'Islande, 1886) is a novel by French author Pierre Loti. It depicts the romantic but inevitably sad life of Breton fishermen who sail each summer season to the stormy Iceland cod grounds. Literary criti ...
''. After six weeks, Godard became bored with the script and instead suggested making ''Breathless''. Chabrol and Truffaut agreed to give Godard their treatment and wrote de Beauregard a letter from the
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
in May 1959 agreeing to work on the film if Godard directed it. Truffaut and Chabrol had recently become star directors, and their names secured financing for the film. Truffaut was credited as the original writer and Chabrol as the technical adviser. Chabrol later claimed that he only visited the set twice and Truffaut's biggest contribution was persuading Godard to cast Liliane David in a minor role. Fellow New Wave director
Jacques Rivette Jacques Rivette (; 1 March 1928 – 29 January 2016) was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine '' Cahiers du Cinéma''. He made twenty-nine films, including '' L'amour f ...
appears in a cameo as the dead body of a man hit by a car in the street. Godard wrote the script as he went along. He told Truffaut "Roughly speaking, the subject will be the story of a boy who thinks of death and of a girl who doesn't." As well as the real-life Michel Portail, Godard based the main character on screenwriter
Paul Gégauff Paul Gégauff (10 August 1922 – 24 December 1983) was a French screenwriter, actor, and director. He collaborated with director Claude Chabrol on 14 films. Among his films are ''Les Biches'', ''Plein Soleil'' and the autobiographical '' Une ...
, who was known as a swaggering seducer of women. Godard also named several characters after people he had known earlier in his life when he lived in Geneva. The film includes a couple of in-jokes as well: the young woman selling ''
Cahiers du Cinéma ''Cahiers du Cinéma'' (, ) is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.Itzkoff, Dave (9 February 2009''Cahiers Du Cinéma Will Continue to Publish''The New York TimesMacnab, Ge ...
'' on the street (Godard had written for the magazine), and Michel's occasional alias of Laszlo Kovacs, the name of Belmondo's character in Chabrol's 1959 film ''
Web of Passion ''Web of Passion'' (also released as ''Leda'', original French title: ''Ă€ double tour'') is a 1959 French/Italian psychological thriller film directed by Claude Chabrol and based on the novel ''The Key to Nicholas Street'' by American writer S ...
''. Truffaut believed Godard's change to the ending was a personal one. "In my script, the film ends with the boy walking along the street as more and more people turn and stare after him, because his photo's on the front of all the newspapers....Jean-Luc chose a violent end because he was by nature sadder than I.... he had need of isparticular ending. At the end, when the police are shooting at him one of them said to his companion, 'Quick, in the spine!' I told him, 'You can't leave that in.'"
Jean-Paul Belmondo Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor and producer. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward. His best known credits ...
had appeared in a few feature films before ''Breathless,'' but he had no name recognition outside France at the time Godard was planning the film. In order to broaden the film's commercial appeal, Godard sought a prominent leading lady who would be willing to work in his low-budget film. He came to
Jean Seberg Jean Dorothy Seberg (; ; November 13, 1938August 30, 1979) was an American actress who lived half of her life in France. Her performance in Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film ''Breathless'' immortalized her as an icon of French New Wave cinema. Seb ...
through her then-husband Francois Moreuil, with whom he had been acquainted."The Jean Seberg Enigma: Interview with Garry McGee"
, Film Threat, 28 March. 2008
Seberg agreed to appear in the film on 8 June 1959 for $15,000, which was one-sixth of the film's budget. Godard ended up giving Seberg's husband a small part in the film. During the production, Seberg privately questioned Godard's style and wondered if the film would be commercially viable. After the film's success, she collaborated with Godard again on the short ''Le Grand Escroc'', which revived her ''Breathless'' character. Godard initially wanted cinematographer Michel Latouche to shoot the film after having worked with him on his first short films. De Beauregard instead hired
Raoul Coutard Raoul Coutard (16 September 1924 – 8 November 2016) was a French cinematographer. He is best known for his connection with the Nouvelle Vague period and particularly for his work with director Jean-Luc Godard. Coutard also shot films for New Wa ...
, who was under contract to him.Criterion. Coutard and Rissient. The 1958 ethno-fiction ''
Moi, un noir ''Moi, un noir'' (, "Me, a Black erson; also released as ''I, a Negro'') is a 1958 French ethnofiction film directed by Jean Rouch. The film is set in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Synopsis The film depicts young Nigerien immigrants who left their c ...
'' has been credited as a key influence for Godard. This can be seen in the adoption of jump-cuts, use of real locations rather than constructed sets and the documentary, newsreel format of filming.


Filming

Godard envisaged ''Breathless'' as a ''reportage'' (documentary), and tasked cinematographer
Raoul Coutard Raoul Coutard (16 September 1924 – 8 November 2016) was a French cinematographer. He is best known for his connection with the Nouvelle Vague period and particularly for his work with director Jean-Luc Godard. Coutard also shot films for New Wa ...
to shoot the entire film on a
hand-held camera Hand-held camera or hand-held shooting is a filmmaking and video production technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator's hands as opposed to being mounted on a tripod or other base. Hand-held cameras are used because they are conve ...
, with next to no lighting.Begery, Benjamin. ''Reflections: Twenty-one cinematographers at work'', p. 200. ASC Press, Hollywood. In order to shoot under low-light levels, Coutard had to use Ilford HP5 film, which was not available as motion picture film stock at the time. He therefore took 18-metre lengths of HP5 film sold for 35mm still cameras and spliced them together to 120-metre rolls. During development he pushed the negative one stop from 400 ASA to 800 ASA. The size of the sprocket holes in the photographic film was different from that of motion picture film, and the Cameflex camera was the only camera that worked for the film used. The production was filmed on location in Paris using an Eclair Cameflex during the months of August and September in 1959, including U.S.
President Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
's 2–3 September visit to Paris. Nearly the entire film had to be dubbed in post-production because of the noisiness of the Cameflex camera and because the Cameflex was incapable of synchronized sound. Filming began on 17 August 1959. Godard met his crew at the Café Notre Dame near the Hôtel de Suède and shot for two hours until he ran out of ideas. Coutard has stated that the film was virtually improvised on the spot, and that Godard wrote lines of dialogue in an exercise book that no one else was allowed to see. Godard gave the lines to Belmondo and Seberg with only a few brief rehearsals of scenes before filming them. No permission was received to shoot the film in its various locations (mainly the side streets and boulevards of Paris), adding to the spontaneous feel for which Godard was aiming. However, all locations were selected before shooting began, and assistant director Pierre Rissient has described the shoot as very organized. Actor Richard Balducci has stated that shooting days ranged from 15 minutes to 12 hours, depending on how many ideas Godard had on a given day. Producer Georges de Beauregard wrote a letter to the entire crew complaining about the erratic shooting schedule. Coutard said that when de Beauregard encountered Godard at a café on a day on which Godard had called in sick, the two engaged in a fistfight. Godard shot most of the film chronologically, with the exception of the first sequence, which was filmed toward the end of the shoot. Filming at the Hôtel de Suède for the lengthy bedroom scene with Michel and Patricia included a minimal crew and no lights. The location was difficult to secure, but Godard was determined to shoot there after having lived at the hotel after returning from South America in the early 1950s. Instead of renting a dolly with complicated and time-consuming tracks to lay, Godard and Coutard rented a wheelchair that Godard often pushed himself. For certain street scenes, Coutard hid in a postal cart with a hole for the lens and packages piled on top of him. Shooting lasted for 23 days and ended on 12 September 1959. The final scene in which Michel is shot in the street was filmed on the rue Campagne-Première in Paris. Writing for ''
Combat Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...
'' magazine in 1960, Pierre Marcabru observed: "It seems that, if we had footage of Godard shooting his film, we would discover a sort of accord between the dramatized world in front of the camera (Belmondo and Seberg playing a scene) and the working world behind it (Godard and Raoul Coutard shooting the scene), as if the wall between the real and projected worlds had been torn down."


Editing

''Breathless'' was processed and edited at GTC Labs in
Joinville Joinville () is the largest city in Santa Catarina, in the Southern Region of Brazil. It is the third largest municipality in the southern region of Brazil, after the much larger state capitals of Curitiba and Porto Alegre. Joinville is also a ...
by lead editor CĂ©cile Decugis and assistant editor Lila Herman. Decugis has said that the film had a bad reputation before its premiere as the worst film of the year. Coutard said that "there was a panache in the way it was edited that didn't match at all the way it was shot. The editing gave it a very different tone than the films we were used to seeing." The film's use of
jump cut A jump cut is a cut in film editing in which a single continuous sequential shot of a subject is broken into two parts, with a piece of footage being removed in order to render the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera positions of the subje ...
s has been called innovative.
Andrew Sarris Andrew Sarris (October 31, 1928 – June 20, 2012) was an American film critic. He was a leading proponent of the auteur theory of film criticism. Early life Sarris was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Greek immigrant parents, Themis (née Katav ...
analyzed it as existentially representing "the meaninglessness of the time interval between moral decisions." Assistant director Pierre Rissient said that the jump cut style was not intended during the film's shooting or the initial stages of editing.


Reception

In his 2008 biography of Godard,
Richard Brody Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American film critic who has written for ''The New Yorker'' since 1999. Education Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York, and attended Princeton University, receiving a B.A. in comparative literature in 1980. He firs ...
wrote: "The seminal importance of the film was recognized immediately. In January 1960 – prior to the film's release – Godard won the Jean Vigo Prize, awarded 'to encourage an auteur of the future' ... ''Breathless'' opened in Paris ... not in an art house but at a chain of four commercial theaters, selling 259,046 tickets in four weeks. The eventual profit was substantial, rumored to be fifty times the investment. The film's success with the public corresponded to its generally ardent and astonished critical reception ... ''Breathless,'' as a result of its extraordinary and calculated congruence with the moment, and of the fusion of its attributes with the story of its production and with the public persona of its director, was singularly identified with the media responses it generated." ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' critic A. O. Scott wrote in 2010, 50 years after the release of ''Breathless'', that it is both "a pop artifact and a daring work of art" and even at 50, "still cool, still new, still – after all this time! – a bulletin from the future of movies."
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
included it on his "Great Movies" list in 2003, writing that "No debut film since ''
Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...
'' in 1942 has been as influential," dismissing its jump cuts as the biggest breakthrough, and instead calling revolutionary its "headlong pacing, its cool detachment, its dismissal of authority, and the way its narcissistic young heroes are obsessed with themselves and oblivious to the larger society." , the film holds a 96% approval rating on
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, based on 72 reviews, with an average rating of 8.70/10. The site's critical consensus says, "''Breathless'' rewrote the rules of cinema – and more than 50 years after its arrival, Jean-Luc Godard's paradigm shifting classic remains every bit as vital."


Awards

* 1960 Prix Jean Vigo * 1960 Berlin International Film Festival:
Silver Bear for Best Director The Silver Bear for Best Director (german: Silberner Bär/Bester Regie) is an award presented annually at the Berlin International Film Festival since 1956. It is given for the best achievement in directing and is chosen by the International Jury ...


Legacy

Godard said the success of ''Breathless'' was a mistake. He added "there used to be just one way. There was one way you could do things. There were people who protected it like a copyright, a secret cult only for the initiated. That's why I don't regret making ''Breathless'' and blowing that all apart." In 1964, Godard described his and his colleagues' impact: "We barged into the cinema like cavemen into the
Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
of
Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...
." ''Breathless'' ranked as the No. 22 best film of all time in the decennial
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
's 1992 '' Sight and Sound Critics' Poll''. In the 2002 poll, it ranked 15th. Ten years later, in 2012, ''Breathless'' was the No. 13 greatest film of all time in the overall ''Sight and Sound'' poll, and the 11th greatest film in the concurrent Directors' Poll. In 2018, the film ranked 11th on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's list of the 100 greatest foreign-language films, as voted on by 209 film critics from 43 countries. In the 2022 Sight and Sound Critic's Poll, ''Breathless'' ranked as No. 38 greatest film of all time, and No. 14 greatest in the Director's Poll.


References to other films

* ''
Forty Guns ''Forty Guns'' is a 1957 American Western film written and directed by Samuel Fuller, filmed in black-and-white CinemaScope and released by the 20th Century Fox studio. The film stars Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan and Gene Barry. Plot In ...
'', directed by
Sam Fuller Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 â€“ October 30, 1997) was an American film director, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, and World War II veteran known for directing low-budget genre movies with controversial themes, often made ou ...
, had a POV shot through a barrel of a gun that cuts to a couple kissing.Criterion. Breathless as Criticism. * '' Pushover'', directed by
Richard Quine Richard Quine (November 12, 1920June 10, 1989) was an American director, actor, and singer. He began acting as a child in radio, vaudeville, and stage productions before being signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in his early twenties. When his acting ...
* ''
Where the Sidewalk Ends ''Where the Sidewalk Ends'' is a 1974 children's poetry collection written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. It was published by Harper and Row Publishers. The book's poems address many common childhood concerns and also present purely fancif ...
'', directed by
Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...
* ''
Whirlpool A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms ( ). ''Vo ...
'', directed by Otto Preminger, is the film playing when Patricia attempts to lose the police officer that is following her. * '' Bonjour tristesse'', directed by Otto Preminger. Godard said that Patricia was a continuation of Seberg's character CĂ©cile. * '' The Maltese Falcon'', directed by
John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 â€“ August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
. Michel paraphrases a line of dialogue from the film about always falling in love with the wrong women. * ''
The Glass Key ''The Glass Key'' is a novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett. First published as a serial in '' Black Mask'' magazine in 1930, it then was collected in 1931 (in London; the American edition followed 3 months later). It tells the story of a ga ...
'', a novel by
Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...
. A character criticizing Michel for wearing silk socks with a tweed jacket is a reference to the Hammett novel. * ''
Bob le flambeur ''Bob le flambeur'' (English translation": "Bob the Gambler" or "Bob the High Roller") is a 1956 French heist gangster film directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and starring Roger Duchesne as Bob. It is often considered both a film noir and a pre ...
'', directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. Michel makes reference to the lead character Bob Montagné being in jail. * ''
The Harder They Fall The Harder They Fall may refer to: * ''The Harder They Fall'' (1956 film), an American boxing film noir directed by Mark Robson. * ''The Harder They Fall'' (2021 film), an American Western film directed by Jeymes Samuel. * "The Harder They Fall", ...
'', directed by Mark Robson, the lobby card of Humphrey Bogart that Michel imitates is from this film. * The film is dedicated to
Monogram Pictures Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...
, which
Jonathan Rosenbaum Jonathan Rosenbaum (born February 27, 1943) is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for ''The Chicago Reader'' from 1987 to 2008, when he retired. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has ...
called "a critical statement of aims and boundaries."


In popular culture

* The film is frequently referenced in the ''
Youth in Revolt ''Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp'' is a 1993 epistolary novel by C. D. Payne. The story is told in a picaresque fashion and makes heavy use of black humor and camp. The book contains parts one through three of an eleven-part series ...
'' book series, being a favorite of female protagonist Sheeni Saunders, including her dreams of running off to France and her fascination for
Jean-Paul Belmondo Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor and producer. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward. His best known credits ...
. * In ''
The Doom Generation ''The Doom Generation'' is a 1995 black comedy thriller film written and directed by Gregg Araki. The film follows two troubled teenage lovers, Amy Blue (Rose McGowan) and Jordan White (James Duval), who pick up a young handsome drifter named Xavi ...
'', characters play the "smile or I'll choke you" game, and the film's semi-general theme is of a "
nihilistic Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning of life, meaning. The term was pop ...
road movie". * The Australian band
The Death Set The Death Set (also typeset as TheDeathSet or The DeathSet) is an experimental music band with roots in punk rock, sometimes referred to as art punk. The band formed in 2005 in Sydney. Six months after its inception, the band moved to the Unit ...
named their album from 2011 after main character Michel Poiccard. * The final scene is mentioned (and later alluded to visually) in ''
The Squid and the Whale ''The Squid and the Whale'' is a 2005 American independent comedy-drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach and produced by Wes Anderson. It tells the semi-autobiographical story of two boys in Brooklyn dealing with their parents' divorc ...
''. * In the third episode of '' Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex'', "Android and I", a 35mm reel of this film can be seen on a table, beneath a reel of '' Alphaville'', as Togusa and Batou are investigating the house of a suspect. Other Godard works are also scattered through the scene. Dialog from this film is recited by two other characters throughout the episode. Themes from this episode parallel themes from both this movie and Godard's complete oeuvre. The climax of the episode hinges on the final lines, including one additional line, from the final scene of the film. * In an episode of '' Brooklyn Nine-Nine'', Sergeant Jeffords mentions ''Breathless'' when the detectives are discussing their favorite cop movies. Jeffords identifies the film as "François Truffaut's ''Breathless''", despite the fact that only the director's name is generally used in such a way. In reference to this error, Jeffords is seen later in the season at a party, defending his statement by saying "film is a writer's medium". * In '' The Dreamers'' one of the protagonists re-enacts a scene from the film. * The final scene is recreated in Romeo Void's "Never Say Never" video. * In issue #30 of IDW's ongoing comic book series '' Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye'', Whirl votes for repeat showings of the film during the crew's movie night. * The Canadian band
The Tragically Hip The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, were a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassi ...
made a music video for the song "In View" that pays homage to the film. * In the 2001 Novel ''The Incorrigible Optimists Club'' by Jean-Michel Guenassia, the main character sees the film in the cinema with his family. The theater is empty and the woman working the ticket stand advises against seeing it. Nonetheless, he loves the film. * The 2017
Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
-language film ''
Mayaanadhi ''Mayaanadhi'' () is a 2017 Indian Malayalam-language romantic thriller film directed and co-produced by Aashiq Abu, and written by Syam Pushkaran and Dileesh Nair. The film stars Tovino Thomas as a criminal on the run and Aishwarya Lekshmi ...
'' (''Mystic River''), directed by Ashiq Abu, draws inspiration from ''Breathless''. * The 1967 film ''Bonnie and Clyde'' contains numerous visual references to ''Breathless'', including an early shot of Warren Beatty wearing a fedora slanted over his eyes and with a match tilted upward held in his lips, echoing Jean-Paul Belmondo's hat and cigarette in the opening scenes of ''Breathless''. Later Beatty also wears a pair of round-rim black sunglasses with one lens missing, an exact visual reference to Belmondo wearing the same sunglasses with a missing lens later in ''Breathless''. ''Bonnie and Clyde'' also shares a general storyline with ''Breathless'', involving a handsome, nihilistic young killer who steals cars and who connects with a beautiful, free-spirited young woman.
Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 â€“ September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...
, in her 1967 review of ''Bonnie and Clyde'' in ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', wrote that "If this way of holding more than one attitude toward life is already familiar to us—if we recognize the make-believe robbers whose toy guns produce real blood, and the Keystone cops who shoot them dead, from Truffaut’s ''Shoot the Piano Player'' and Godard’s gangster pictures, ''Breathless'' and Band of Outsiders—it’s because the young French directors discovered the poetry of crime in American life (from our movies) and showed the Americans how to put it on the screen in a new, 'existential' way." * Daryush Shokof makes the all-female film ''Breathful'' with reference to ''Breathless''. * In '' A Very Secret Service'', the characters go to see ''Breathless'' in a movie theater, and are shown watching the iconic final scene. * In '' The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo '', fictional actress Evelyn Hugo, at a low point in her career, watches ''Breathless'' and is inspired to go to Paris to revive her career.


See also

* '' Breathless'', a 1983 American remake starring
Richard Gere Richard Tiffany Gere ( ; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began in films in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in '' Looking for Mr. Goodbar'' (1977) and a starring role in ''Days of Heaven'' (1978). He came to prominence with ...
in the Belmondo role and
Valérie Kaprisky Valérie Kaprisky ( Chérès; born 19 August 1962) is a French actress. Life and career She was born Valerie Chérès on 19 August 1962 in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Kaprisky is her Polish mother's maiden name. She is of Greek-Ottoman and Argentine de ...
in the Seberg role *
List of French-language films The following is a list of French-language films, films mostly spoken in the French language. 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s See also * List of French films * List of Quebe ...
*
List of films considered the best This is a list of films considered the best in national and international surveys of critics and the public. Some surveys focus on all films, while others focus on a particular genre or country. Voting systems differ, and some surveys suffer ...


References


External links

* * * *
Why ''Breathless'' (Essay on ThoughtCatalog.com)

''Breathless'' on NewWaveFilm.com

''Breathless Then and Now''
an essay by
Dudley Andrew James Dudley Andrew (born July 28, 1945) is an American film theorist. He is R. Selden Rose Professor of Film and Comparative Literature at Yale University, where he has taught since the year 2000. Before moving to Yale, he taught for thirty years ...
at the
Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Breathless (1960 Film) 1960 films 1960 crime drama films 1960 directorial debut films 1960s English-language films Films directed by Jean-Luc Godard Films set in Paris French black-and-white films French crime drama films 1960s French-language films 1960s multilingual films French multilingual films 1960s French films