| | | A film by Jean-Luc Godard
Features: DVD, Aspect Ratio 1.33:1, English, Subtitled
One of the masterpieces of the French New Wave, Breathless launched the career of Jean-Luc Godard. This ground-breaking film tells the story of Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a handsome young criminal, who is on the run from the law after stealing a car and killing a policeman. He hides out in the Paris apartment of Patricia (Jean Seberg), a beautiful young American student. They spend their time dodging the police, making love and stealing cars to raise money for a trip to Italy. As the police net tightens, Michel's bravado and desperation grow and Patricia commits the ultimate act of betrayal.
"Brilliant...plays beautifully." Phillip Lopate, The New York Times
"A witty, romantic, innovative chase picture." Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights At The Movies
"A landmark film, it forever changed the perceptions of cinema." BBC Online
"...not only the most important of the New Wave films but also the most passionate." Andrew Sarris, The Village Voice
Editor's Note
Godard's first feature has been widely hailed as one of the most influential motion pictures ever made. On the run after killing a cop, a small-time crook (Belmondo) hides out in Paris with an American girl (Seberg). After she betrays him, he chooses to face his fate with an absurd stoicism modelled on his hero, Humphrey Bogart. BREATHLESS is the arguable cornerstone of the French New Wave, exhibiting the trademark documentary shooting style, natural sound design, and thematic interest in the detritus of American popular culture. (Rereleased theatrically in April, 2000.)
Plot Summary
Former "Cahiers du Cinéma" critic Jean-Luc Godard threw everything he had learned from years of movie watching into his debut feature--creating an enormously influential film and a seminal study of existential longing and betrayal. Within the first few minutes, Michel (Belmondo), a foul-mouthed Parisian who idolizes Humphrey Bogart, shoots a police officer and immediately becomes a fugitive on the run. He visits an ex-girlfriend and while casually charming her, he steals her money. He then gallivants through the marvelous streets of 1940s Paris, pursuing Patricia (Seberg), a blond pixie-like American selling the New York Herald Tribune on the Champs-Elysees. Michel is childlike as he pouts and whines in his fruitless attempts to seduce Patricia, then turns cold as ice as he curses her out, racing off to steal a car or meet up with some other thugs. Meanwhile, Patricia seems to seduce everybody with her youth and naivety. She is just 20-years-old, possibly pregnant, and despite the few scattered assignments she does for the paper, she is dreamy and directionless. Even so, she does not refuse Michel, though she won't commit to him. As they follow each other in and out of cafes and boutiques, sailing past the Eiffel Tower and down the grand boulevards in gorgeous stolen cars, we await what is sure to be a tragic ending.
| Features | Audio: French | | Subtitles: English |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: Winstar |
| Release Date: 6/5/2007 |
| Running Time: 90 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1959 | | Catalog ID: 5266 | | UPC: 00720917526621 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: French | | Available Audio Tracks: French | | Video: B&W |
Aspect Ratio | | 4:3 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
British Academy Awards (1962) | | | Jean Seberg, Nominee, Best Foreign Actress | |
Berlin International Film Festival (1960) |  | Jean-Luc Godard, Winner, Best Director |
|
| | Professional Reviews | Total Film
"...Forty years on and BREATHLESS remains a stylistic tour de force..." 08/01/2000 p.83Entertainment Weekly
"...[An] homage to American B movies." -- Rating: A 01/13/1995 p.67 Los Angeles Times
"...BREATHLESS is just as fresh and startling as it was when it was first released nearly 40 years ago..." 06/25/1998 p.C16 Chicago Sun-Times
"...Its story remains entrancing..." 09/05/1997 p.31 Premiere
"...[T]his outlaw-on-the-lam movie displayed a loose-limbed virtuosity that was both an ode to freedom and a call to arms..." 12/01/2003 p.10 Uncut
"BREATHLESS is about the zeitgeist, and Godard's script is uncannily prescient of the social and sexual upheavals of the ensuing decade." 08/01/2000 p.118 |
| |
|
|
|
