After exploring the film noir in my film studies class, we divulged deeper into a new forth and coming form of the film called the French New Wave. It was a period during the late 50s-60s and mainly involved a rapid succession of scenes or ‘jump cuts’ to create a jerky sort of effect. This is demonstrated very clearly in one of the most famous French New Wave films called Breathless (1961) (in French it is known as A Bout de Souffle). The movie received a well deserved 97% from critics and a 90% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. This is also in honor of Jean-Paul Belmondo who recently passed away, may his legacy live on and may he rest in peace.
The film follows a car thief named Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who considers himself suave in the likes of Humphrey Bogart. He lights one cigarette off another, and one day impulsively kills a policeman. Driving into Paris, he hides out at his American ‘girlfriend’ Patricia’s (Jean Seberg) apartment. Michel is wanted in the newspapers for killing the policeman, so when the police begin to question Patricia she begins to wonder where her loyalties stand since she is an aspiring journalist.
One of the first things that I noticed about this movie was the many literary references throughout. There is a moment where Michel is smoking a cigarette and he just stares at a poster of Humphrey Bogart for a good six seconds, afterward, the scene cuts to something completely different. I really enjoyed the editing in the movie, there are a lot of jump cuts that go from one random moment to another and a lot of experimenting with the editing. I observed that there were many times that the characters would draw out their sentences to say something particularly artsy or obviously quotable which was kind of random. There was a moment where Michel and Patricia are together in her apartment talking and the camera pans over to a painting, which is of a person holding a mask over their face, and instead of just holding the shot for a second it holds the shot for a while and goes back and forth between the painting and Michel. This could imply that Michel is really not as cynical as he makes himself out to be and instead wears a “mask” to exemplify his bad boy, womanizer persona.
I think that something that the director did that was interesting was use cars as a motif of sorts. Often there are many times throughout the movie that the protagonists are driving around in some kind of car (given that Michel is a car thief). The camera would often be filming them from the back showing the streets from their point of view which is a technique I have never seen used in a movie before. This sequence would go on for long periods of time. The ending is by far the best part of the movie, even though it was sort of confusing. Patricia eventually turns Michel in and supports this by explaining how she had to do it to prove that she did not love him. After Michel finds out that Patricia turned him in he goes out of the apartment that they were hiding out in and begins running down the street. Michel gets shot by the waiting police but continues running with Patricia jogging behind him on a brick based pavement (in high heels). The way this scene was structured was interesting because it is set up from Patricia’s point of view and it shows Michel only getting further away and her not getting any closer until finally he collapses and she arrives by his side. Michel then dies, and she looks straight into the camera to do the same thing that he often did throughout the movie, which is to rub a finger over his lips.
The techniques used in this movie are very hard to compare to any other movie since they were very new and original at the time. The movie in a sense can be compared to the American classic, Casablanca (1942) for the same film noir aspects including a cynical protagonist. There are also very similar camera shots throughout both movies including extreme close-ups. There is also the “artsy” aspect with the very quotational lines in both movies.
Overall I really enjoyed this movie much more than I thought I would. It is definitely on my list of favorite movies and movies to re-watch sometimes in the near future. Though the plot doesn’t make much sense, there is so much to analyze through the editing and camera shots/placement that it makes up for the confusing plot. Another thing I would like to mention is that even though this could constitute a romance film, I think that the director put a very cool twist on the genre. I don’t particularly care for romantic films but the ending was one of the things that made me appreciate the movie, not as a romantic one. I give this movie 5/5 stars for the amazing acting and the editing and for the entertainment value.
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