Being one of Godard’s first films, and one of the most highly touted, it was no surprise that I was expecting this movie to blow my mind. Unfortunately, it didn’t have that effect on me. I still enjoyed it but well, I suppose it just didn’t display that trademark Godardian style that became so established as his career progressed. But when I think about it, this was one of his first films so I suppose he still didn’t have such a reputation and this film was more paving the way for the French New Wave of filmmaking rather than for Godard’s unique style. (Also, the film was black and white, so no chance of seeing those beautiful vibrant Godard colours, for one). Actually, I found that this film, maybe because it was so early in his career but it seemed an almost typical Hollywood narrative, with perhaps influences of Italian neorealism (especially in the camerawork).
It is about Michael Poiccard (played by Jean-Paul Belmondo, apparently based on the film persona of Humphrey Boggart − who features in a poster in the film), who after stealing a car and then shoots a policeman. Pretty much the rest of the film centres on how he avoids the police and how he wants to go to Rome with his American journalist (yay!) girlfriend Patricia (who reveals she is pregnant with his baby), who helps him hide, although betrays him at the end. The film ends with Michel staying and getting shot by the police, walking a little bit to the end of the street and finally dying, not before saying something along the lines of “That’s really disgusting” (apparently the direct translation is disputed). Patricia doesn’t hear and asks the policeman what he said, to which the policeman replies “He said you are really disgusting”. Thus, it is kind of mysterious as we don’t know whether Michel is referring to Patricia or society in general. On the note of Patricia, I have to say that her American accent really impeded her French pronunciation − now I can understand why French people would feel a bit weird about foreigners trying to speak their language.
I found the camerawork probably the highlight of the film, as for some reason I couldn’t warm to Belmondo’s character (or Patricia’s really), maybe because he was always trying to seduce her and she was kind of I don’t know, not particularly an active character. Anyway, there were a lot of long takes, from interesting angles too, such as the back of Patricia when she is in the car with Michel, as well as long takes when the camera is looking at her. In addition, there were some nice aerial, or crane shots (I’m not sure), taken from above, showing the beautiful Paris. So in this way, I really liked looking at the French environment in such a fun, interesting, appealing decade (60s).
I found this interesting list of references to Breathless in other Godard films. Godard's own Pierrot le fou (also starring Belmondo) repeats phrases including “We are all dead men on leave” and “Allons-y, Alonso”. A Woman Is a Woman, also co-starring Belmondo, includes a reference to Breathless, when Belmondo's character says he needs to get home because Breathless is being shown on TV.
3.5/5
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