Movies / Breathless (1960) aka À bout de souffle

5/10

Runtime: 90 min

Genres: Crime Drama Romance Thriller

Languages: English French

Countries: France


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.


Directors (1) Credit
Jean-Luc Godard ...
Writers (2) Credit
François Truffaut story
Jean-Luc Godard screenplay
Composers (1) Credit
Martial Solal ...
Editors (2) Credit
Cécile Decugis ...
Lila Herman ...
Cinematographers (1) Credit
Raoul Coutard ...
Actors (30) Credit
André S. Labarthe A journalist
Claude Mansard Claudius Mansard
Daniel Boulanger Police Inspector Vital
Emile Villion (uncredited)
François Moreuil A journalist
Guido Orlando (uncredited)
Henri-Jacques Huet Antonio Berrutti
Jacques Serguine (uncredited)
Jacques Siclier (uncredited)
Jean Domarchi A Drunk
Jean Douchet A Journalist
Jean-Louis Richard A Journalist
Jean-Luc Godard An Informer
Jean-Paul Belmondo Michel Poiccard
Jean-Pierre Melville Parvulesco
Jean Seberg Patricia Franchini
José Bénazéraf (uncredited)
Liliane David Liliane
Liliane Robin Minouche
Louiguy (uncredited)
Madame Paul (uncredited)
Michel Fabre Plainclothes Policeman (uncredited)
Michel Mourlet (uncredited)
Philippe de Broca A Journalist (uncredited)
Raymond Huntley A Journalist
Raymond Ravanbaz (uncredited)
Richard Balducci Tolmatchoff
Roger Hanin Cal Zombach
Van Doude Himself
Virginie Ullmann (uncredited)