Breathless
Encyclopedia
Breathless is a 1960 French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard
, and Godard's first feature film. One of the first and most influential films of French New Wave
. At the time, the film attracted much attention for its bold visual style and the innovative editing use of jump cut
s.
Breathless, together with François Truffaut
's The 400 Blows
and Alain Resnais
's Hiroshima, Mon Amour, both released a year earlier, brought international acclaim to the French nouvelle vague.
A fully restored version of the film was released in the U.S. for the 50th anniversary of the film in May 2010. When originally released in France, the film had 2,082,760 cinema goers.
) is a young petty criminal who models himself on the film persona of Humphrey Bogart
. After stealing a car in Marseille, Michel shoots a policeman who has followed him onto a country road. Penniless and on the run from the police, he turns to his American
girlfriend Patricia (Jean Seberg
), a student and aspiring journalist, who sells the New York Herald Tribune
on the streets 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
. At one point, Patricia says she is pregnant 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 did. 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 a prolonged death run, he dies “à bout de souffle” (at breath's end).
As Patricia and Detective Vital catch up with the dying Michel, there is the following exchange, according to the transcript published in Dudley Andrew
's book on the film:
In his book, Andrew translates the dialogue thus:
Dégueulasse is the noun and adjective form of dégueuler, a slang
verb meaning "to vomit."
Andrew's translation obscures the subtlety of Vital's misquotation of Michel; in the original French, it is not clear whether Vital misquotes him deliberately, or simply mishears. Other translations have made the possibility that Vital mishears Michel more apparent. In the English captioning of the 2001 Fox-Lorber Region One DVD, "dégueulasse" is translated as "scumbag", producing the following dialogue:
The 2007 Criterion Collection Region One DVD uses a less literal translation that renders the French into a familiar American colloquialism:
This translation also was used for the 2010 restoration print.
had already appeared in a few feature films prior to Breathless, but he had no name recognition outside of France at the time Godard was planning the film. In order to broaden the film's commercial appeal, Godard sought out a prominent leading lady who would be willing to work in his low-budget film. He came to Jean Seberg
through her then-husband, Francois Moreuil, with whom he had been acquainted. 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.
), and tasked cinematographer Raoul Coutard to shoot the entire film on a handheld camera, with next to no lighting. The production was filmed on location in Paris during the months of August and September in 1959, using an Eclair Cameflex
. Almost the whole film had to be dubbed in postproduction because of the noisiness of the Cameflex camera.
Coutard has also stated that the film was virtually improvised on the spot, with Godard writing lines of dialogue in an exercise book, giving the lines to Belmondo and Seberg, having a few brief rehearsals on scenes involved, then filming them. No permission was received to shoot the film in its various locations (mainly the side streets and boulevards of Paris
) either, adding to the spontaneous feel that Godard was aiming for.
The film currently holds a 96% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes
.
Breathless ranked as the #15 best film of all time in the British Film Institute's 2002 Sight and Sound Critics' Poll.
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
, and Godard's first feature film. One of the first and most influential films of French New Wave
French New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
. At the time, the film attracted much attention for its bold visual style and the innovative editing use of jump cut
Jump cut
A jump cut is a cut in film editing and vloging in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit causes the subject of the shots to appear to "jump" position in a discontinuous way...
s.
Breathless, together with François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
's The 400 Blows
The 400 Blows
The 400 Blows is a 1959 French film directed by François Truffaut. One of the defining films of the French New Wave, it displays many of the characteristic traits of the movement. The story revolves around Antoine Doinel, an ordinary adolescent in Paris, who is thought by his parents and teachers...
and Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais is a French film director whose career has 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 Nuit et Brouillard , an influential documentary about the Nazi concentration camps.He began...
's Hiroshima, Mon Amour, both released a year earlier, brought international acclaim to the French nouvelle vague.
A fully restored version of the film was released in the U.S. for the 50th anniversary of the film in May 2010. When originally released in France, the film had 2,082,760 cinema goers.
Plot
Michel (Jean-Paul BelmondoJean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s.-Career:Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football."Did you box professionally very long?" "Not very long...
) is a young petty criminal who models himself on the film persona of Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
. After stealing a car in Marseille, Michel shoots a policeman who has followed him onto a country road. Penniless and on the run from the police, he turns to his American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
girlfriend Patricia (Jean Seberg
Jean Seberg
Jean Dorothy Seberg was an American actress. She starred in 37 films in Hollywood and in France, including Breathless , the musical Paint Your Wagon and the disaster film Airport ....
), a student and aspiring journalist, who sells the New York Herald Tribune
New York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
on the streets 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
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. At one point, Patricia says she is pregnant 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 did. 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 a prolonged death run, he dies “à bout de souffle” (at breath's end).
Closing dialogue
Michel's death scene is one of the most iconic scenes in the film, but the film's final lines of dialogue are the source of some confusion for English-speaking audiences. In some translations, it is unclear whether Michel is condemning Patricia, or alternatively condemning the world in general.As Patricia and Detective Vital catch up with the dying Michel, there is the following exchange, according to the transcript published in Dudley Andrew
Dudley Andrew
Dudley Andrew 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. Andrew is "one of the most influential scholars in the areas of theory, history and criticism," particularly specializing in...
's book on the film:
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"?
In his book, Andrew translates the dialogue thus:
MICHEL: That's really disgusting.
PATRICIA: What did he say?
VITAL: He said, "You are really a bitch."
PATRICIA: What is "dégueulasse" [bitch]?
Dégueulasse is the noun and adjective form of dégueuler, a slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
verb meaning "to vomit."
Andrew's translation obscures the subtlety of Vital's misquotation of Michel; in the original French, it is not clear whether Vital misquotes him deliberately, or simply mishears. Other translations have made the possibility that Vital mishears Michel more apparent. In the English captioning of the 2001 Fox-Lorber Region One DVD, "dégueulasse" is translated as "scumbag", producing the following dialogue:
MICHEL: It's a real scumbag.
PATRICIA: What did he say?
VITAL: He said, "You're a real scumbag".
PATRICIA: What's a scumbag?
The 2007 Criterion Collection Region One DVD uses a less literal translation that renders the French into a familiar American colloquialism:
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 also was used for the 2010 restoration print.
Cast
- Jean-Paul BelmondoJean-Paul BelmondoJean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s.-Career:Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football."Did you box professionally very long?" "Not very long...
as Michel Poiccard - Jean SebergJean SebergJean Dorothy Seberg was an American actress. She starred in 37 films in Hollywood and in France, including Breathless , the musical Paint Your Wagon and the disaster film Airport ....
as Patricia Franchini - Daniel BoulangerDaniel BoulangerDaniel Boulanger is a French novelist, playwright, poet and screenwriter. He has also played secondary roles in films and has been a member of the Académie Goncourt since 1983.-Filmography:...
as Police Inspector Vital - Jean-Pierre Melville as Parvulesco
- Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
as an informer - Roger HaninRoger HaninRoger Hanin is a French actor , best known for playing the title role in the 1989-2006 TV crime series, Navarro.-Personal life:...
as Cal Zombach
Production
Jean-Paul BelmondoJean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s.-Career:Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football."Did you box professionally very long?" "Not very long...
had already appeared in a few feature films prior to Breathless, but he had no name recognition outside of France at the time Godard was planning the film. In order to broaden the film's commercial appeal, Godard sought out a prominent leading lady who would be willing to work in his low-budget film. He came to Jean Seberg
Jean Seberg
Jean Dorothy Seberg was an American actress. She starred in 37 films in Hollywood and in France, including Breathless , the musical Paint Your Wagon and the disaster film Airport ....
through her then-husband, Francois Moreuil, with whom he had been acquainted. 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.
Filming
Godard envisaged Breathless as a reportage (documentaryDocumentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
), and tasked cinematographer Raoul Coutard to shoot the entire film on a handheld camera, with next to no lighting. The production was filmed on location in Paris during the months of August and September in 1959, using an Eclair Cameflex
Eclair (camera)
Éclair was a film production, film laboratory and movie camera manufacturing company established in Épinay-sur-Seine, France by Charles Jourjon in 1907....
. Almost the whole film had to be dubbed in postproduction because of the noisiness of the Cameflex camera.
Coutard has also stated that the film was virtually improvised on the spot, with Godard writing lines of dialogue in an exercise book, giving the lines to Belmondo and Seberg, having a few brief rehearsals on scenes involved, then filming them. No permission was received to shoot the film in its various locations (mainly the side streets and boulevards of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
) either, adding to the spontaneous feel that Godard was aiming for.
Awards
- 1960 Prix Jean VigoPrix Jean VigoThe Prix Jean Vigo is an award in the Cinema of France given annually since 1951 to a French film director in homage to Jean Vigo. It was founded by French writer Claude...
- 1960 Berlin International Film Festival10th Berlin International Film FestivalThe 10th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 24 June to 5 July 1960.-Jury:* Harold Lloyd * Georges Auric* Henry Reed* Sohrab Modi* Floris Luigi Ammannati* Hidemi Ima* Joaquín de Entrambasaguas* Frank Wisbar...
: Silver Bear for Best DirectorSilver Bear for Best DirectorThe Silver Bear for Best Director is the Berlin International Film Festival's award for best achievement in direction.-Awards:-Repeated winners:*Mario Monicelli *Satyajit Ray *Carlos Saura -External links:*...
Reception
According to the New York Times, Breathless 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”.The film currently holds a 96% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
Breathless ranked as the #15 best film of all time in the British Film Institute's 2002 Sight and Sound Critics' Poll.
In popular culture
- The film is frequently referenced in the Youth in RevoltYouth in RevoltYouth 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...
book series, being a favorite of female protagonistProtagonistA protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
Sheeni Saunders, including her dreams of running off to France and her fascination for Jean-Paul BelmondoJean-Paul BelmondoJean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s.-Career:Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football."Did you box professionally very long?" "Not very long...
. - In The Doom GenerationThe Doom GenerationThe Doom Generation is a film by director Gregg Araki. Released in 1995, it stars Rose McGowan, James Duval and Johnathon Schaech as two teenagers and a 21-year-old punk drifter who become involved in a ménage à trois. It is the second of a trilogy of films known as the Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy,...
, characters play the "smile or I'll choke you" game and the film's semi-general theme of "nihilisticNihilismNihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
road movie". - The american band The Death SetThe Death SetThe Death Set is an art punk music group formed in 2005 in Sydney, Australia. Six months after its inception the band moved to the East Coast of the United States, living in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Brooklyn respectively, where the band found an audience for its style of experimental, cross...
named their album from 2011 after main character Michel Poiccard. - The final scene is mentioned (and later alluded visually) in The Squid and the WhaleThe Squid and the WhaleThe Squid and the Whale is a 2005 American 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' divorce in the 1980s. The film is named after a giant squid and sperm whale diorama...
.
See also
- BreathlessBreathless (1983 film)Breathless is a 1983 American drama film starring Richard Gere and Valérie Kaprisky. It is a remake of the 1960 French film À bout de souffle and was released in France under the title A Bout de Souffle Made in USA. The original film is about an American girl and a French criminal in Paris...
, the 1983 American remake starring Richard GereRichard GereRichard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
in the Belmondo role - List of French language films