Breathless and French New Wave Cinema - Jean-Luc Godrd (1959)

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a new kind of filmmaking emerged to the forefront of French cinema. A band of young critics, who worked for the French film journal Cahiers du cinema, including the likes of Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, and Jacques Rivette, revolted against the popular French directors and films of the time. They also cherished the works of many American directors, or as they would call them auteurs, who worked within the Hollywood studio system. These critics, upset with the seemingly bland state of French cinema, were not satisfied with just admonishing the films of their day. That’s why in 1959, with financial support from their families, many of these critics started to make their own movies. The product that followed shook the cinematic world, both in France and internationally. The films that these new visionaries were producing were unlike anything made before.  Unlike the over polished French cinema that had dominated the market previously, these new films looked very casual. This was a result of many of them being shot on location and without the use of staged lighting. Also in these films, the camera moved more than ever and used an abundance of tracking and panning shots. Many of them were also shot with lightweight handheld cameras, which offered cameramen the ability to be more flexible with their movements. Thematically, these films commonly used casual humor, pop culture references, nonlinear narration techniques, drifting protagonists, and ambiguous endings to enhance and experiment with the audiences viewing experience. Because of the quirky, energetic, and stylistic nature of these movies and their directors, this cinematic movement quickly became known as “New Wave”.

Jean-Luc Godard’s 1959 directorial debut, Breathless, is one of earliest, most cherished, and epitomical films of the French New Wave period. The idea that this film was part of the beginning of a new movement could be easily inferred by early audiences from one of the film’s original tagline alone which read, “Seriously stylish, outrageously sexy”.  Breathless follows a young and suave outlaw, Michael, played masterfully by Jean-Paul Belmodo, who steals everything he can ranging from money to cars and must hide away after killing a policeman who was attempting to pull him over for speeding. He then flees to Paris and begins staying with his romantic interest Patricia (Jean Seberg) who is a student who sells papers as a part time job and aspires to become a journalist.

Breathless is directly in line with many of the distinguishing factors of French new wave cinema. From a technical perspective, the film was shot exclusively on location, through a handheld camera, and with only natural light. The camera also moves a lot into small places such as Michael’s car, Patricia’s apartment, and a café booth interestingly, to further itself even more so from the methodically planned and polished films that preceded it, a large amount of the movie’s dialogue was completely improvised between takes. Stylistically, Breathless also fits in with the new wave films. Michael is one of the typical drifting protagonists that came to be a hallmark of the movement. He’s cool, composed, and aimless. Also, the movie uses very casual humor. This is apparent at many points throughout the film such as when Michael talks directly into the camera, and thus to the audience, about people, who don’t like the city or French countryside, or when he cracks one of his many male chauvinistic, or sex related jokes. Many pop culture references about films (when Michael and Patricia are at the local cinema) and the famous actor Humphrey Bogart are made. To top it all off, the film ends with one of cinema’s most iconic death scenes and most ambiguous lines of dialogue. As Michael lies bleeding on the street, after being betrayed by Patricia and subsequently shot by the police, he says, “Makes me want to puke”. It is still unclear to many critics today whether he was addressing Patricia with this line or the state of the world itself.

Due to the many radical changes that it made to the old classical filmmaking methods, the French new wave movement, with Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless at its helm, changed cinema forever. Breathless is now seen as an iconic film that is now considered by many to be the epitome of the entire movement.