Breathless 1960 (A bout de Souffle)

Jean-Luc Godard intended his debut film, which was inspired by a newspaper item about a young thug who killed a policeman and hid out with his girlfriend, who later betrayed him. It became the most influential film of the New Wave, an existential masterpiece. In the movie, Godard broke all the rules, failing to use transition shots between scenes or establishing shots or matching shots, and heavily focus on utilizing jump cuts both to convey a chaotic atmosphere and to express the reckless nature of his youthful character that jump through time and space. In addition, they were, especially at the start, working on low budgets. Godard often improvised with what schedules and materials he could afford. Out of all this came a group of conventions that were consistently used in the majority of French New Wave films including “Jump cuts”: a non-naturalistic edit, usually a section of a continuous shot that is removed unexpectedly, illogically, shooting on location, natural lighting, improvised dialogue and plotting, direct sound recording and long takes.

             Technique aside, Breathless (A bout de souffle) is notable for Godard’s Paris street photography was shot by an innovative cameraman named Raoul Coutard, who was willing to hide in a wheelbarrow for street shooting and to roll along in a wheelchair with the camera in his lap, Godard’s “score, which mixes jazz and Mozart.

            The movie Breathless are filmed documentary-style, outdoors, making use of the natural light, people unaware they’re being used as extras. The main goal behind the movie was to capture the reality in the stories they’re trying to tell while making aware to the audience that the film is just a film, not actual reality. In this movie, the beautiful shots of Paris and other places in France is enough of a selling point for this movie, every shot of this film could be a postcard.

             The movie is a great example of early independent film-making.  There was the jump-cut picture and sound editing, where Godard would cut within a scene instead of limiting himself to just between scenes. Also, the script was apparently not fully written before shooting began, and instead Godard created most of it each morning with input from the cast.  Then there was the incredible cinematography that often only used available light, including indoors throughout the lengthy bedroom scene.  

Style

The costume style in Breathless follow the style of early 1950s, there was no costume designer official costumes for the movie. Instead, Godard encouraged his actors to wear their own clothing and make choices they thought appropriate for each character which means that Godard allowed his own actors to dress up according to their own style of dressing. The authenticity behind to style that has made Breathless so memorable to people. Jean Seberg, in particular, became an icon for gamine chic right alongside Audrey Hepburn, and it's almost entirely because of her look in this movie.

            Although it is a classic movie, it also seems very fresh and modern and one of the movie that audiences can continue to draw inspiration from time and time again. With Breathless, and with every other film he's made since and he's still working today. Godard has essentially tried to please only himself, and hang what anybody else thinks. And in this world of test-screenings and demographics, that's why Breathless is still vital today.

Trailer of the movie, Have a look !