Breathless
1960 · Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Original language: French
- drama
- crime
- romance
The story
A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he attempts to persuade a girl to run away to Italy with him.
What it’s like
Jump-cut black-and-white film with restless handheld camera that follows its characters through Paris streets, cafés and cramped hotel rooms, the grain sharp and the light flat, grey and slightly overexposed, as if sunlight were bouncing off wet pavement. Jazz-inflected score gives way to bursts of silence and street noise, and the rhythm is loose, improvised and talky, with characters pausing to riff on American movies, philosophy and their own boredom. The mood is cool, flippant and quietly anxious, a sun-bleached restlessness that tips into dread, the sense that everything is happening too fast to be felt. Its people are two reckless, self-absorbed lovers who drift toward an ending they never quite reckon with, and the film watches them without sentiment. Violence is sudden and brief: a single shooting and a few scuffles, with no gore. Sexual content is mild and mostly implied. It suits a late night of film-school curiosity or a reflective solo watch, and it is for people who enjoy style that takes liberties with form and want a cool, doomed romance rather than comfort.
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