Breathless (À bout de souffle)

`

All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl.                                                  -- -- Jean-Luc Godard

Films from the crime genre has always attracted me the most. And a blend of passionate romance can only be the icing on the cake. Forties and fifties gave us the best blend of crime and passion. Most movie buffs know these movies as film-noir, a term which got popular in the seventies, although first applied by French critic Nino Frank to American films in 1946. Godard,once told that he wanted Breathless to be a "gangster" film. Breathless was so much more, surely one of the most unique stories of crime and passion. Although being highly influenced by contemporary American film-noirs, a fact which is explicitly mentioned in the movie, this film is quite different from noirs of that time. This was a story of two people who are trying to find an escape route.

Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is a car-thief who is on the run after killing a cop during one of his heists between Marseille and Paris. He comes back to Paris and meets Patricia (Jean Seberg), an aspiring journalist from New York, who sells Herald Tribune on the streets and wants to enroll in Sorbonne. (the perfect stereotype of an east coast intellectual). Michel, a frequent womanizer, has spent only five nights with Patricia but he feels something special with her. He wants to flee Paris and go to Rome with her.

Michel's character, even his mannerisms, is inspired by the classic noir male character, specially Humphrey Bogart. He always has a cigarette on his lips, dark glasses and continuously rubbing his lips. There is a scene where Michel looks at the poster of Bogart's "The Harder they Fall" and he stares at Bogart's picture as the camera zooms into it. (Godard's way of acknowledging his inspiration). Michel has a certain aura of chauvinistic charm which defines him and his love for Patricia. 

Patricia is an independent, educated girl who is looking for something different in life. In the first half of the movie Patricia is unaware of the fact that Michel is a wanted criminal. But when she gets to know this fact she doesn't desert Michel. It depicts her knack for thrill and adventure but she is not sure about her actions. There is an interview of Patricia with an author. When she asks him about his greatest motive he answers, "To become immortal and then die". This statement highly resonates with her feelings. 

The famous hotel room scene between Michel and Patricia shot in a shabby Parisian hotel without lights defines Patricia, Michel and the essence of their relationship. There are direct visual references to Renoir and Picasso. This long scene is shot with jerky camera movements and beautiful close-ups. In this scene both of them discuss their love for each other and their views on life. I just love the way the scene ends. They kiss, the camera closes in and the scene cuts to aerial shots of the Louvre and Notre Dame.

Breathless, one of the flag bearers of French new wave, changed the way of movie making. The famous use of "jump cuts" (which was actually an accident and not a conscious decision) added a nervy feeling to certain scenes. Most scenes were shot with hand held camera, even the moving shots were shot on a wheelchair, making the film a visual marvel. I just adored the way Parisian streets were used to shoot certain scenes. The background music also adds to the thrill. In a word Breathless is a heart-wrenching tale of crime, love, passion,escape and inner doubts of two totally opposite individuals.

Modern movies begin here, with Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" in 1960.
             -- Roger Ebert