Breathless

Terry Crew’s character in Brooklyn Nine-Nine once quoted that Breathless is one the best cop movies of all time.  Although he got the director’s name wrong, what he said has some essence of truth in it. Released in 1960, this movie kick started the proliferation of the French New Wave movement in film. Directed by Jean Luc Goddard and starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, this film was critically acclaimed by both local and international audiences alike.

Before this movement, movies in France were more centered around adapting, literary works onto screen. They were studio backed and were usually these huge, big budget productions. A few young cinephiles, after watching archived movies at the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris decided to make movies of their own. However they couldn’t penetrate into the commercial film industry, so they decided to make them independently.  These enthusiastic film makers abided by certain set of principles in their endeavors. The rejected the use of montages and the like and opted to tell the stories through their elaborate mise-en-scene. They believed that films should not only be something to think about, we should also have some strong feelings about it and should have some psychological impact on the viewers. Secondly, they also had the firm belief that, a film like a blank canvas, should have the personal artistic signature or imprint of the film maker. This approach is called the Auteur  theory and it expects the craft of the auteur to grow and mature with each successive film.  French New Wave films generally reject the film traditions and norms. Before this, films relied heavily on plot and dialogue. However, now the sidelined those aspect in favour of visual aesthetics and mise-en-scene. These  movies were typically, low budget and independently made.  Shot on locations instead of studios and employing direct lighting and sound instead of manipulating was one of the ways these auteurs decided to approach their movies.

 Camera work was sometimes done by handheld cameras and long takes were also a staple.  These directors also preferred to use jump and elliptical cuts and preferred to improvise the plot and dialogue.  A theme of meta-cinema was also used frequently, that is the constant reminder to the audience that they are watching a movie. This is achieved through the jump cuts, artificially created nature of the film world, the handheld cinematography, and also the jump cuts.  The characters featured in this movies were typically featured young rebellious types with no familial attachments and who often are the anti-heroes in this stories. They often are morally grey and very anti-establishment. Women contrary to the Hollywood films, were given strong characters to portray. Political themes were also heavily referenced especially in regard to France’s foreign policy.

Breathless entails the story of Michel, a rebel who steals cars and lives his life exactly the way he wants. One day he kills a policeman and goes into hiding as the whole of France is looking for him, rekindles his romance with Patricia, a girl he had relations with previously.  While trying to secure funds to move to Italy, he tries to convince Patricia to follow him but she seems hesitant. After finding out the truth about him, she initially tries to help him stay hidden but eventually calls the police and rats him out. As he is resigned to a life of imprisonment, the police shoot him and he dies, cursing Patricia.

 Breathless utilises many jump cuts in this movie. This is part of its meta cinema goal. The scene that this technique is apparent is the scene where Michel is talking to Patricia while driving. There camera cut between Michel and Patricia to illustrate the conversation banter between them. Besides,  the film was shot in places like the countryside, coffee shops and hotels which are not in traditional studio environments. Handheld camera motions were particularly used in the scene where Michel was shot and they tracked him walking with the injury in the last moments of the film. Besides, thematically this movie featured  the gritty anti-hero/villain in Michel who was willing to do anything to get his way. This can be shown that he even killed a cop to cover his tracks. He also stole money and multiple cars to get by. He has no familial attachments and is seen as a very rugged person. The female character, Patricia was portrayed as a strong independent women who had clear goals and dreams in life. She didn’t want to sideline those for Michel.  Improvised lines can be seen in the scene where Michel and Patricia were lounging in their room with long extended and seemingly unnecessary dialogue ensued. This was done by the actors themselves as they just randomly improvised a conversation. The political themes can be seen where the radio in the room brought news of the current situation in Algeria.

All in all French New Wave moment brought in a fantastic new perspective into modern filmmaking; the idea of autership. Each  movie is the art of the director and will bear signature elements that is unique to them. Directors like M Night Shyamalan and Steven Spielberg have all adopted this theory and all their movies have a recurrent theme.