Breathless (1960)

“I don’t know if I’m unhappy because I’m not free, or if I’m not free because I’m unhappy.” – Patricia

Number of Times Seen – 1 (6 Oct 2019)

Brief Synopsis – After stealing a car, a small time crook end sup killing a policeman and must find a way to flee the country.

My Take on it – This is a film that I’ve never had much of a desire to see largely due to the fact that I tend to stay as far as possible from foreign language films.

I figured that it was about time to finally see what this was all about.

This is a movie that is quite interesting in the way that it tries to show how the carefree lifestyle of a small time criminal can lead him to situations that can get out of control but at the same time cause him to not really care how these events will affect him in life.

The film also shows how he can meet up with another carefree soul and when they are together, they do their best to live life to the fullest without any real cares in the world.

They show these situations quite well and even when one of them has a change of heart about something, they still stay true to themselves in dealing with this every changes.

This film was supposedly quite groundbreaking when it came out but it doesn’t feel as powerful now as it probably did 60 years ago when it was made.

Bottom Line – Interesting film that tries to show how the carefree life of a small time criminal can lead him to do things and not care much about the effects on his life. The way that he meets up with another carefree soul and they work together to try and live life to the fullest is shown quite well even when they sometimes have changes of heart in how to deal with certain situations. The film was groundbreaking for its time but doesn’t feel as powerful now as it probably was seen then.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – According to Jean-Pierre Melville, Godard asked him for consultation during the post-production stage because the first edit was too long for distribution. Melville suggested Godard remove all scenes that slowed down the action (his own turn as novelist Parvulesco included). But instead of excluding entire scenes, Godard cut little bits from here and there. This led to the “jump cut” technique this movie introduced. Melville declared the result to be excellent.(From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (7/10)