History Film / Breathless

* ForeignRemake : Was remade in 1983 into an American film starring Richard Gere. Not well known but not bad.

''Breathless'' is a 1960 film directed by Creator/JeanLucGodard, in his feature filmmaking debut. Its original French title is "À bout de souffle" which translates literally to "at breath's end" with the general meaning being "out of breath." Along with Creator/FrancoisTruffaut's ''The 400 Blows'' and Alain Resnais' ''Hiroshima, Mon Amour'', it gained attention for the FrenchNewWave.

The basic plot is fairly simple, seasoned by Godard with pop-cultural meta-commentary and Paris travelogue. Petty criminal Michel steals a car and, seeing that a policeman is following him on motorcycle, shoots said cop. He then flees to Paris and hides out with his American girlfriend. Eventually after she learns that he is a fugitive, she turns him in to the police. After a chase through the city on foot, he is shot and killed.

'''''Breathless''''' is a 1960 film directed by Creator/JeanLucGodard, in his feature filmmaking debut. Its original French title is "À bout de souffle" which translates literally to "at breath's end" with the general meaning being "out of breath." Along with Creator/FrancoisTruffaut's ''The 400 Blows'' and Alain Resnais' ''Hiroshima, Mon Amour'', it gained attention for the FrenchNewWave.

* CharacterTics: Michel moves his thumb across his lips multiple times to appear {{Badass}}, as well as a ShoutOut to Humphrey Bogart's role in ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon''.

* {{Badass}}: Deconstructed with Michel, who tries hard to be one but isn't much more than a low-rank criminal, which [[spoiler:leads towards his quick and grotesque downfall]].

''Breathless'' made an international star of former boxer Jean-Paul Belmondo and raised the profile of Jean Seberg, whose Hollywood career had stalled when she starred in the big budget flop ''Saint Joan''.

* BilingualDialouge: One sequence has Patricia and an unnamed man conversing in a cafe. The conversation switches from English to French and back to English again on a dime.

* JumpCut: The movie helped popularize them. However, they weren't done because of stylistic choice as much as the fact that Goddard neded to shorten the picture, so he got rid of frames randomly. [[UnreliableNarrator Or so he claimed]].

* Cloudcuckoolander: Michel can certainly come off as one at times. His drive through the countryside at the beginning of the film is charmingly bizarre, to say the least.

* VillainProtagonist: Michel.

'''''Breathless''''' is a 1960 film directed by JeanLucGodard, in his feature filmmaking debut. Its original French title is "À bout de souffle" which translates literally to "at breath's end" with the general meaning being "out of breath." Along with Creator/FrancoisTruffaut's ''The 400 Blows'' and Alain Resnais' ''Hiroshima, Mon Amour'', it gained attention for the FrenchNewWave.

* ForeignRemake : Was remade into an American film starring Richard Gere. Not well known but not bad.

'''''Breathless''''' is a 1960 film directed by JeanLucGodard, in his feature filmmaking debut. Its original French title is "À bout de souffle" which translates more nearly to "at breath's end." Along with Creator/FrancoisTruffaut's ''The 400 Blows'' and Alain Resnais' ''Hiroshima, Mon Amour'', it gained attention for the FrenchNewWave.

''Breathless'' made an international star of former boxer Jean-Paul Belmondo and raised the profile of Jean Seberg, whose Hollywood career had stalled when she starred in the big budget flop ''Pope Joan''.

* ForeignRemake

* JumpCut: The movie helped popularize them. However, they weren't done because of stylistic choice as much as the fact that Goddard neded to shorten the picture, so he got rid of frames randomly.
* SmokingIsCool: Michel clearly thinks so, although some viewers may be put off by the detail with which burning cigarettes are shown, ashes and all.

* SuicideByCop: Arguable case. Michel kills a policeman and resists arrest, so his death isn't unpredictable.

'''''Breathless''''' is a 1960 film directed by JeanLucGodard, in his feature filmmaking debut. Its original French title is "À bout de souffle" which translates more nearly to "at breath's end." Along with FrancoisTruffaut's ''The 400 Blows'' and Alain Resnais' ''Hiroshima, Mon Amour'', it gained attention for the FrenchNewWave.