This is the movie that, when I told my friends I was moving to Los Angeles to study film, was on the top of everyone’s suggestion list for me to see. I am starting to see why, but I’m still not sure if I actually enjoyed it or not. Shot in a hand-held, home movie style, Breathless certainly breaks from the normal film structure in that it seems more like a piece of real life than a fabricated Hollywood plot. There is no apparent moral, goal, or clear arch, just a petty thief trying to get away. It really is just a piece of the action, a section of plot that might take up five minutes of any other film. The shooting style adds to this real life quality too: shaky hand held camera, like a home movie, jumpy editing, and characters in awkward situations or dress – not the fancy made up stars that is typical of the era.
As for the main character, Michel (Jean-Paul Belmodno) opens the film with this killer line: “After all, I am an asshole”. This just rubbed me the wrong way, getting me off to a bad start. Then his signature gesture, wiping his lips, just seemed to make him more skeevy and arrogant. I have to assume that this was intention on Godard’s part, but since the story follows Michel, it was an effort to keep watching this character, who until the end kept getting lucky, because I actually thought he was an asshole and deep down was rooting for his demise.
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