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À bout de souffle (1960)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
7 February 1961 (USA) moreTagline:
The film that was banned for 4 years. Why..? (original Finnish poster tagline)Plot:
A young car thief kills a policeman and tries to persuade a girl to hide in Italy with him. full summary | full synopsisAwards:
Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination moreNewsDesk:
(16 articles)
What I Watched, What You Watched: Installment #1 (From Rope Of Silicon. 19 July 2009, 3:06 AM, PDT)
Jean-Jacques Beineix: The Hollywood Interview
(From The Hollywood Interview. 14 July 2009, 4:20 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
To those who "don't understand" moreCast
(Complete credited cast)| Jean-Paul Belmondo | ... | Michel Poiccard | |
| Jean Seberg | ... | Patricia Franchini | |
| Daniel Boulanger | ... | Police Inspector Vital | |
| Jean-Pierre Melville | ... | Parvulesco | |
| Henri-Jacques Huet | ... | Antonio Berrutti | |
| Van Doude | ... | Himself | |
| Claude Mansard | ... | Claudius Mansard | |
| Jean-Luc Godard | ... | An Informer | |
| Richard Balducci | ... | Tolmatchoff | |
| Roger Hanin | ... | Cal Zombach | |
| Jean-Louis Richard | ... | A Journalist | |
| rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
| Liliane David | ... | Liliane | |
| Jean Domarchi | ... | A Drunk | |
| Jean Douchet | ... | A Journalist | |
| Raymond Huntley | ... | A Journalist | |
| André S. Labarthe | ... | A journalist | |
| François Moreuil | ... | A journalist | |
| Liliane Robin | ... | Minouche | |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
90 minCountry:
FranceColor:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 moreSound Mix:
MonoCertification:
Finland:K-12 (1996) | Finland:K-16 (1964) | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:(Banned) (1960) | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Unrated | West Germany:18 (bw) (nf) | Germany:16Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Despite reports to the contrary, Jean-Luc Godard did not shoot the film without a script; however, he did not have a finished script at the beginning, instead writing scenes in the morning and filming them that day. See also Pierrot le fou (1965). moreQuotes:
[first lines]Michel Poiccard: After all, I'm an asshole. After all, yes, I've got to. I've got to!
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FAQ
Who did the movie's soundtrack? Is it available to buy?What is the significance of Michel rubbing his lips with his thumb?
What does Michel say at the end of the movie?
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I don't blame those who state that they do not "understand" the superlatives surrounding Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 masterpiece, Breathless. It's primarily because to appreciate Breathless, one has to view the movie from a historical context, which also requires studying of not only the French New Wave, but film theories as a whole, and the lives of those apart of the New Wave. Breathless accomplished many things unprecedented prior (many completely unprecedented, but some things are not-so-much).
Roger Ebert put it best when he said that just as film fanatics may now stand outside a movie theatre waiting for the next Quentin Tarantino movie to be released, film enthusiasts were doing so for Godard in the 1960s. He was a revolutionary, which is why MovieMaker magazine called him the 4th most influential director of ALL-TIME (only behind Welles, Griffith, and Hitchcock)! What did Godard do different? Breathless is all style, simple as that. The story line is interesting, yes, but is Godard's aesthetics, production modes, subject matters, and storytelling methods that are key. First of all, the whole movie was shot on a hand-held camera, just like most all New Wave pictures. It was, however, only shot by two people (Godard and his cinematographer, Rouald) on a budget that did not top $50,000, a mere fraction of what most pictures cost at the time (another facet of the New Wave). It was shot completely on location in Paris, and utilized new film-making techniques that would be used by film-making students for decades to come (such as putting the camera in a mail cart on the Champs Elysees and following Belmondo and Seberg). Note Godard's use of American cinema influence, and how the montage art of the 1950s impacted this aesthetic.
(A brief New Wave lesson: Most New Wave directors were displeased with the "tradition of quality," or the older generation directors who, as Truffaut put it, made the "twelve or so" pictures per year that represented France at Venice and Cannes. Most of these pictures classic or modern literary adaptations, completely stagnant in artistic quality with rehashed subject matters based on historical periods. New Wave directors supported NEW tales of modern Parisian life, primarily, and were sick of the themes found in the tradition of quality films.) The storytelling methods in Breathless are perhaps the most fascinating part of the film. The jump cuts may seem lame, but one must again view them from a historical context: it had never been done before. This is exactly why Breathless is important -- practically every technique was revolutionary. They are so submerged into film-making practices now that Breathless seems typical. Yet at the time, it was, as I said prior, unprecedented.