Movies - Breathless

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	Movies - Breathless

À bout de souffle (French for "out of breath", translated as Breathless for English audiences) is a 1960 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It is one of the best-known films of the French New Wave.

Synopsis

Michel is a young thug who romantically models himself after Humphrey Bogart. While driving a stolen car, Michel shoots a policeman who follows him onto a country road. Penniless and on the run from the police, he turns to his U.S. girlfriend Patricia, a student and aspiring journalist, who makes a partial living by selling the New York Herald Tribune on the streets of Paris. The ambiguous Patricia agrees to hide him and the two spend their time evading the police, making love and stealing cars to raise money for a trip to Italy. As the police net tightens, Michel's bravado and desperation increase.

The film is very self-referential; it is, in a sense, more about film itself than anything else. For example, Michel is nothing more than a Humphrey Bogart copy; Patricia comments on this when she tells him that he is only an image and should say more about himself. His depth consists in his relation to other films, rather than any individual traits. At the time this was very new, and was a precursor to many poststructuralist notions of text. This self-referentiality would become a New Wave theme.

Awards

1960 Prix Jean Vigo
1960 Berlin International Film Festival: Silver Bear for best director
1961 French Syndicate of Cinema Critics: Critics Award for Best Film

Other versions

A rarely seen 1976 film by Amos Poe, featuring a cameo by Blondie singer Deborah Harry (playing a woman named Blondie) called Unmade Beds was an homage to and parody of the original.

The film was remade in an English-language version in 1983, starring Richard Gere and Valérie Kaprisky, directed by Jim McBride.

Film connections

The film includes references to many other films. In one scene, "Bob the Gambler" is mentioned, which is an apparent reference to Bob le Flambeur (1955). A few American film posters are seen in the streets, including Humphrey Bogart's The Harder They Fall and Ten Seconds to Hell with Jack Palance.

Humphrey Bogart is once again referenced in the film when Patricia tries to hide from a dectective in the movie theatre; "The Maltese Falcon" can be heard in the background.

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Movies - Breathless

Synopsis

Awards

Other versions

Film connections

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