When the officer orders him to step away from the car, Lujack impulsively grabs the gun and shoots him in self-defence. A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Godard probably lives there now. [5] In the U.S. and Canada, Shout Factory released the film in April 2015 on Blu-ray with one extra feature; a theatrical trailer. The police find Monica and question her on the street but Monica seems increasingly ambivalent about Jesse, repelled by his instability but drawn to his sense of risk and danger; she does not turn him in. It debuted on DVD in the U.S. in April 2000 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with the theatrical trailer and booklet. Sadly, in the intervening years since writing this piece, the author has passed away. 26-year-old Jean-Paul Belmondo’s performance as the hood marks the real beginning to an extraordinary career as the biggest French star since Jean Gabin. Seeing his reckless driving, a policeman gives chase and Jesse is forced off the road and becomes stuck. Just about everything that looks different about Breathless became the signifiers of alternative, radical, independent film almost immediately. Only instead of planning ahead I shall invent at the last minute! Founded in 1999, Senses of Cinema is one of the first online film journals of its kind and has set the standard for professional, high quality film-related content on the Internet. [3] Breathless was screened at the Dallas International Film Festival on April 18, 2015. It holds a 57% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 14 reviews. He’s always, like Pierrot le fou (also played by Belmondo) in Godard’s 1965 movie, dreaming of the Last Score and the big escape to that foreign, safer land. Basically it’s a classic chase movie. London: Harvard University, 1992. The most patently radical Godardian style was the incessant use of the jump cut, a sudden temporal ellipsis even in the middle of a dialogue take. "[9] Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. When the police start following her right before Lujack comes back to pick her up, she impulsively accepts his offer to flee to Mexico together. Jonathan Dawson recently retired as Associate Professor in Film, Media and Cultural Studies at Griffith University (Queensland) and is now Honorary Research Associate at the University of Tasmania. Breathless Theatrical release poster Directed byJean-Luc Godard Produced byGeorges de Beauregard Screenplay byJean-Luc Godard Story byFrançois Truffaut Claude Chabrol Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo Jean Seberg Music byMartial Solal CinematographyRaoul Coutard Edited byCécile Decugis Distributed byUGC Films Around The World Release date 16 March 1960 Running time 87 minutes CountryFrance LanguageFrench English BudgetFRF 400,000 Box office2,082,760 admissions Breathless is a 1960 Fren… The first five minutes of the French New Wave film Breathless (1960) uses several techniques that signal the viewer of its awareness as a film. Nothing, until Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992) came along three decades later, ever quite shook up film style as much as Breathless did in 1960. On the way to Mexico, Monica finds that her picture is on the front page of the national newspaper alongside Lujack's. To be considered a commercial product the movie needed to lose about 30 minutes, so rather than cut out whole scenes or sequences, Godard elected to trim within the scene, creating the jagged cutting style still so beloved of action filmmakers. However, Monica is a star student with big plans and Lujack is jealous of the powerful, successful men in her life. [7], Upon release, it received mixed reviews. Subscribe to Senses of Cinema to receive news of our latest cinema journal.Enter your email address below: À Bout de souffle (1960 France 90mins) 35mm, Source: NewVision Prod Co: Georges de Beauregard, Société Nouvelle de Cinéma Prod: Georges de Beauregard Dir, Scr: Jean-Luc Godard from story by François Truffaut Phot: Raoul Coutard Ed: Cécile Decugis, Lila Herman Prod Design, technical advisor: Claude Chabrol Mus: Martial Solal, Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger, Jean-Pierre Melville, Henri-Jacques Huet, Jean-Luc Godard, Philippe de Broca (uncredited). Jean-Louis Richard and Philippe de Broca appear, and there are also bit appearances by Godard, as an informer, by Truffaut, and Chabrol (who also acted as supervising producer). Godard made the film for the equivalent of 100,000 Australian dollars and dedicated it to Monogram Pictures as a tribute to cheap American gangster movies of his own youth – films that seemed to young auteurs like Jean-Luc to offer so much more than the more elegant, well wrought and polite studio products of France of the ’40s and ’50s.