The reason breathless is inspiring for film makers is because Godard took the cameras into the streets and out of the studios. He stopped editing for continuity, but made cuts for performance or shots he thought were 'cool.' "Make a film as if you're going to break the camera" was the mantra.

I recently watched Breathless. As a film lover, it felt like a must to do so. I was oddly mesmerized by it. Did I love it as entertainment? No. But as art, absolutely. Thanks for your videos!

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

you're welcome. Glad you, kind of, enjoyed it!

@edholohan

2 жыл бұрын

I love this film!

As alluded to, this is a film of its time. Reading Week at my college in 1964 focused on Existentialism. The Drama department offered a course on 'Theater of the Absurd'. In 1969-71 I saw classic French films at the Maison de France in Berlin and the New Wave made sense as a revolt against the tightly constructed and very logical French films that preceded them. The Maison de France was blown up in 1983 on the orders of Carlos the Jackal, a terrorist whose nom de guerre came from a 1971 novel and 1973 film, just the sort of influence that Godard calls to our attention in Breathless.

This was the first foreign movie that made me give a damn about foreign movies. So much can be taken from this film and it is still a high-water mark.

I absolutely love this film, but despite that, can completely understand some people’s distaste with it. I found many of your insights very thought-provoking and perhaps my favourite was one that I think I should’ve picked up on was the filmed jazz one. I never thought about it like that, but now I can’t unsee it! It’s so true!

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

thank you! feel free to steal that and develop it; I don't know if it's ever been discussed before: the overlap between jazz and French New Wave.

For me this film is like a Picasso. You stand there, you look at it and it either does something for you or not and you move on. Doesn't mean Picasso is not still a genius but this particular piece didnt do anything on a deep personal level. That's how i felt watching Breathless.

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

I think the comparison between many New Wave films (of nearly any New Wave) and modern art is apropos. One thing that needs further study is how film was affected by modernist art, and vice versa. Tough task because you'd have to be an expert in two fields.

Interesting analysis. I finally watched this film today, and, in all honesty, I just didn't get anything out of it. I didn't hate it, but it was something that got no reaction from me. It was like eating a plain, flavorless potato chip. That's not to say this film has no style; it has that in abundance. My issue was that my emotional state throughout it was completely neutral. There was no laughter, tears, disgust, anger, etc. The film ended and I was like, "Well, that happened." I actually do love a lot of artistic films and am not generally bored by them or consider them pretentious like a lot of people. For example, I love the films of such directors as Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Sergei Eisenstein, Werner Herzog, Martin Scorsese, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Terrence Malick. And while I love the artistry and style of their films, it's the emotional power that their films have over me that makes me love them so much. Godard is no doubt an important figure in Cinema, but his movies (as well as the whole French New Wave in general) just don't grab my attention. I guess as a cinephile that's considered blasphemous to say, but it's true. I'll take the brutality and emotional power of a horrifying masterpiece like "Come and See" over this emotionless work any day. It's great for a film to have style, ideas, and philosophical talk, but if I'm not feeling anything from it, then it's time for me to check out.

@joshh6394

Жыл бұрын

I don't think you are wrong in your emotional response, but I do think that emotionless sensibility, the alienation and ennui, are intentional. The "high drama" moments, like the shooting of the police officer are almost meaningless. It's like a chore for Michel, and then he moves on as of nothing happened. And his explanation to Patricia was a childish (and again emotionless) "I was scared," to which she has essentially no response. It is this emotional nihilism that pervades the narrative. Even love seems to be just a word with little to no emotional content. Her turning him in is just to see if she actually has feeling, and her betrayal is almost welcomed by Michel, who just wants to know why she did that. But throughout the film she is always trying to think and feel, but just can't seem to. It's the existential creation of meaning that they just can't seem to do. And that is exactly the emotional abyss that is baked into the film for is to feel (or not feel).

@jpfryar7702

Жыл бұрын

@@joshh6394 Interesting point. I probably should have thought of that, but I guess I'm not the greatest at film analysis, even though I do love film.

@griffin__sutek4958

Жыл бұрын

My thoughts exactly

@abdounesaida1196

Жыл бұрын

You are spot on in your analysis and thank you for that. I also had this film assigned in a course, and it was a meaningless film. Even though I understand French very well, this film was not what I anticipated. Even Godard himself when asked about the film in interview with Radio-Canda, he says "Comme je ne sais pas tres bien que je voulais faire j'ai mis un mois" that means he did not know what he was doing he just took people and camera and start shooting. I believe this film was a temptation to show the French people that they can do somthing with a small budget and also can speak about the emancipation of women.

@tylersquanto8938

Жыл бұрын

You’re not wrong, it’s not a super dramatic film, but it’s oddly apart of the charm of it (at least for me). I think it has a distinct feel that is kind of apathetic and cool.

Am I the only one who genuinely love Breathless?? I watched it recently and rewatched yesterday. I am sure I will rewatch a number of times in the future. It is entertaining, charming and energetic. I just love love love film making style of Breathless. I have watched 4 Godard films. Absolutely loved two. And hated the other two.

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

many in the comments love it. 2 out of 4 is about right for Godard movies.

@DavidS-vs5mj

Жыл бұрын

I was shown 'Breathless' in a film history class in city college... I absolutely loved it and I'm due to watch it again...way overdue!

l think of Breathless like the Velvet Underground or Charles Bukowski. Art that had a ground breaking transgressive style that i was told i should like more than i really did. As a young person I was lucky to see this film at one of many new wave revival series in the Carpenter center at Harvard. Pixie cut Jean Seberg was gorgeous and the B&W Parisian setting evocative. But i tend to think my older self would find Breathless is packed with too much convoluted intellectual baggage and would probably find it tiresome to sit through again. Although I recently revisited Contempt and found it enjoyable.

Good analysis. Thank you. I don't like the film but I understand how it forged a new way of filmmaking at the time.

This was great! I just became a subscriber. Thanks!

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

thank you, and welcome!

Thank you for sharing your views..really enjoyed it..waiting for more..loads of love from India

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

you're welcome.

@syndicalistspeedsolver

4 ай бұрын

As an Indian cinephile could you maybe give me some recommendations for underapreciated Indian films of the last couple of decades? Iv'e seen most of the blockbusters from bollywood and tollywood but I'm looking for something a little more deep. Loads of love from America!

also, might be worth noting that this film has the earliest known filmed high five

Very good channel i really hope you get more recognition. Have you seen Oldboy (2003) or any Almodovar films?

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

thank you. I have been promising a "Professor reacts to Oldboy for the first time video." Will get to that over Xmas break -- I mean watching that movie for the first time and doing a video on that experience. I have it here on my laptop.

@chato4509

2 жыл бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies Nice i can't wait!

great review👍

@LearningaboutMovies

Жыл бұрын

thank you.

03:48 Thanks for explaining jazz to me.

There was before Breathless and there was after Breathless. This film helped change the cinematic world.

Thanks for this video! I struggle in general with Jean Luc Godard, I find his movies pretty boring even though I want to like them so much. Do you have any of his films that you like a lot and could recommend?

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

there's really no way to know which if any are recommendable. Some ideas: Contempt is his nod to the romance genre. Made in USA is a goofy take on spy genre -- see my happy review of this on letterboxd, as I seem to appreciate it more than most. Band of Outsiders (which I don't like at all) is dealing with the crime genre. Alphaville is his science-fiction film, and I really like it. It did inspire the hybrid of noir and science-fiction that Blade Runner popularized. This film, though, is an acquired taste. Go into it thinking its 2001-level confusing. Weekend has its delights, but it has the same problem all of his others do: style and genre-bending and structuralist/post-structuralist playing around. That gets him labelled as "pretentious" or "annoying," and I don't blame anybody who says that. Godard is one of those you are 100x more likely to encounter in a film-history class than through an online fan club.

I have seen Breathless many many times over the years and for me, after my first viewing, I never watched any movie quite the same way again. Thinking about my early viewings, toward the end of the scene where they are driving in the convertible (driving just a little too fast for the traffic or maybe the film was speeded up), the rhythm of the speech, the rhythm of the music, and the rhythm of the jump cuts would throw my breathing off, leaving me literally breathless... The hotel scene is similar. It feels disorienting and confusing and then she tells him she's pregnant. What's true? What value are the words? Such a strange scene, such a strange and wondrous movie. ...oh, and by the way, somebody get the poor guy some lip balm!

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

Which guy?

@adelheidmarlowe9079

2 жыл бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies Jean-Paul Belmondo's character Michel, our gangster. Always doing the Bogart Thumb/Lip thing, apparently to look cool and embody some interior image of himself, he makes me think he has chapped lips :)

This is came at great time as just watched it at special screening

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

good timin!

@tejnoortj4448

2 жыл бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies found the movie to be interesting but not fascinating. Felt more like a movie made to check assignment checklist or research paper than a work of art. It Did not stimulate mentally like other so-called great movies like citizen Kane, 2001 and Mirror, even though I don't completely understand the deep philosophical thought in them. I still ponder about them from time. Breathless just felt like a show put on by adolescent kids to show off his skill and enamour ladies, might be impressive but shallow

Hey, Great video. can I find that two essays you mention in the beginning somewhere for free?

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

Please remind me which two are discussed in the video. I forget what you might be referring to.

@GasaberiAngelosi

2 жыл бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies yeah, that's timestamp 1:59

I get the importance of Breathless, I've seen it once but will likely only watch it one more time. I'm much more interested and taken in by by Vivre Sa Vie. That one I love, enough to have bought the Criterion edition.

My favorite film of all time ❤️❤️❤️

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

excellent!

I tried watching this film once and gave up halfway through. It's definitely groundbreaking and stylish, but ultimately, just two young pretty people running around paris looking chic. It felt dull.

Breathless has many of the elements of the new Hollywood films of the 1967-1977 period. Shot outside, lots of jump cuts, gritty dialog and sexual situations, no real hero. I've watched it several times. A very good film.

I feel the reason many people get bored or irritated with specific godard films is that they expect a specific plot structure or story progression structure and clear dialogue from movies and get irritated or phase out when it's not there.If you however get absorbed in the technical aspects and the style ,how the motif is presented and not try to care about the plot structure and progression in the same way as you would care as when you are reading a book then it's hard to see how it's boring atleast to me.This is actually the case with many other specific famous directors films but they usually don't bring that type of criticism to them.Its almost stereotypical to make those types of criticism s against new wave directors and especially godard.

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

Films that don't have obvious plots demand another framework (besides a story) by which to watch them. Viewers have to supply that framework themselves. That requires work while viewing, and a decent amount of prior knowledge. As both of those are required, that is quite the barrier to entry to appreciate a film without a discernible narrative. Thus, I think, one reason for the "arthouse" film vs. the typical Hollywood film -- the audience is split because of requirements for viewing!

@s0uris012

2 жыл бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies I dont think lack of background knowledge explains it in many cases.You dont have to get all the references and all the meanings to enjoy the technical aspects and the style through your visual experience and further you dont have to pressure yourself to realize all the stuff you are seeing while you are watching the movie rather than after based on information from others or by rewatching i wouldnt say that requires alot of effort rather than having different kinds of expectations about how to enjoy films and not pressuring yourself to look for a specific type of immediate enjoyment .Finally theres many films where background knowledge doesnt give more clear understanding of them either but the visual experience can still be appreciated. I think a big part is expectations about what you should get out of films and going into movies with those epxectations but thats just my intuition.

Hello sir. And greetings. Do you have anything about Godard's other film, "Alphaville"? Thanks.

@LearningaboutMovies

Жыл бұрын

yes, on this channel there's a video on Alphaville. I think you'll find it with a simple search for this channel's name and Alphaville together.

@MultiSUPERLATIVO

Жыл бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies Wow. I will look for it. Congrats on the analysis.

Great vid. I remember reading a critic a long time say that movies should first and foremost entertain you. I try to keep this in mind any time I'm forming my opinion of a movie; I would never want to be bored relentless by a film and then convince myself I liked it just because film historians say it's the best. That's Godard for me. I won't argue with you that all those themes are in the movie. But the experience is a bore-fest. Later he becomes intolerably pretentious. "Two or Three Things I Know About Her" and "Pierrot le Fou" are almost enraging.

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

I mostly agree. What helps me is knowing the structuralist and post-structuralist material from this period. Easy to see Derrida, etc., in "Two or Three Things..." I don't recommend it and can't believe it's so high up on the BFI's Sight and Sound poll, yet I do see what it's up to. You are right about entertaining, though of course that means many different things. It is SHOW business, which is part of my problem with so many of the new releases.

@judypolstra

21 күн бұрын

Thank-you for so eloquently saying what I could not. I agree COMPLETELY.

Can you talk about "The Chinese"?

Porn between reality and fiction paired with great jazz orchestra music. Amazing work from a great master

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

I've read this comment five times and still think either I'm missing something or the first word is not the word it is supposed to be!

@bojanbuck7874

2 жыл бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies haha a bit of documenaty style paired with noir elements looked good to me the word is fine :)

Thanks for this analysis! I was quite underwhelmed and disappointed by this film but really wanted to understand/appreciate more about its seminal place in film history. I much prefer the work of Tati during this period, although my understanding is that he was not part of the 'new wave' given his establishment backing/financing (I could be wrong?). Love this channel and the great discussions in the comments :)

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

I think Tati is his own entity, though no one can help being part of the zeitgeist. thank you, btw.

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

I have been surprised at a few movies recently, including James Bond, for completely ignoring postmodern playfulness and trying to be earnest. Actually, that has been true of a number of recent Oscar winners. My suspicion is that we've exited postmodernism some years ago for a highly moralistic art verging on propaganda.

@graceb697

2 жыл бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies Hasn't this trend been theorised as meta-modernism/new sincerity? I think postmodern ironic detachment has become extremely trite and stale, where simply being "self-aware" counts as critique or comedy...

@vulgarlang

2 жыл бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies "My suspicion is that we've exited postmodernism some years ago for a highly moralistic art verging on propaganda." This rules. I think I agree.

@shapo001

2 жыл бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies A very interesting observation. Don't Look Up and reactions to it fit perfectly in that view.

My take on Breathless and all of Godard's early film is that : When they came out, they were revolutionary. But they were outdated pretty fast.

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

this is true to a certain extent, maybe even mostly so. yet I find that when modern movies become stale, they really could use a crash-course in the New Waves of this period. Godard's film grammar and sound design ought to be studied because it opens up 10,000 new ways of filming the same old scene. He has a lot to show videomakers today as well. Nevertheless, yes, I do find Breathless to be outdated in many ways, partly because its formal qualities applied to its subject were imitated a lot.

I'm not sure you are giving this movie enough credit for how ahead of its time it 'feels.l'. Watching it compared to 1959 movies such as north by northwest, it feels like they are made 50 years apart. Even psycho released in the same year feels significantly older than breathless despite it being a "groundbreaking" film itself. "Great" movies through the early 60s mostly feel significantly older.. Lots have been written about the jump cuts - which is fine, but I think it's so much more than just the editing. The acting feels modern, under-acting rather than everything being over-emoted up until that time. It feels away ahead of movies like lawrence of arabia in that regard - where dialog scenes all feel like they are being acted on a stage with a camera set up in the audience. And some of the shots! The shot of the woman coming up the escalator gives me instant late-career malick vibes. Other shots feel like Alfonso Cuaron went back and shot it. Entire stretches of the movie wouldnt be out of place in a movie today - the lunch/dinner scene, scenes in the apartment etc. Story wise, They are two characters that are very hard to like and cheer for (and for that reason I can see why it can be disliked), but on rewatch I like to think that due to her not knowing French 100%, she may very well be misinterpreting all the bad comments to her.

@LearningaboutMovies

Жыл бұрын

The question of historical development is interesting, but for normal viewers, it's a trivial matter. Does the movie still speak today to such viewers? My concern is to unpack some things for them and ask key questions. Anyway, I really think all of Welles, which inspired Breathless, feels the same way you are describing this film. So does the end of Duck Soup, a bunch of Keaton movies, Fritz Lang, etc.

@benfisher1376

Жыл бұрын

Yes, but films like Psycho had a plot and characters that were interesting. This is mainly just aesthetic art that is not going to engage most people.

Can you do the same sort of video with "Rebel without a Cause". That movie is also praised, but I found it very weird and not very good.

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

I should, and this is a good idea. I have a quick write-up on letterboxd that you might find helpful.

@alanbehrens4231

2 жыл бұрын

It is overpraised but I still like it as a product of the time.

Pure Visual Freedom

One thing I keep coming back to is how the audience is in love with a man who shoots a cop and knocks out an innocent man in a bathroom stall to get money. I believe some critics accused Godard of being a fascist after seeing the film.

One of the very few Godard's film I was able to watch until the end - they 're usually unbearable, egotic, pretentious over- (or maybe pseudo-)-intellectual constructions...

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

alas, I won't disagree, though I've enjoyed a few of his films.

is he using, "stock", to mean, "trope"?

@LearningaboutMovies

2 ай бұрын

What?

Do You Like Godard?

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

Sometimes. Dealt with this in the comments already.

@mondantarigan5579

2 жыл бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies Honestly i don't like Pierrle. People say Godard is better than Bergman, after i seen Pierre i know the people who said that are Bergman hater, because Bergman criticized Godard.

If you remember I asked you about Godard a month ago and you recommended some of his movies. I have watched many oh his films of 60's and I have a feeling that he hates cinema. Many of his later films shouldn't even qualify to be called films. His films are filled with pretentiousness and self indulgence. How he became so regarded and revered is a mystery to me. I think his contemporary Francois Truffart was much better and human. Also The Richard Gere Remake of this film is better than The original in the words of English critic Mark kermode

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

pretty much every viewer and critic leans towards story-based or style-based films. If you're the former, as I am, Godard is at the least frustrating, if not off-putting. You are right: Truffaut is much more palatable for those who prefer human-centered story-oriented film. I just read a history-of-film book, and the author's preference was for style-based. That meant Godard got five pages of treatment in a 500-page book, whereas most great directors got a paragraph's worth.

@sanidhyasingh227

2 жыл бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies I am primarily story based but I like several style based films. I love fellini, Burnwell, Jodorowsky,lynch. All of them are style based filmmakers. It is just that I like Goddard's style detestable.

Great comments that give much food for thought. Something too intellectual and pretentious about Godard for me. Snobbish in fact. Melville has a small part in the film and I prefer his movies to those of Godard. He drove around France in a large American car wearing a Fedora and made great gangster movies. Good stuff, made me think and will watch the movie again. Keep it up. Movies change over time - or is it me - or is it the changing times influencing my perceptions?

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

Both! I used to love Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure as a kid, and now ... Anyway, yes, though I've moved away from stylish movies, or movies acclaimed almost solely on the basis of style/stylistic innovations. Still, I've got two Godard movies on my list to tackle in the next 2 years: Alphaville and Made in USA.

@alanbehrens4231

2 жыл бұрын

Melville's films have a cool vibe to them. Army of Shadows is a classic. and Le Samourai

@alanwatson4249

2 жыл бұрын

@@alanbehrens4231 Yes. Fascist occupation and resistance played a huge part in Melville's films (and the whole 'Cahiers' /Bazin critique) and the intensity of being under that kind of pressure coloured his consequent work. Lino Ventura in 'Army of the Shadows' superb.

Have seen this film once. I liked it but did not love it. I much prefer Truffaut, Cocteau, Malle, and others.

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

mostly I agree, and I think just about everybody I know personally would have an easier time with Malle, say, than Godard.

@alanbehrens4231

2 жыл бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies I also have enjoyed Renoir, Carne, and some Chabrol. France is a treasure trove of great cinema.

@alanwatson4249

2 жыл бұрын

@@alanbehrens4231 Surely.

definitely an influential movie, but personally i find it a bit annoying

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

same!

Sorry to break this to you, but Richard Gere was the star of this movie.

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

he's ageless!

as a french person: it's simple. if you're not french there's no way you can understand this movie fully or get as much out of it as french people. it just has a feel that is unique to france, and cannot be understood if you don't speak the language.

These are all theories. Why don’t they ask the directors what and why they are making, instead of guessing and having me listening to assumption. Total crap.

@LearningaboutMovies

Жыл бұрын

would you like me to resurrect Godard from the dead? Should be fun!

@sheikhdeen5486

Жыл бұрын

@@LearningaboutMovies Goddard recently passed away. He was around to answer their silly theories than to make up their own theories. It is all a guessing game. All hogwash.

Breathless is one of my favorite films; thanks for this review! I think there is also an interesting play on the « negotiations of sex. » The way he is always trying to convince her to have sex brings out this idea that sex belongs to a certain economy of push-and-pull power. By the end, you see the last line « Ch'uis vraiment dégueulasse » point to both her championing of his sexual exploit & his shift into sexual repulse/anger. Loosely reminds me of Fassbinder’s « Fox & His Friends, » but, for me, Breathless has even greater depth.

@LearningaboutMovies

2 жыл бұрын

you're weclome, and thank you.