Breathless Then and Now
By October 22, 2007
The opening of Breathless is “unprecedented,” in that we never learn what route brought Michel Poiccard to the Vieux Port of Marseille, where he surveys the future Read more »
- France
- 1960
- 90 minutes
- Black and White
- 1.33:1
- French
- Spine #408
SYNOPSIS: There was before Breathless, and there was after Breathless. Jean-Luc Godard burst onto the film scene in 1960 with this jazzy, free-form, and sexy homage to the American film genres that inspired him as a writer for Cahiers du cinéma. With its lack of polish, surplus of attitude, anything-goes crime narrative, and effervescent young stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, Breathless helped launch the French New Wave and ensured cinema would never be the same.
Cast & CreditsOpen
Cast
| Patricia Franchini | Jean Seberg |
| Michel Poiccard | Jean-Paul Belmondo |
| Inspector Vital | Daniel Boulanger |
| Antonio Berruti | Henri-Jacques Huet |
| Carl Zumbach | Roger Hanin |
| Van Doude | Van Doude |
| Liliane | Liliane David |
| Other inspector | Michel Fabre |
| Parvulesco | Jean-Pierre Melville |
| Used car dealer | Claude Mansard |
| Informer | Jean-Luc Godard |
| Tolmachoff | Richard Balducci |
Credits
| Director | Jean-Luc Godard |
| Producer | Georges de Beauregard |
| Screenplay | Jean-Luc Godard |
| Based on an original treatment by | François Truffaut |
| Cinematography | Raoul Coutard |
| Camera assistant | Claude Beausoleil |
| Assistant director | Pierre Rissient |
| Script supervisor | Suzon Faye |
| Makeup | Phuong Mattret |
| Music | Martial Solal |
| Sound | Jacques Maumont |
| Editing | Cécile Decugis |
| Assistant editor | Lila Herman |
| Technical advisor | Claude Chabrol |
Disc Features
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- Restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director of photography Raoul Coutard (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Archival interviews with director Jean-Luc Godard and actors Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, and Jean-Pierre Melville
- New video interviews with Coutard, assistant director Pierre Rissient, and filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker
- Two video essays: filmmaker Mark Rappaport’s Jean Seberg and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum’s “Breathless” as Criticism
- Chambre 12, Hôtel de Suède, an eighty-minute French documentary about the making of Breathless, with members of the cast and crew
- Charlotte et son Jules, a 1959 short film by Godard featuring Belmondo
- French theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by scholar Dudley Andrew, writings by Godard, François Truffaut’s original treatment, and Godard’s scenario
From the CurrentView the Current »
Film Essays
Breathless
By July 08, 1992
Many great movies are classics. A few stand as landmarks. The merest handful—perhaps four or five in a century—deserve to be called revolutions. Breathless belongs unequivocally in Read more »
Videos
Features
“The Face of the French Cinema Has Changed”
By April 21, 2009
Fifty years ago today . . . Godard wrote this New Wave battle cry for the April 22, 1959, issue of the French journal Arts, on the news of François Read more »
Interviews
Into the Archives: A Conversation
with Emmanuel Laurent
May 19, 2010
Plenty of ink has been expended over the years on the turbulent friendship between Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, which helped Read more »
News
Looking at the New Wave in London
July 12, 2010
In March, we let you know about the underheralded Raymond Cauchetier, the unofficial photographer of the New Wave, by linking to an informative essay on cinematographer Read more »
Rodarte and Rialto
Team Up for Breathless
May 06, 2010
The eternally cool Breathless is getting a little more stylish. Rialto Pictures is joining forces with Kate and Laura Mulleavy of the fashion label Read more »
Breathless Is Back
March 10, 2010
Breathless returns to the big screen this spring. Fifty years after the film’s release in France, Rialto Pictures has acquired the U.S. rights to a new 35 mm print of Jean Read more »
Belmondo in L.A.
January 14, 2010
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has bestowed its annual career achievement award on French New Wave icon Jean-Paul Belmondo. The ceremony will be held on Saturday Read more »
Dispatches
Bazin Season
By December 21, 2008
André Bazin has a curious status in intellectual life. He is everywhere admitted as the founding father of film criticism and theory in general. The magazine he created in the 1950s Read more »
Clippings
Back to Bailey’s Blog:
Cauchetier, Part Two
March 31, 2010
In the Current last week, we linked to the first part of cinematographer John Bailey’s informative, image-laden piece, on the American Society of Cinematographers Read more »
The New Wave’s Photographer
March 25, 2010
The name Raymond Cauchetier may not ring a bell, but if you’re a fan of the French New Wave, and the films by such directors as Godard, Truffaut, and Varda that defined Read more »
