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.
| 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 |
| 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 |
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
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 the final category. Since its Read more »
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 Truffaut’s The 400 Blows being Read more »
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 define the French New Wave Read more »
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 John Bailey’s blog Read more »
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-Luc Godard’s New Wave groundbreaker Read more »
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, January 16, and, according to Read more »
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, Cahiers du cinéma, has Read more »
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 it, odds are you’ve seen Read more »
