French New Wave Cinema: Breathless 1959

“French New Wave”: Breathless (1959)

The phrase “New Wave” was a blanket term given to a materializing film movement in Europe in the late1950’s and 1960’s, mainly in France, Italy, and England where an abrupt manifestation of brilliant films emerged. This movement consisted of two groups of directors, the Cahiers , majorly consisting of critics turned filmmakers and the Left Bank who consisted of individuals who went straight into filmmaking. Jean-Luc Godard was within the Cahier division. In collaboration with Francois Truffaut, Godard’s highly acknowledged film Breathless became a poster film for the French New Wave and experienced critical and financial success that enabled the movement to flourish. “New Wave filming techniques depended on more than shooting quickly on location, however they altered the conventions of their shoots, looking back to neorealist techniques, but combining what they learned from Rossellini with what they could learn from new documentary filmmakers” (Neupert 39). With a new style pertaining to editing and narrative structure, that mixed many different ideas and cinematic principles, Godard is a highly acclaimed filmmaker that introduced a new style and various techniques to the filmmaking industry.

In the film Breathless, a young man Michel Poiccard constructs himself after Humphrey Bogart. “The remarkable thing about the film is not just its simple story but its Bogartesque character: brazen, charming, free, refusing to warp emotions into words or conduct in laws” (Kawin and Mast 412). Throughout the film, Michel is seen doing various what we would call today to be normal in character in that he personifies an antagonist when he demonstrates merely shooting, stealing, and using individuals as something daily. As the film proceeds, Michel is simply detached from the world in which he lives. After meeting with Patricia Franchini, his American girlfriend in Paris, Michel stays hidden under her watch while she is unconscious to his lifestyle whilst he is attempting to flee to Italy and escape due to a murder he committed against a policeman earlier. After realization of Michel’s whereabouts and his puzzling demeanor, Patricia consequently betrays him and gives him in to the police. Michel is prepared to accept his demise in prison but is shot by police in the street and later dies there. “Breathless was hailed as a landmark film right from the start, and even though a summary of its story line sounds rather generic, or at least a bit like a tale by Melville, its overall style and attitude is amazing” (Neupert 213).

Breathless broke the rules of Classical Hollywood Cinema with its bold visual style and editing. The most distinguishing element of Breathless was the jolting jump cuts and hand held camera movement. In the book French New Wave (1999) Jean Douchet wrote:

“Aesthetically, a new and unexpected style exploded across the screen and added a sense of buoyancy to otherwise serious issues. It was as if the law of gravity had been temporarily suspended… An intentional technique of making the camera shake to convey veracity was introduced. It is difficult to imagine today, in the age of Steadicam, how amazed critics were that Godard used a mail cart and a wheelchair for dollies in Breathless”. (40)

The overall story structure is chronological, yet has large scene-to-scene gaps that, paralleled by the discontinuous jump cutes, leave out some information. For instance, after Michel shoots the police officer and runs across a field, the audience next see’s him in Paris riding in a car. No attempt is made to explain how much time has passes, whether he hitchhiked the whole way, or whether the police have even discovered the crime yet. Comparably, when Michel enters a cafÐ"©, checks for money, orders breakfast, and runs out to buy a paper, the viewer never knows whether he returns for the food. Additionally the audience is left wondering whether the scenes are even significant to the story line. Another example would be in a scene where Michel attempts to steal a car. The shot shows an impatient Patricia, and Michel trying to open car doors, and begins to run left in one shot, and then right in the very next. During this sequence he ends up stealing a silver thunderbird from the man he followed into a hotel and picking up Patricia. There is actually no real shot showing how Michel even did it but only that he stole the car, and leaves the how question up to the audience. In the end of the film constituting the death of Michel the shots are logically inconsistent as well. For the death scene, a car travels to the right in one scene and to the left in the next. Michel is then shot and the next shows Patricia running over to him, yet not police or any authority is