In this amazing film that defines the 60s French New Wave movement in cinema, Breathless tells the story of Patricia Franchini (Jean Seberg), a beautiful, naive American girl sent to Paris to study journalism who falls for the thuggish, cynical Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo). This film, directed by the great Jean-Luc Goddard, is about style, about irony, about cynicism and about cinema itself.
The film opens with Michel casually stealing a car and driving through the countryside, even as he narrates the drive to himself. Finding a gun in the glove compartment he shoots a policeman then bolts back to Paris, where he finds Patricia walking down the Champs-Élysées, hawking English-language newspapers.
But Michel and Patricia aren't just characters in a story, they're symbols of the tension between cultured and rogue, law-abiding and lawbreaker, journalist and story, and most importantly, between the naive optimism of America versus the post-war cynicism of France.
Breathless revels in contrasts too, with Patricia carelessly dancing from reflector to reflector as she crosses a busy street while Michel casually clobbers a middle-aged businessman in a public restroom and steals his money. It's shocking, but there's a sort of depressing logic to their mutual attraction. Later Michel asks Patricia "Do you ever think about death", as he sits in bed playing with her teddy bear.
Continue reading Flashback Review: Breathless.