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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Image Entertainment
EAN: 0715515026222
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Label: Criterion Collection
Manufacturer: Criterion Collection
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Criterion Collection
Region Code: 1
Release Date: October 23, 2007
Running Time: 90 minutes
Sales Rank: 5156
Studio: Criterion Collection
Theatrical Release Date: February 07, 1961
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Editorial Review:
Description:
There was before Breathless, and there was after Breathless. With its lack of polish, surplus of attitude, crackling personalities of rising stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, and anything-goes crime narrative, Jean-Luc Godard's debut fashioned a simultaneous homage to and critique of the American film genres that influenced and rocked him as a film writer for Cahiers du cinema. Jazzy, free-form, and sexy, Breathless (A bout de souffle) helped launch the French new wave and ensured cinema would never be the same.
Amazon.com essential video:
The movie that heralded the French New Wave movement, this lean and exciting 1959 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard (A Woman Is a Woman, Weekend) broke new ground not only in its unorthodox use of editing and hand-held photography, but in its unflinching and nonjudgmental portrayal of amoral youth. Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg play two young lovers on the run from the law after Belmondo kills a cop and steals a car. Soon they are on an odyssey through the streets of Paris searching for some money he is owed so that he and his American girlfriend can escape to Italy. As a chase picture it features some startling photography on the streets of Paris, but as a romance it defies expectations, existing as part tragedy and part Bonnie and Clyde crime movie. The result is a wholly original film experience. Inspiring not only a remake starring Richard Gere but numerous films and television series, Breathless is an essential part of motion picture history. --Robert Lane
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Top Classic
What to write? If you know of the director, you surely own this. If not, and you're interested in TOP FILM CLASSICS, buy it...
Rating:  - Godard's Jazzy Groundbreaker Still Packs a Punch and Gets the Luxuriant Criterion Treatment
At the forefront of the French New Wave along with François Truffaut (The 400 Blows), Alain Resnais (Hiroshima Mon Amour), and Louis Malle (Elevator to the Gallows), Jean-Luc Godard broke all the rules in his 1960 directorial debut with a story borne out of American B-movie conventions but revitalized by his free-form narrative, hand-held camerawork (by Raoul Coutard) and jazz-infused editing style. On the surface, it seems like a standard young couple-on-the-run adventure, but Godard upends the predictability of the situation with a fresh, documentary-style perspective that emphasizes youthful impulses over morality lessons. Some of its fresh, brazen novelty has worn off over the years, but there is no denying its propulsive energy.
The plot is deceptively simple. Michel Poiccard is a young, small-time criminal with a Bogart fixation, living for the moment and taking what he needs with no consideration for the possible consequences. His one obsession is Patricia Franchini, a pixyish New Yorker who lives in Paris and works part-time for the New York Herald Tribune. Michel steals a car in Marseilles and drives to Paris to see her again. On the way, however, he shoots a motorcycle cop with a gun found in the glove compartment of the stolen car. As the police close in on Michel, he holes up in Patricia's apartment and tries to convince her to run away with him to Rome. Godard wrote the script based on a story by Truffaut, and the plot emphasis is placed squarely on the dynamic between ... Read More
Rating:  - One of the most overrated films ever
The fact that an artist writes boringly to convey boredom, or childishly to convey puerility, has no effect on the resultant work not being boring nor puerile. Self-awareness of a flaw does not alleviate the flaw. For this to not be true intent in art would have to matter, meaning that all art would necessarily have to be accompanied by a detailed explanation of itself and its conception by the artists, which would therefore render the idea of the art as its own best explanation worthless. Naturally, this would rent the very essence of the artwork.
Yet, in recent decades there has been the reflexive notion, usually tossed about by bad artists, that intent is almost all in art, or even that it supersedes actual accomplishment. This results in defenses of bad works of art that inevitably rely on defending the art's intent, not its success in following through on that intent. This has been championed by the `first thought, best thought' Beatniks of the 1950s, modern Postmodernist thought, and in the 1960s New Wave of French cinema. One of the leading lights of that `movement' was Jean-Luc Godard, whose first film, Breathless (A Bout de Souffle [literally, The End Of Breath]- 1960), made him a directing superstar. While one cannot dispute the historic import of such a film, historic import has never been equivalent to artistic excellence, and Breathless is a horribly dated film. Yet, even were it not so dated, it would still be a bad film because it is so self-conscious, so poorly written, and ... Read More
Rating: - One of Godard's first and best films
This is one of the best (and first) movies made by Godard. It is historic in it's introduction of jump cuts and as an important contribution to the french New Wave, and so on. And it's very fun to watch. This Criterion edition contains a good transfer of the film plus tons of extras. Well worth buying.
Rating: - "When the French say a second, they mean five minutes."
Breathless is a great example of French New Wave, a film with innovative camerawork and editing. It does not resemble the majority of films made previous to it which is why it is interesting. Jean Luc Godard was one of several filmmakers who felt that movies were getting stale, so he attempted to rejuvinate the medium.
Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo) kills a cop after stealing a car. He overreacted but now needs to play it cool to avoid detection. He is a wanted man, but he steals cars left and right and persues a beautiful American girl (Jean Seberg) instead of fleeing the country. She is ambivalent about him, but the two spend a lot of time together. Their conversations are the most enjoyable parts of the movie, especially the one in her apartment.
A simple movie that sometimes feels like sneaking into a stranger's conversation, Breathless is highly enjoyable. It was made on a modest budget, but it comes off as being slick and interesting.
This DVD edition has an extra disk just brimming over with special features. For die hard fans, this is essential.
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