#408: GODARD, Jean-Luc: Breathless (1960)

GODARD, Jean-Luc (France)
Breathless [1960]
Spine #408
Blu-ray


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.

90 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
in French
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2014
Director/Writers


Based on an original treatment by François Truffaut.

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Eighty-four page booklet featuring essays by Dudley Andrew, Godard, Truffaut’s original treatment, and Godard’s scenario.

Commentary

None.

Archival interviews

With director Godard and actors Belmondo, Seberg, and Melville.

Interviews

From 2007 with DP Raoul Coutard, assistant director Pierre Rissient, and filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker.

Video essays

By filmmaker Mark Rappaport’s Jean Seberg and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum’s “Breathless” as Criticism.

Chambre 12, Hôtel de Suède

An eighty-minute 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

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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