Breathless

  

A Bout De Souffle or Breathless was Jean Luc Godard’s directorial debut. I have heard this title often mentioned in film circles and referred to as being the seminal French New Wave film. Jean Luc Godard wrote for the famous Cahiers du cinéma film magazine, along with other directors (Truffaut, Rohmer, Rivette, etc.) who would also become associated with the French New Wave movement in the sixties. So, there is this romantic backstory to it in that sense and prestige, since it started as a passion project by a man who loved movies, who opined them, and it became this revered, pivotal work that every film student is made to watch and write about. So, it is very much a template, a historic one at that too. And often, those types of movies are not so engaging outside of the historical context, because as times change, people’s tastes change. And I admit the first half of this movie was not completely engaging.

 We are first introduced to the protagonist Michel Poiccard played by Jean-Paul Belmondo, a car thief, who shoots and kills a police officer who was in pursuit of him. Michel reconnects with an American Expat named Patricia, played by Jean Seberg, and asks her to go to Italy with him. He is enamored with her and it’s not hard to believe, since Jean Seberg is the epitome of French chicness which is funny considering she wasn’t French. She works for the New York Herald Tribune and likes Michel but also engages in trysts with her boss. Overall, her emotions seem to skew capricious but (at least, this was my interpretation) seemingly because she wanted to be sure of Michel’s true affection for her. He comes across as extremely chauvinistic and in fact, throughout most of the movie, he is just begging her for sex. Apparently, this movie started the jump cut technique and I do see them being used often and with great effect. 

But there’s also this one scene where Michel breaks into Patricia’s flat. She is nonplussed and is just being her charming self while he keeps begging. They have this whole Pepe le Pew chasing a coquettish Penelope pussycat dynamic. And the scene consists of that and nothing else of import or significance to the larger plot (Well, Patricia does reveal she is pregnant by him in this scene but that is not really addressed subsequently.). 

They’re petits riens, little nothings that serve as a short interim to the main action and conflict, which is really just a standard cop and robbers' narrative that becomes tangential and less of a focus in the end. Because this is the focus. This relationship. These people. They’re little things that seem sweet and ineffectual but become grand everythings. I can tell that so many auteurs have been inspired by the simplicity and beauty of this scene. Sometimes, the best answer to the question of what makes good cinema is the simplest: two people sitting in a room talking, listening to music, grooming themselves, and being intimate. It doesn't have to be complex or difficult. 

We’re shown that the police seem to suspect Michel of being the man who murdered their fellow officer, and they continue to search for him with much difficulty. Michel is doing everything in his power to evade. He even adopts a pseudonym Laszlo Kovacs which was actually a reference to a character Belmondo played in a previous film. The movie has many metatextual moments like that. Another is when a woman asks Michel to buy her magazine to support young artists. Which magazine was she selling? Cahiers du cinéma.

After their lovemaking, Michel and Patricia leave the apartment so she can attend a press conference (but not before making a fabulous costume change, in a cute striped dress). Michel drops her off and goes to confront someone about some money he is owed. That actually backfires as his criminal identity becomes more and more known. Michel tells Patricia the worst flaw is cowardice. Despite his arrests probably being imminent, he doesn’t appear to be very much concerned with getting out of dodge. Michel lives for the moment and the moment is Patricia. 

Another favorite part in this movie for me is the press conference Patricia attends for this famous French novelist. These reporters treat this man like he’s an oracle. They ask him the most existential questions and he gives such chauvinistic responses; it verges on satire. He’s like the male gaze personified. When Patricia asks her question “Do women have a role to play in modern society?” He answers with just as much quickness and humor (this time intentional) as the other responses: “If they’re charming and wear striped dresses and glasses.” She smiles in response to the obvious flirting. She also asks him “What is your greatest ambition?” He responds: “To become immortal and then die.” Patricia removes her glasses and ponders that response and stares directly into the viewers' eyes. The score is more raucous now. Vibrating with it’s something to negate the little nothings. This is what I feel is the turning point of the film.

Patricia is questioned by the police the following day about her knowledge of the whereabouts of Michel, but she doesn’t give him up. Instead, she sneaks off to rendezvous with him at the cinema. They steal a new escape car and hide out at Antonio’s, a friend of Michel's. But Patricia unexpectedly decides to betray Michel and reveal his location to the police. She admits this to him, saying in essence, that she did it because she no longer wishes to be in love with him and believes this can sever her attachment. He is incredulous at first but then resigns to his fate, and immediately after tries to make a run for it. When he is shot by the police, Patricia saunters into the frame, emotionless. “You disgust me”. He tells her. But she doesn’t know the meaning of the word. She traces her lips with her thumb the way Michel always does, which was apparently a tic of Humphrey Bogart, and stares into the camera again. It reminded me of a quote her character spoke in an earlier scene: “We look into each other's eyes, but what for?”  

What was the final glance for? And the emulation of her fallen lover, what was the point? The questions raised by A Bout de Souffle might leave one perplexed and annoyed, but I love that its profundity is so ambiguous. It definitely poses questions about the nature of men and women. And the desire to pursue your desires and dreams even if it results in perilous consequences. Maybe I’m projecting, but I can imagine the production of this film mirrored in a lot of ways Michel’s tireless pursuit of Patricia. Except for the former, it paid off! A Bout de Souffle has cemented itself in film history, it has become immortal and evaded death. I really enjoyed my viewing experience of it, overall.