Lee Eisenberg The cinema movement know as the French New Wave (nouvelle vague) arose in the late 1950s. Leading the charge was François Truffaut, whose semi-autobiographical movie "The 400 Blows" shocked people with its intensity. But another major player was Jean-Luc Godard, whose "À bout de souffle" ("Breathless" in English) was a new kind of crime drama. Jean-Paul Belmondo's suave crook comes across as a nice guy but will stop at nothing to get what he wants, while Jean Seberg's naive journalist just wants to do what she thinks is the right thing.I understand that the movie is a tribute to some US movies that Godard liked. Apparently, he and Truffaut felt that a number of French movies were pleasing to the eye but otherwise empty (Truffaut later interviewed Alfred Hitchcock, whose clever storytelling techniques he admired; while writing for Cahiers du Cinema, Godard praised Otto Preminger's works). Just as important as "Breathless"'s plot is the soundtrack. The smooth jazz drives the movie as Michel goes from place to place, with or without Patricia. The jump cuts are distracting at times, but they don't subtract from the movie. Everything about this movie bears analyzing; you should see it at least once. Outstanding.

Yashua Kimbrough (jimniexperience) "Breathless"Jean-Luc Godard Debut film about a car thief on the run from the authorities after he murders a cop. He makes a stop in Paris to pick up an American girl whom he fell in love with for the planned getaway to Italy. But the detectives are too smart for the psychotic dreamer, and the young American girl has bigger plans ..Great premise , off execution . Camerawork was great, long tracking shots leading the character's. Sexy images of women .. Jean-Pierre Melville makes a guest appearance as an erotic adult author .7/10

sol- Still fresh as ever four viewings later, this debut feature from Jean- Luc Godard shows the acclaimed French director at his most experimental while still spinning a half decent story (the same cannot be said of all of his subsequent efforts). A key piece of dialogue crops up around halfway through as lead actress Jean Seberg tells the car thief protagonist played by Jean-Paul Belmondo that she cannot see anything beneath his face, no matter how hard she looks. Belmondo is a man who has modeled himself on the heroes of film noir (twisting his face to match Bogart's face in a photo at one point) and has lost his true identity in a near fantasy existence; Godard's inclusion of gun sound effects as Belmondo imagines firing his gun from his moving car hint at an overactive imagination. Godard's use of jump cuts is also indicative of fragmented thinking. Fascinating as this all may be, 'À Bout de Soufflé' misses the mark for a top tier Godard effort. It is not even of his five best films as it does not spin as tight a narrative as something such as 'Contempt'. The scenes in Seberg's hotel room run too long and as appealing as Belmondo's non-urgency in fleeing the country may be, the film misses the opportunity for thrills and suspense. It also debatable how much sense Seberg's decision near the end makes. There is, however, no flawing the film's music, a mix of different moody styles for a mixed up world in which Belmondo feels many different emotions, and the way we get inside the mind of the film noir-influenced protagonist is superb. Godard's cameo is lots of fun too.

JoeKulik Frankly, I think Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (1960) is VERY overrated. This is just a very amateurish first attempt at filmmaking for Goddard.That Jean-Paul Belmondo's character would murder a cop and then stick around Paris to get nabbed is unreal. Not even a DUMB criminal is DUMB enough to do that, especially since this guy has the means to flee the country and he is portrayed as a career criminal type with street savvy.Jean Seberg's character is portrayed as an upscale, educated aspiring American journalist who is trying to make it in Paris, yet hooks up with an obvious low life like Jean-Paul's character? SORRY, but I just don't buy it. That she sticks around with Jean-Paul's character even after discovering his criminal nature is even more unbelievable.OK, Jean's character finally smartens up at the end and turns in Jean-Paul's character to the cops. But then what does she do? She goes back to this low life thug and tells him what she did !!!! Either this gal has a latent suicidal wish or she is unbelievably STUPID. Why would any rational person go back to tell a fugitive on the run from a cop killer charge that she just ratted him out? Especially, since it puts her alone in in an apartment with this guy. UNREAL !!!! Then there's the final scene where jean's character is running down the street toward Jean-Paul's character's bullet riddled body is lying face down in the street. I mean, she actually still cares for this cold blooded cop killer even after he's righteously dead? GIVE ME A BREAK !!!! This film is just a love story from outer space, in my opinion. This film isn't about romance, it's about two DUMB people, just acting DUMB.I mean I've seen a number of Absurdist / Avant Garde films that I thought were great because the unreal / absurd elements in the film had some sort of symbolic or interpretive meaning in the context of the whole film. Breathless, however, is a film with a basically unbelievable, not well thought out storyline that just has no symbolic or interpretive meaning at all, at least for me.Although Goddard went on to make many great films, his initial effort here was a BIG FLOP as far as I'm concerned and the acclaim that Breathless got in its time was due to Goddard's already gotten fame as a film critic for a very influential Parisian film review and nothing more. That's the only sense that I can make of why such a MEDIOCRE film would get such high ratings.{{{This review is also posted at "Forum For Film Reviews And Discussions" at groups.google.com.}}