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What is the film Breathless about?
Petty thug Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) considers himself a suave bad guy in the manner of Humphrey Bogart, but panics and impulsively kills a policeman while driving a stolen car. On the lam, he turns to his aspiring journalist girlfriend, Patricia (Jean Seberg), hiding out in her Paris apartment while he tries to pull together enough money to get the pair to Italy. But when Patricia learns that her boyfriend is being investigated for murder, she begins to question her loyalties.Breathless / Film synopsis
What is French New Wave rebelling against?
French New Wave (French: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconoclasm.
What features of the French New Wave do you notice in breathless?
One of the key characteristics of the French New Wave is its rejection of past filmmaking, instead swapping in more experimental and avant-garde techniques. This experimentation can be seen in Breathless, directed by Jean Luc Godard, where he used jump cuts in a continuous scene.
What does Michael say at the end of Breathless?
What does Michel say at the end of the movie? SPOILERS! Michel: Ch’uis vraiment dégueulasse.
What is the main reason why Breathless is considered a groundbreaking film?
Breathless and its New Wave brethren helped movies become reflexive, full of allusions to cinema’s own history, structure, and conventions. This goes beyond merely making a movie that includes references to other movies; Hollywood had been doing that for years.
What are characteristics of French New Wave film?
Techniques included fragmented, discontinuous editing, and long takes that allowed actors to explore a scene. The combination of realism, subjectivity, and commentary allowed these movies to have ambiguous characters, motives, and even endings that were not so clear-cut. And so the French New Wave was born.
What was the main message in Breathless?
Breathless, directed by Jean-Luc Godard, tells the story of Michel as he runs from crime but finds himself too smitten by the New Yorker Patricia, ultimately leading to her betraying him and his death. The film deals with crime, love, and lust, but it also deals heavily with the role of women in these contexts.
Why is Breathless important?
Breathless was one of the films that kicked off the French New Wave, a movement that inspired countless directors and led to a significant change in the way popular movies are made.
In what ways does the plot of Breathless differ from classic Hollywood narrative style?
Though the story does follow a linear plot, the film still different form the classic Hollywood style due to the fact that the characters have no goal, the usually the main focus in a Hollywood movie.