Breathless (1960)
Breathless is a pioneering New Wave film. It was hugely influential both in terms of its camera and editing techniques and because of the characters.
Godard pioneered techniques like the jump-cut, designed to counter the Hollywood continuity style and to emphasize the constructed nature of the film.
Jean-Paul Belmondo's Michel Poiccard became the archetype of the vulnerable tough guy and his performance in this film inspired many others. In this film, Poiccard is pretty thoroughly rotten. He murders a cop, mugs several people, he lies so often it's impossible to know if anything he says is true, and it's really difficult to find anything socially redeeming in his actions. Why then is he effective? Because he's a child. He's not a bad guy. He's a kid playing a bad guy. This is most evident in an early scene when he finds a gun in the car he's just stolen. He holds it up and points it at various things while going "pow pow, pow pow pow." Throughout the film, his actions and understandings are childish and this makes him vulnerable despite his tough act. Michel hangs out only with foreign women. To them, he's exotic and his native knowledge of French makes him feel superior (he corrects their French several times). One implication is that he doesn't have relationships with Parisian women who would likely see through his tough guy act.
In many ways, Breathless seems to be a movie about movies. Godard and the other Cahiers directors began as fans and movies are present everywhere in this film. There is constant reference to film posters and the characters style themselves after actors (particularly Bogart in the case of Michel). Michel mugs for the camera, trying out different expressions even as he lays dying. Other aspects of the media are woven in throughout the film. Michel buys newspaper after newspaper, looking for pictures and coverage of his acts. He's effectively checking to see how many likes he's gotten. Patricia (and other characters) are constantly turning on the radio or putting records on the record player. Posters that appear in the background and clips from the movies they briefly see seem to be directly related to their lives. Here are two examples, one serious the other humorous. Early in the film Michel pauses before a poster that reads "Live Dangerously Until the End" (it's a poster for the film Ten Seconds to Hell, which was actually playing in theaters as Breathless was shot). This is clearly how Michel imagines himself. Later in the film, there's a really funny moment when A voice on the radio proclaims "We interrupt our programing to synchronize our transceivers." This is immediately followed by Michel and Patricia synchronizing their transceivers... they have sex to jaunty radio music. And, in fact, they are more or less on the same page, synchronized, for the next segment of the film.
A famous American film of the era was called Rebel Without a Cause (1955). However, that was a fairly conservative film and the rebels there did have a cause (they were rebelling against the ineffectiveness of their parents). Breathless is the true Rebel Without a Cause movie. The attitude of all of the characters is essentially f-you. For example, Poiccard commits a horrific crime (particularly in the context of the era) because he happens to find a gun. He ultimately dies because he happens to have a gun thrown to him. In the final scene he picks up the gun thrown to him. Why? Well, maybe he thinks it's what Bogart would have done.
Franchini is a poor little rich girl who ultimately calls the police on Poiccard because...why not. Franchini can never be serious about Poiccard. She's ultimately destined for an upper-middle class American life. No way she's going to bring Poiccard home to meet her parents. You can imagine that maybe Franchini, in later years, as a successful journalist, will tell her fans about the time she stole a Cadillac in Paris. But, in the moment, she clearly either doesn't care about any consequences or doesn't believe there will be any consequences. She's probably right.
Ultimately Franchini far outdoes Poiccard in who-gives-a-f-ness. Franchini isn't going on to a life of crime and she isn't going to mug anyone, but she's the adult. She's the tough one, not him. This is beautifully shown in the last seconds of the film. The wounded Poiccard tries out a bunch of faces that he might die with. He says something that ends with the word "dégueulasse." Franchini asks the police what he has said. They respond "you are really disgusting." (although the subtitles say "you make me want to puke," and "puke-ish" is the literal meaning, you are really disgusting is probably close to the French sense.). First, it's not clear that that's what Poiccard has actually said. He's said something is dégueulasse, but exactly what can't be heard. It's the cops, the establishment, that finds Franchini disgusting, not necessarily Poiccard. THEY say "you're disgusting." But, more importantly, the word dégueulasse has come up numerous times in the film and Franchini clearly knows it's meaning but she responds "what is dégueulasse?" It's her equivalent of saying "tough shit. I don't care." Then she does the Bogart move... She's the real Bogart, not him!
The film is made in and set in the world of the late 1950s. This is, in a sense a time of the collapse of ideology. The demolition of the old European order that was set in motion by WWI is completed by WWII. Godard, at this point, is exemplifying the existential dilemma of living in a world where meaning has been discredited. Godard eventually comes to identify with the political left (and in the late 60s and 70s, the extreme revolutionary left). However, that isn't evident in this film. The characters here seem particularly free of meaning and ideology. However, GOD do they TALK! The film is full of serious philosophical discussion. There are mentions of literature, art... And, of course Franchini's interview with Parvulesco "Devenir immortel Et puis... Mourir" A trivial note: in 2017 the French Canadian rapper Loud had a hit with "Devenir immortal (et puis mourir)." You can check it out here. That's impressive staying power.
The film is dedicated to Monogram Pictures. Monogram was one of the "poverty row" studios and specialized in producing low budget westerns, detective movies, and comedies. Monogram pictures productions cost about one tenth what the average Hollywood picture cost.
The film makes interesting uses of language. Some of the flavor of this is captured in the subtitles, which I think are OK. They're clearly in British English (an example is the use of the word "poppet" a British expression that translates roughly as "sweety.") and they don't capture a lot of the subtlties. You should note that Michel often speaks in a kind-of hipster slang. He likes to rhyme phrases. He and his friends refer to each other as "fils," literally "son." A current English version with the same feeling would probably be "bro." And when he gives numbers on the telephone he says things like "nonante neuf" for 99. Non-slang Parisian French would use "quatre-vingt-dix-neuf." It's trivial, but remember it's the director's choice. It's not a real phone number of course. So, the director could have had him say 23 ("vingt-trois") but that wouldn't have given any opportunity for the use of slang. BTW, this is a great movie for students of French. Seberg speaks with an American accent that makes her very easy (for Americans) to understand. Belmondo's French is extremely clear (maybe because he is speaking to an American).