Breathless (? bout de soufflé) November 21, 2004

Godard's freewheeling tale of small-time Paris hoodlum Jean-Paul Belmondo and his fresh-faced American friend Jean Seberg took the film world by storm in the early 1960s and forever changed the course of cinema. While not the earliest of the breakthrough Nouvelle Vague productions, Breathless was probably the first to show an obvious fascination for form over substance. With handheld camera and minuscule budget, Godard (and cinematographer Raoul Coutard) took to the streets, editing their material with outrageous jump cuts and clashing sounds while unapologetically paying homage to American B-movies--a modus operandi that was mimicked far and wide as the "new wave" spread around the world (1959, 90 minutes).

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