Day 105 : Breathless

"When we talked, I talked about me, you talked about you, when we should have talked about each other."

On the back of the "Breathless" Criterion DVD it says, "There was before Breathless, and there was after Breathless." Every few generations there's a film that changes every way we look at a film. Whether it be the stunning visuals that the Director of Photography is able to create, the sharp dialog that a screenwriter is able to construct, or the overall message that a film conveys in a matter of 90 minutes. The leader of the French New-Wave, Jean-Luc Godard, was able to combine all of those elements in only his first major motion-picture. Godard is famous for being a sort of pessimist when it comes to Cinema; he's always been interested in painting a moving picture for the crowd to admire instead of a narrative that has to include a traditional narrative or story.

So it was no surprise to me that Godard has actually resented the success of Breathless ever since its release back in 1960. He didn't necessarily hate the film, he was just upset that people had begun to have confidence him because he felt that his best work comes when others don't believe or support him while making films. Godard is a rebel in every sense of the word and the evidence lies in every single one of his films in the French New-Wave era, perhaps mostly in his other classic, Contempt. Breathless is a product of Godard's idea to catch a couple on film, living their lives, and doubting what makes each other happy in life. One of the reasons this film is so innovative was because of the way it was shot. The guerilla warfare handheld-camera method was absolutely unprecidented outside of the documentary genre and this film was one of the first ones, if not the first, to attempt to actually shoot the entire film with a handheld camera. Goddard explains in one of the interviews that he wasn't exactly preoccupied with what Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Sedberg were actually saying in the movie, instead he wanted to make sure that he caught everything on film. The body language, the way the two touched each other, and of course the undeniable subtle hate that the couple had for one another. Godard's objective was to have the audience feel that they were inside the hotel while Michel and Patricia contemplate the importance of sex in a relationship. You feel the sexual frustration that this rebel, Michel, endures when lying in bed with this unreachable woman, Patricia. The self-doubt and hopeless atmosphere that Patricia creates around her is tiring on the soul. Here is a girl that has a great job as a journalist and her entire life in front of her, yet she can't let go of this man who is nothing but a petty criminal who's easy on the eyes.
 
Breathless forces you to follow these Bonnie and Clyde characters on their journey that has no objective. There isn't anything that the two are actually looking for, and by the end of the film neither have found any sort of clarity. Although, it seems that Patricia was able to break the spell that Michel had on her, that claim comes into question during the very last shot of the film. The love that is shared between these lost souls is a reflection of what many of us today are afraid of accepting: A lot of times when we feel wanted, we seem to assume that we're being loved. When in actuality, we're just a temporary solution to an ongoing problem that is occuring in our signifacant others mind. Nothing more. Nothing less. It's a realization that'll leave the biggest romantic Breathless.