A small-time criminal, a beautiful American in Paris, a stolen car, a dead policeman and a romance that may or may not be one: Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” has all the makings of a conventional crime drama. But there’s nothing conventional about “Breathless,” which comes to Woodmere’s big screen on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
“Breathless” follows Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a self-styled gangster with a Bogart fixation and inflated sense of his own cool. After stealing a car in Marseille and impulsively killing a policeman, Michel flees to Paris, where he hopes to collect some money and escape to Italy. But first he seeks out Patricia Franchini (Jean Seberg), a young American journalism student with whom he’d had a brief affair, hoping to convince her to come with him.
While Michel appears to know what he wants, Patricia is considerably less sure about upending her life for a future on the run with him. Far more certain, however, is the intensity and impulsiveness they bring out in one another. As the police begin closing in, the two spend their time wandering the streets of Paris, talking, flirting, arguing, making love and trying to figure out what, if anything, they mean to each other.
For a movie built around a manhunt, “Breathless” is surprisingly talky — far more interested in Michel and Patricia’s relationship than in any attempt to elude the authorities. Michel and Patricia discuss love, sex, death, other men and women, and themselves — all as the police pursuit remains almost casually in the background. As their relationship unfolds in stolen cars, cafés, crowded streets and Patricia’s tiny apartment, we are privy to its intimacy in ways that feel uncomfortably voyeuristic.
Much of the pleasure of “Breathless” comes from the way it looks and moves. Shot in luminous black and white by cinematographer Raoul Coutard, the film has the immediacy of a documentary. Paris isn’t merely a picturesque backdrop; it feels alive, crowded and completely present. Even the long stretches of conversation have a restless energy, with the camera moving around Michel and Patricia as casually and unpredictably as they move around each other.
It’s difficult to appreciate just how revolutionary Godard’s “Breathless” must have seemed to audiences in 1960. The French New Wave had begun just a few years earlier, when a group of young filmmakers decided to throw out the rules about how movies were supposed to be made. François Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” had caused a sensation the previous year, and “Breathless,” Godard’s first feature, pushed that rebellion even further. Working with a small crew, Godard and Coutard shot largely with available light and handheld cameras, with Coutard sometimes being pushed through the streets in a wheelchair to get a tracking shot. In the editing room, Godard removed pieces of continuous action, using jump cuts with a boldness that helped spark a new style of filmmaking, influencing the work of filmmakers like Mike Nichols and Steven Soderbergh. Godard’s innovation also won him the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival.
None of this would work nearly so well without Belmondo and Seberg. In the role that made him an international star, Belmondo gives Michel the swagger of his movie idols. But he also displays a boyish playfulness that makes him considerably more charming than his behavior deserves. Seberg is his cool, enigmatic counterpoint. With her close-cropped hair and New York Herald Tribune T-shirt, Seberg created one of the film’s most enduring looks and became an international style icon. Her Patricia can be affectionate, detached, curious and calculating — sometimes in the same scene — and the performance earned Seberg a BAFTA nomination.
If “Breathless” leaves you wanting to spend a little more time in Godard’s Paris, seek out Richard Linklater’s delightful 2025 “Nouvelle Vague,” which reimagines the making of “Breathless” and the young cast and crew who somehow created a landmark of modern cinema.
Meandering through the streets of Paris as freely as its two lovers, “Breathless” explores attraction, alienation, identity, independence and the elusive nature of love. While some of its once-radical techniques have become familiar over the years, there’s nothing stale about the movie itself. Michel and Patricia remain maddening, fascinating company, and Godard’s Paris is still a place worth getting lost in.
Lily Williams is president of Chestnut Hill Film Group.
“Breathless” (90 min.) screens at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 6 at Woodmere (9201 Germantown Ave.) in partnership with the Chestnut Hill Film Group. Light refreshments are available before the show. Screenings are free to the public; donations are gratefully accepted.
