Grade: 83 (B-)
Year Released: 1960
I have heard this film, many a time, called one of these three adjectives: free-form, jazzy, sexy. Apart from sounding like adjectives that would be used to describe panties, I find truth in these descriptors, especially the free form one, because this movie is basically tied together like a friendship bracelet made out of floss. It is beautiful, and in many ways meaningful and innovative, but it is also clumsy and lacks structure. Now, you may be saying, that is exactly the point of this film, and you're probably right. But the point of a film, whether groundbreaking or not, does not necessarily guarantee a life-changing or riveting viewing experience. Instead the viewer may be left to understand the supposed magnitude of the idea they watched play out, but not feel its effects in a way that's particularly earth-shattering.
For me, Breathless was aesthetically pleasing and contained several scenes that touched me. Otherwise I spent most of the movie feeling bored, as though it had not particularly grabbed my attention and intrigue enough to keep me hooked, even for the hour and a half I spent watching it. At its most entertainingly awful it inspired me with parodies, explained to me how easy it was to spoof a French New Wave film. Or, possibly, make one...
[SCENE: Man in a car smoking a cigarette]
Man (slowly): I am an idiot.
[SCENE quickly changes to duck waddling from pond, shaking feathers. Then to old man picking up trash. Then to police officer writing a ticket. Then to group of scantily clad girls giggling in street]
Man (voiceover): Do you remember how we loved? Life is fleeting. Mustard has never suited you.
[SCENE quickly changes again, this time to the man in car with a girl beside him, nipples clearly emphasized through blouse. Man fondles her while smoking, driving, talking, and holding a gun]
Woman: Where are we going?
Man: Will we ever know? [Turns radio up while sound of horns and screeching car tires grows in the foreground]
There you have it. While I could appreciate abrupt cut aways, most of this film seemed either as though it did not spend enough time patching up necessary endings to scenes or as though it lingered far too long on unimportant shots and voiceover passages that make no sense. This is the breeding ground for pretentiousness. It's not all bad- many people really consider it to be art. I found some scenes striking and others lacking that finesse and power. But at its worst, Breathless is sloppy, and that's both a side effect of its "free form" structure and a big distractor.
Breathless does a few things right. Jean-Paul Belmondo plays a man who lacks morals and makes generally bad decisions, and you can tell right off the bat that he's not really acting, and that his embodiment of this character is pretty much an extension of his own self. He is at once infuriating and mercilessly attractive, and we do not wonder as viewers why so many women have taken the plunge for him and how he's managed to escape trouble so many times. We also cannot pin him clearly as either a hero or villain- he simply exists in a realm of forgivably bad decisions. Jean Seberg, an actress whose French is about as good as mine (and by that I mean bad), is obviously darling, needing no acting talent whatsoever for her role of pretty little visual thing. Her outfits are to die for and she flaunts about the screen in a way that is delicious and playful and, at times, genuinely thoughtful. Her character garners sympathy and respect, a secretly pregnant young woman caught up with the wrong guy and unsure of the power of their connection. In her actions the viewer finds the stability that the rest of the film lacks- there is still mystery, but mostly she serves to straighten out the skewed ends that Belmondo's Michel has left in his midst.
The one scene that really moved me was the one in which Michel and Seberg's Patricia lay in her bed, playfully talking and romanticizing each other. Here is where we see the real chemistry between Belmondo and Seberg, where the viewer finds herself delighted in their interactions and moved by their sensuality.
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| The relieving scene of chemistry |
Breathless, I think, is a film about young people who make bad decisions in a nihilistic spirit, unconcerned with consequences and believing only in the existentialist view that everything is meaningless. There are certainly questions to be asked about the film's meaning and what can be derived from it, but I think it's best left as unanalyzed as possible for the sake of the film as an aesthetic work of art. We can play guessing games about character motivation and what the sometimes superfluous dialogue truly means, but I think we need to take Breathless at face value, as a film about nothing, and the side effects of believing that everything is meaningless.
I borrowed a friend's copy of Breathless, but it can be rented on Amazon for $3.99 or purchased for about $24.99.
