Posted 4:29 pm Friday, January 20, 2012
Jean-Luc Goddard’s ‘Breathless’ French New Wave Film Pioneers A Cool, Detached Vibe
And now we come to the films of Jean-Luc Goddard.
Goddard is a director I've been meaning to dive into for a while, but kept putting it off. Part of it, I must confess, is that it's a little intimidating tackling a filmmaker as respected and important as Goddard. His films have been dissected and analyzed and discussed for years, so the notion of attempting to sound intelligent after watching said films for the first time is daunting.
It's time to stop putting it off and dive into the works of a man who helped shape one of the most important cinematic movements in the history of the medium: the French New Wave.
For the uninitiated, French New Wave film came about in the late 1950s and '60s, in which filmmakers (which included Goddard, as well as Francois Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Pierre Melville and Jacques Rivette) decided to ignore the more classical techniques employed by filmmakers in recent decades for a more avant garde approach such as long tracking shots and scripts with existential themes. Budgets were tight and the film's cast and crew were often populated by the director's friends.
The "indie" film scene as it is known today is a direct descendent of French New Wave, though you can find the movement's DNA in films of all sorts these days. For instance, the "jump cut" technique which Goddard pioneered in "Breathless," -- the film which we are about to discuss -- has been used in countless films since. The movement was low-budget and avant garde, but its effects have rippled for years.
As for "Breathless," it is considered one of the hallmarks of the movement. Co-written by Goddard with Truffaut, the film centers on Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a car thief who kills a police officer after a high speed joyride through the countryside. If this were any other movie, the rest of the story would likely have centered on Michel's desperate dash to make it out of the city before the heat drops on him.
Instead, Michel is more interested in convincing, Patricia (Jean Seberg), an American student and aspiring journalist, to run away with him to Italy.
Despite being a wanted man (ostensibly) on the run, Michel doesn't appear to care too heavily about the heat creeping up on him. He seems to think a pair of sunglasses, a fedora and a newspaper are all he needs to help conceal his identity. Meanwhile, he's content to flirt with Patricia and steal more cars so he can drive her all over Paris.
It makes for an odd little film. Goddard is himself clearly disinterested in giving us a traditional plot and set of characters, instead focusing on a more spontaneous sort of story progression. "Breathless" has a detached feeling, that is dismissive of authority, and not just the figures in the film, but of those that "governed" the rules of cinema at the time.
There's a strong wind of self-awareness present in "Breathless" that propels Goddard's work. This released during the Golden Age of Hollywood celebrity, when icons were birthed and you had the youth of America and beyond looking to emulate those stars. Michel, in particular, dons his fedora and dangles a cigarette perpetually from the side of his mouth (there isn't a single scene where he isn't puffing on a smoke) as he stares at poster of Humphrey Bogart.
Goddard's use of Michel is an intriguing one. He isn't your typical "crook with a heart of gold," nor is he in the vein of a familiar anti-hero, either. Michel fits no such mold easily and is thusly a difficult character to root for or even understand. That's part of the intrigue of the movie, I suppose, following a disaffected youth who has little respect for authority and delusions of movie star coolness, but he's not a particularly interesting character, either.
I found the movie to be a bit of a drag, though it's not without its interesting points. The editing style -- the aforementioned jump cuts -- Goddard pioneered here manage to feel fresh and energizing, an amazing feat considering how countless films since have aped the technique. The film's construction is interesting to consider as well given how Goddard would often rewrite scenes immediately prior to filming them and would even feed actors their lines off-camera as the scene was filmed. There's a looseness to the film's construction that gives it a unique vibe.
I didn't really enjoy "Breathless," per se, but it's an interesting piece of work. Obviously its legacy is one that continues to resonate regardless of genre and for that reason alone it is worth checking out.
Next week, I'll continue my series on Goddard with a review of "Vivre Se Vie," followed by "Band of Outsiders," "Alphaville" and "Pierrot le Fou."
Stewart Smith is the Entertainment Editor for theTyler Morning Telegraph. Contact him at 903-596-6301 or by e-mail at ssmith@tylerpaper.com.
