Jean-Luc Godard’s feature debut Breathless heralded the arrival of the French New Wave in 1960. Now considered a classic, it is just as audacious and dazzling today, over half a century on. Cool cat Jean-Paul Belmondo is Michel, a petty criminal whose reckless taste for violence lands him with a dead policeman on his hands. On the run from the law, he holes up with his American girlfriend Patricia (Jean Seberg), who is studying journalism at the Sorbonne. As they plan an escape to Italy, talk about American culture and lie around on the bed looking irrefutably cool, the police start to close in. A landmark of European cinema history, Breathless has all the style, wit and breezy jazziness you can possibly handle.
★★★★★ “One continuous, inspired cine-jazz solo… There is simply no other film which demonstrates so perfectly what it feels like to be young and in love” — The Guardian
French, English
English
France