'Breathless' is probably the French director Jean-Luc Goddards best remembered film, it's certainly the film that established him internationally, it's also the first of his films I've seen. It's one of those films that is very good, but I don't know if I could break it down and tell you why. It seems greater then the sum of its parts.
Jean-Paul Belmando is a Paris based small time hood, he kills a cop who catches him with a stolen car, then spends most of the rest of the film trying to convince American student Jean Seberg to run away to Italy with him, at first she does not know what he has done. Jean-Paul is an asshole, but a charming one, somehow you just like him. Seberg is also charming, but more calculating and less innocent then she at first appears.
There is alot of activity in the film, though very little actually happens. The stand out scene of the film, which also works as a stand in for the picture as a whole, is a meandering flirty conversation in Jean's apartment. It must go on for at least 10 minutes, nothing is resolved or much pushed forward by the conversation, it takes alot of detours and there are alot of little pieces of business. It feels real.
While the stakes of the film get to be pretty high it maintains a low key, wandering sensibility. 'Breathess' is an odd title in that this is not a rushed movie, Jean-Paul doesn't seem all that concerned until vary late in the picture. I'm not entirely sure how I should feel about this, but somehow this movie just manages to be great, I can feel it is so, but don't quite comprehend why. I should revisit and look into directors other work as well. ****
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