Friday, August 7, 2015

À bout de soufflé (Breathless) (1960)

Today's film is À bout de soufflé (Breathless).  I honestly did not like this film.  It begins with a car thief (Michel) shooting a cop and fleeing to Paris. He visits his sort-of girlfriend, an American named Patricia who sells newspapers on the street.

 Patricia  starts off with "boo hoo I think I might be pregnant but I'm not going to make sure or even mention it again for the rest of the film".  Wasn't she supposed to go to the doctor? You can't just announce something like that and not follow up later in the story.  What a cheap way to invoke drama!  This was obviously written by a man.

Besides, Michel is a really nasty awful person.  He keeps blowing smoke in her face and he never takes that nasty cigarette out of his mouth.  For someone who is supposedly his girlfriend, he tells her that she makes him want to puke and she's a scumbag.  He spends all his time on her phone in her house but doesn't show her any respect.

Patricia finally tells the police where Michel can be found.  When they catch up to him, they shoot him on the spot and he dies.  This doesn't shock me because police shoot people all the time, just watch the news.

I know many people must have liked all the random jump cuts, but I did not.  It was distracting and at times irritating.  Even the editor himself said it wasn't intentional during the film's shooting.  There's no deeper meaning to the jump cuts.  So many people look for a deep meaning for everything when there's really not.  The film itself was written on the spot by Godard (both writer and director) and it definitely shows.  I will give it a 3/10.

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