Breathless

Breathless, a low-budget film, came to be regarded as one of the major accomplishments of the French New Wave cinema of the early sixties. It had a tremendous influence on French filmmakers and on world cinema in general. Beyond its significance in film history, it was also a film of considerable cultural impact. Young students and film enthusiasts today continue to try to outdo one another in their Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg imitations, just as Belmondo himself in the film had rendered his own version of Bogart and Gabin. In Breathless, Jean-Luc Godard captured the spirit of a disillusioned generation and fashioned a style, which drew on the past, to parade that disillusionment. In his introduction, Dudley Andrew explains what Godard set out to accomplish twenty-seven years ago. He illuminates the intertextual and cultural references of the film and the tensions within it between tradition and innovation. This volume also features, for the first time in English, the complete and accurate continuity script of Breathless, together with François Truffaut's surprisingly detailed original treatment. Also included are an in-depth selection of reviews and criticism in French and English; a brief biographical sketch of the director's life that covers the development of his career, as well as a filmography and selected bibliography.