Breathless

Breathless is a 1960 French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Jean Seberg stars. This is one of Hulu's current free offerings. [which is no longer available free]

trailer:



I love the music in this one. I got a kick out of seeing a little ashtray with an antique car printed on it that's similar to one my parents had. I also got a kick out of a movie poster in a street scene advertising a Jack Palance film, another poster of a Rod Steiger movie and a Humphrey Bogart shot. I could swear I saw a magazine with Dean Martin on the cover.

Slant Magazine opens by saying,

It's not surprising that Breathless remains fresh some 50 years after its Paris premiere in March 1960—if by "fresh" we mean somehow still in sync with contemporary cultural trends and mores. With its too-cool-for-school bevy of film and literary references, Jean-Luc Godard's masterpiece both foresaw and helped to launch the now-dominant notion of pop-culture obsession as badge of honor.

Senses of Cinema says, "Breathless was instantly hailed as a truly revolutionary movie and the logical outcome of the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague) rejection of what they called ‘Le Cinema de Papa’ (Dad’s Cinema)." Slate says, "Godard isn't trying to fill the Hollywood mold. He's trying to break it. Breathless'portrait of the normal flow of Paris life sticks with you long after the credits roll". 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die includes it. It's #13 on the Sight & Sound list of top 50 films. Roger Ebert considers it one of the great movies and opens with this: "Modern movies begin here, with Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" in 1960. No debut film since "Citizen Kane" in 1942 has been as influential." Rotten Tomatoes gives it 96%.