Scarface or Alice in Wonderland? (A Bout de Souffle (DVD))

Name: andrewl

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	A Bout de Souffle (DVD)
Date:	15.08.04 (516 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Truly the 'yardstick of celluloid cool'

Disadvantages: None, at, all

It?s not easy being the only French film fanatic in your family and immediate social circle. The following is something I have heard many, many times, sometimes in jest, but far too often in deadly earnest.

?You know that Jean-Luc Godard you like? I heard something about one of his films the other night. The food one, I think. It was called ?About a Soufflé?.

We could speculate for hours about what kind of film About a Soufflé might be. A Jamie Oliver bio-pic, perhaps. Or a Nick Hornby pastiche in which Colin Firth or Hugh Grant nurture an emotionally vulnerable dessert while coming to terms with their own immaturity.

A Bout de Souffle, however, is a very different kettle of kittens. It was the ferocious feature debut from the superb Jean-Luc Godard.

Imagine the scene. You?re living in Paris in the late 1950s, writing reviews for a French film magazine. But you suddenly decide that most of the films you?re watching suck. They?re just novels on screen, very bland and unimaginative. Why can?t French films be more like Hollywood, who have people like Hitchcock and Nicholas Ray putting a real stamp on the films they?re directing?

You write a few petulant articles, promoting directors as ?auteurs? of films, the artists who should be constantly re-defining the cinematic medium. But then it occurs to you that this is a bit half-hearted.

So you say ?sod it?, start the New Wave and make your own films which transform cinema forever.

?A Bout de Souffle? tells the simple story of a young wannabe gangster on the run from the police. He hooks up with an American girl and they make a lame bid to flee to Italy together. According to legend, the plot came from fellow New Waver François Truffaut, who wrote it on the back of a matchbook.

Jean-Paul Belmondo, who went on to become one of France?s screen legends, plays Michel Poiccard. He acts alongside Jean Seberg, who is a rather tragic figure in film?s history. <
br>
The basic boy meets girl storyline is hardly radical, but A Bout de Souffle used then cutting-edge technology with the result that it hardly looks 45 years old, despite being in black and white. New lightweight cameras meant that Godard could take his low-budget film crew out into the streets, and also gave him a lot more freedom to move the camera.

Of course, we all take this sort of thing for granted these days, but the sight of Godard and chums wheeling cinematographer Raoul Coutard around Paris in a pram with a camera on the end was far too much for the normally ultra-chic Parisian set. In several of the scenes you can see pedestrians turning round to gawp at the filming, which is great fun.

In order to save valuable film stock, Jean-Luc Godard also pioneered the use of the jump-cut, which gave the film a rapid pace which holds up well for the MTV generation. The blistering speed of the film also lead at least partly to the title, which translates more accurately as ?Out of Breath? rather than the ?Breathless? which was used for its international release and for the AWFUL Richard Gere remake, which I?ve also reviewed.

The screenplay matches the hip editing and camerawork. Belmondo is effortlessly stylish as he robs and assaults his way through Paris, and Seberg is a serene and enigmatic beauty. Several of the scenes have become iconic, most notably the tracking shot down the Champs Elysées, as Poiccard chats up Patricia while she tries to sell the ?New York Herald Tribune? to passers by.

(For a bit of tragic irony, Seberg, whose career was largely disappointing aside from this film, was eventually found dead in a car just off the Champs Elysées, just yards from where she filmed her greatest moment. She apparently died of a barbiturate overdose.)

But of course, this is an early Godard film, which means several things are likely to happen. As well as being constantly enigmatic, the girl will almost certainly bet
ray the hero in some way. At some point the two leads will hole themselves up in a flat and talk about art and films for a quarter of an hour. Quotations from all sorts of places will abound. And, just when you were thinking it was getting a bit arty, violence will erupt all over the place.

The violence in A Bout de Souffle was one of the starting points for my thesis. Although there?s nothing too shocking by today?s standards, Poiccard?s first murder and the film?s climax succeeded in repulsing most international film critics. In fact, the film was one of the inspirations for Arthur Penn?s Bonnie and Clyde, from the violence to the stylish criminal couple.

The openly sexual element of Michel and Patricia?s relationship was also shocking at the time, although there are never any naughty bits on display. Combined with the funky camerawork, there was a sense that this new approach to cinema was more ?realistic?.

With a conclusion that is at once ambiguous and oddly moving, there is no doubt that A Bout de Souffle remains a very strange film, even after nearly 45 years. It?s premise, of a thug obsessed with Humphrey Bogart going on the run, is subverted both by Belmondo?s extremely potent charisma (you always feel a bit mean describing him as a criminal, maybe just a bit of a rascal), and by the usual Godardian flourishes and digressions. Just when you think it can?t get any vaguer, Patricia wanders off to interview a sexist novelist for ten minutes.

As is usual when someone has a hit early in their career, Godard later distanced himself from the film. The signature jump-cuts were never really used in his later films. When questioned about it, he later said: ?I thought I was making Scarface, but it turned out I?d made Alice in Wonderland, more or less.? Certainly, there is a slightly surreal aspect to much of the film?s action. Poiccard is too quirky and unpredictable to be taken entirely seriously, and the way people keep gawping at
the camera doesn?t exactly help...

But it remains brilliantly watchable throughout. With largely improvised dialogue, charismatic performances, and a thoroughly modern sensibility, this 45 year old black and white French film is a true piece of cinematic art.


SHAMELESS PLUG

As most of you must surely know by now, I have published a book on Jean-Luc Godard. Available in printed and downloadable formats, my MPhil thesis is an examination of all Godard?s early films, and particularly the violence within them. Reviewed and recommended by jillmurphy and salayavin here on Ciao. For more information, point your browsers here: http://www.lulu.com/Lawston

Summary: