Breathless (A Bout de Souffle (DVD))

Member Name: davepridd

Product:	A Bout de Souffle (DVD)
Date:	22/07/00 (355 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Completely different, very enjoyable

Disadvantages: Few

A bout de souffle, or Breathless, is probably one of the most innovative films that I have ever seen. Jean-Luc Goddard has looked at the aesthetics of cinema and completely changed them. Whereas previous films desired to stitch the viewer into the dialogue so that they felt like part of the action, and could identify with the characters, and easily pick out heroes and villains, Goddard has created a situation where we are made to feel disorientated, and to believe that the characters are not real. This is largely done by the use of natural lighting and the use of non continuous editing and jump cuts (where the connection between two pieces of action is not seamless, but there is a jump or a jolt). This gives the film an almost documentary feel. Not only this but the characters do not have clear identification; Micheal (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is supposed to be a gangster but he wears tweed jackets and silk socks, and Patricia (Jean Seberg) is confused due to her lack of understanding of the French language. Also some of the acting is deliberately rather amateur.

All though this sounds like the film is incredibly obscure, and art-house, it is actually very enjoyable to watch, maybe just because it is so completely different, but it also still has a good (all be it B-movie) storyline. Goddard's constant breaking away from cinematic codes shocks the viewer, but is also very interesting; for example the sequences range from very short, to the 25 minute sequence in the hotel room, and also the characters look directly into the camera, or walk away from the camera and walk straight back again, and Goddard experiments with the juxtaposition of music, sound effects and image.

Summary: