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1960 Film Breathless Not Mostly Cut for Mundane Scenes

“Breathless (À bout de souffle) (1960) was just all the shit they usually cut out of movies like eating, dressing, walking around, and shitting and they cut all the action instead.”
False
Confidence: High Checked on June 13, 2026

Summary

Breathless is a pioneering French New Wave film noted for its innovative jump cuts and a plot that follows a small‑time criminal involved in robbery, murder, a car chase, and a romantic relationship. It does not consist solely of mundane activities such as eating, dressing, walking, or defecating, nor does it eliminate all conventional action.

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Sources 80 searched

nytimes.com
  • A Fresh Look Back at Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless’ - The New York Times

    This little scene of impromptu amateur film criticism — or market research, if you prefer — occurs in Emmanuel Laurent’s new documentary, “Two in the Wave,” about the filmmakers François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, whose friendship was a driving force and a central fact (as well as, eventually, a casualty) of the French New Wave. Those people outside that Parisian cinema in 1960 have just seen “Breathless,” Mr.

bbc.com
lefigaro.fr
  • Jean-Luc Godard : À bout de souffle, un film «novateur et révolutionnaire» pour Le Figaro en 1960

    Louis Chauvet, dans les pages du quotidien, déplore les limites du genre mais reconnaît la puissance du sortilège. Article paru dans Le Figaro littéraire du 19 mars 1960. Lorsque j'écrivais ici même que le cinéma de la nouvelle école ne nous avait pas encore donné, à l'exception d'Hiroshima mon amour, le film véritablement novateur et révolutionnaire que l'on espérait de… · Cet article est réservé aux abonnés. Il vous reste 90% à découvrir. ... À bout de souffle, Le Mépris, Pierrot le Fou...

lemonde.fr
  • "A bout de souffle" a-t-il révolutionné le cinéma ?

    Ce jour-là, Jean-Luc Godard filme l'arrivée de Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo) à Paris. Le personnage vient de tuer un flic sur la nationale 7. Le jeune cinéaste arrive avec un grand cahier sous le bras, dans lequel il notera tous les jours les scènes qu'il a prévu de tourner et les dialogues qu'il a imaginés pour les acteurs, lesquels sont soufflés au dernier moment. Il lit le texte, les comédiens répètent après lui. Ce 17 août 1959, au bout de deux heures, il referme son cahier : "C'est fini pour aujourd'hui, je n'ai plus d'idées."

xavieras.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu
academics.winona.edu
  • A Bout de Souffle / Breathless | POVwinona

    The classic tragedy: The hero wants something more in life, goes to search for it, overcomes the roadblocks, slowly sees the plan start to fail, and finally meets their demise. For a character in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960’s film, A Bout de Souffle, or in English, Breathless, this couldn’t ring more true.

openlab.citytech.cuny.edu
web.cortland.edu
  • Jean-Luc Godard, À Bout de souffle (1959) - French Cinema

    C'est à dire que les transitions transparentes aident le spectateur à "oublier" qu'il se trouve devant une création artificielle (suspension of disbelief), pas devant une réalité perçue. Michel vit premièrement à travers sa représentation dans les média. Où se trouve la "réalité" dans un monde post-moderne où les médias et la société de consommation semblent remplacer une réalité de la vie quotidienne.

en.wikipedia.org
  • Breathless (1960 film) - Wikipedia

    He helped Beauregard with the script for Pêcheur d'Islande, but pitched him on Breathless because he liked the treatment. Chabrol and Truffaut were now star directors. They were at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1959 when they wrote Beauregard to endorse Godard as the director. Their names helped greenlight the film, but both would have very small roles in its production. The final screenplay deviates very little from Truffaut's original treatment, aside from the much longer bedroom scene.

theamericanscholar.org
  • The Potency of Breathless - The American Scholar

    But Breathless is more pretentious in its low-key way than any film-noir production that it could be said to parody. It doesn’t ramp up but brings down and scatters conventional elements. Belmondo’s occasional imitation of the Bogart gesture is just that—a momentary and out-of-context reference. Although there are several scenes that some viewers might find humorous—Poiccard stealing money from his former girlfriend while she struggles to get her dress over her head; Patricia interviewing a pompous writer (played, as part of the film’s smirking allusiveness, by suspense director Jean-Pierre Melville); Poiccard and Patricia making love under shifting white sheets (less funny than frustrating for the foreign viewer trying to decipher the subtitles)—this humor is of the whimsical not the parodic variety.

filmsite.org
  • Breathless (1960)

    Breathless (1960, Fr.) (aka A Bout de Souffle) · In French writer/director Jean-Luc Godard's pioneering, landmark New Wave film, his first feature film - this innovative, influential, and fresh film - a noirish, crime-gangster romance - liberally used the jump cut (in jagged, jolting and ...

ipl.org
  • Breathless Movie Analysis - 1529 Words | Internet Public Library

    Godard makes use of the jump cut when Michel passes numerous cars on the road. A point of view shot from Michel’s view on the street, quickly passing car after car, is shown. Here Godard is showing the same action over and over again, without a flow. This action not only gives the audience a thrill, but also illuminates the character of Michelle. He isn’t the mastermind he thinks he is. He isn’t smooth or …show more content… · Breathless is reflexive in the way that it copies and uses elements of various genres (especially American gangster pictures.

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