Jean-Luc Godard’s style for movie making is very well-known throughout the film industry. At least once you see one of his films, you’ll be able to recognize his style of filmmaking. A movie that he is very well known for is a film that he created during the French New Wave, titled Breathless. This film stars a thug named Michel, who impulsively kills a policeman while trying to steal a car. Because of that, he tries to leave France with his girlfriend, Patricia. But of course, she starts figuring information out about it and isn’t sure what to do. Or, as Google words it, “she begins to question her loyalties.”
The way this film was made was very unique and honestly I really liked it! In fact this might be one of my new favorite films. Or at least in the list of the films I have enjoyed over the years. The editing style was just so unique and the characters really stood out to me in this film for some reason. Now sometimes I’m not too great with subtitles, but honestly I don’t mind it with this movie! I loved it!
But speaking of the editing style, Breathless has a very distinct editing style throughout the whole film. Breathless has what is called discontinuous edits. It’s like a long shot that’s been cut down, so there’s a bunch of cuts between the same shot. That happens all throughout the film even. It was very common throughout the entirety of it. In fact, these discontinuous edits happened right at the beginning when Michel was stealing the car!
Something else that I noticed is that they also do include long shots. There were a couple that happened throughout the film, but one that stood out to me happened about an hour into the film. Michel leaves the taxi and the camera stays on the door that he leaves for about 25 seconds. Then, Michel comes back into the car where Patricia is waiting. Normally long shots like that don’t occur in modern-day films these days, because sometimes when watching movies, people can be impatient. But the long shots that Godard included I think honestly helped with the establishment of the scene.
Another type of long shot that he included was whenever two or more characters would be talking in the same shot. The camera wouldn’t just focus on one person, in fact, it would stay on all the people who are talking at that moment. There’s a scene about halfway through the movie where Michel is dropping Patricia off at her office before she goes to a press conference. The camera is behind both of them and not really focusing on one or the other. In fact, both of them are in frame throughout the entire long shot. So instead of just singling out just one, it focuses on both of them!
There’s some shots in this movie where you can’t even see the characters. I’m about 1 minute and 10 seconds, there’s a scene where it’s very dark outside while they’re in the car. However, you can’t see the characters who are in the scene. You can hear them talking, but you can’t see them. It’s a very interesting stylistic choice. Normally the goal is to try to have the characters always seen on screen. Not to the point where it’s so dark that you can’t see them. So I really liked that aspect. It’s something that you normally don’t see, in fact really you never see it.
The editing style for Breathless is so unique and revolutionary to the French New Wave. With its continuous cuts, long shots, and even some fourth wall breaks that show up every once in awhile, Godard brings out the story in a new light that hadn’t been done before.The way this movie was made honestly makes me super happy because I haven’t seen a film like this before and knowing that I have now brings a lot of joy to me. A lot more than I expected. I did watch this movie for class, obviously, however I think I also might watch it again unrelated to school. Because I really did enjoy it and I would love to watch it again. It’s always really interesting when you find movies in class is like this that you begin to enjoy outside of class. It’s how you know that no matter what time this movie was made, it’s a pretty damn good movie.
Coley Rose's Corner 