Breathless/ A Bout De Souffle Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

(Robert) Masseo Davis

Breathless/ A Bout De Souffle Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Rating: 4.4/5
The eye is a muscle and as a muscle it can develop a sense of muscle memory and instinctively learn, and/ or be trained to familiarize itself with certain sights. Hollywood produced films and even television can be put at the forefront of what we understand as narrative cinema.
As the primary distributor of films and visual information the normative state of moviemaking is largely in part to the rules and regulations distinguished by the Hollywood movie making industry.
Over the years of visual media and the institutionalization of the moviemaking dynasty Hollywood has illustrated to their viewers a way in which movies have been made. This influence has essentially been the driving force that has trained the masses eyes and minds to understand their style of visual storytelling.
Jean-Luc Godard a French cinema critic and acclaimed director did not always abide by theses standards established by the normative Hollywood code. In 1960, Godard composed the film “A Bout De Souffle, Breathless”. Though Breathless is considered a visual masterpiece, and a classic French cinematic work of art the film found alternative routes in it’s storytelling and made use of many aspects even outside of the films diagetic space.
A Bout De Souffle, did not rely on the cinematic groundwork instilled by the Hollywood industry, which at the time was already thriving for Breathless was released some thirty years following the Hollywood Golden Age in the 1930s.
Ultimately, Godards classic film Breathless, was at the very least a pioneer for it was one of the first films to utilize narrative aspects in a meaningful and impact full manner, without relying on the general tendencies established, executed and enforced by the Hollywood industry.
Normative Hollywood moviemaking is based on the notion that the audience must maintain a high level of spatial, temporal, and even emotional awareness of the films narrative. Theses films are generally produced for the masses and are used, and pride themselves in pulling their viewers into the film.

“They are “illusionistic” that is, they are designed to create as
perfect an illusion of “reality” as possible.”
- Don Levine

Hollywood filmmakers over time have created and developed sets of rules that have been used and repeated to illustrate to the viewers of their movies the “natural” progression of the plot and the films narrative. Such Hollywood developed norms include but are not limited to, continuity editing, films that paint pictures and imitations of what is reality, or they create atmospheres of a heightened sense of reality, (such as Horror, Action, Spy movies etc). These films create worlds and allow for their viewers to observe the happenings of those worlds while putting the audience into a state where though they are outsiders they become unaware of the fact that they are watching a movie.
These effects of the normative Hollywood filmmaking style is do to techniques such as continuity editing. Continuity editing is as specific kind of editing that effects the way the cinematography of the film is composed and arranged, it is used to keep the viewers both spatially and, temporally aware of the happenings in the depicted filmic world.
When Jean-Luc Godard made his film A Bout De Souffle, being the film critic he was made him very aware of these social norms established by continuity editing and the Hollywood empire, however it took his knowledge and elaborated on the technique. Godard did not disregard the path that was already so firmly placed before him by Hollywood, however he did allow himself to be curious and wonder of the road.
The Film Breathless, strictly in terms of filmic technique introduces the “the jump cut”. Godards film can also be noted as a movie that imitates other movies versus the Hollywood norm to imitate reality, and A Bout De Souffle, does not allow it’s viewers to become unaware of the fact that they are watching a movie.
These are all things that would not be commonplace in a normative Hollywood picture to be released to the general public.
To begin with the “jump cut”, at the time was a new style of filmic editing, it essentially was an exaggerated version of time lapses that occur other the course of a movie, usually during traveling sequences, for it would be both boring and impossible to film a story in “real time”.
However even in Godards Breathless, the jump cuts seem to be slightly jarring, they merely just decide to remove the middle section certain sequences of action.
Example, when Michel Poiccard played by Jean-Paul Belmondo, shots the cop in the earlier stages of the film, the actual sequences is cut in such a way that it removes almost in whole the actual act of Michel’s crime. We the viewers se the cop approach, hear a Michel grab the gun; hear a shot coupled with a shot of Michel dumping the officers body into a patch of shrubbery.
While this seems and truthfully is the bare minimum of sensorial information the body really needs to understand the sequence of action, at the time this was new. During that time the “jump cut”, was a new technique. To the modern film viewer the jump cut is not as difficult to visually understand for it has been mastered, developed, and adopted over the years by the normative filmmaking style.
Godards, masterpiece titled A Bout De Souffle, is also notable for the fact that it unlike Hollywood pictures does not allow for the viewers to become sucked into the films narrative. This is due to the fact that it doesn’t utilize dialogue based on the storyline, and doesn’t give the viewers as much character development, and history, The truth is the film really is about noting but acts on a certain goal that gives it a timeline. The film uses realistic aspects of everyday life that are not usually depicted in Hollywood pictures.
At the time viewers needed those filmic aspects to be able to follow major parts of the plot, and still Godard decided to leave them out. This ultimately forces the audience to analyze the filmic reality and narrative meaning/ purpose, keeping them a step away from the film, allowing for the viewer to always be clear of the fact that they are watching a movie, and not apart of the filmic reality.
As a result of this artistic choice it implies that each character is on their own path of realty and is separate even from the viewers, who in turn reciprocate their actions by comparing the morals/ actions to our own lives, and us in what is truly reality.
Godard still utilizes character driven plots and morals however in not allowing for his viewers to “escape” from their world they take on the films morals and aesthetics upon themselves. (Class discussion)
Breathless, was made as an imitation of movies. Godard was a film critic and had seen lots of films, prior to orchestrating A Bout De Souffle. As a result this film has been transformed into a film that takes from many of the great film genres that Godard is already so familiar with, notably film Noir. Breathless, even directly references Humphrey Bogart, by having Michel’s character walk past and stare at a photo of him.
Ultimately, making Breathless, an imitation of movies, that imitate reality, yet in doing so the film has managed to appear more realistic and true to reality than the movies that they are imitating.
This fact is also a major part in keeping the audience separate from the movies filmic world, because they can recognize the references to the other movies and situations depicted in Breathless.
The result of the viewers being clear that they are watching a movie makes the plot and morals of the film relatable, which I think was Godards goal, to make A Bout De Souffle, personal.