Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo

Seberg and Belmondo in Godard's BREATHLESS (1960).

Breathless re-release

Theatrical trailer for the 50th anniversary remastered release of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless.

Une Femme Est Une Femme (1961)

I kind of sit on the fence with Jean-Luc Godard. Part of me loves the avant-guard director for his creativity, and part of me hates him for the resulting pretentions. Despite my aversion to some of his works, many of which are considered masterpieces, I appreciate what he is trying to do. I like the messages, just often not the messenger. Godard is someone who tirelessly continues to flaunt convention and try something new. He is the ultimate cinematic innovator. Many of his films will leave you scratching your head at the end, not entirely sure what to make of the previous 90 minutes, but some will tickle you pink with zest and inspiration. Obviously, Breathless is a good place to start. Maybe you've seen that, and then watched some others (Pierrot le fou, Le Mepris) that you aren't really sure about.  Now you should watch Une Femme Est Une Femme.

This is my absolute favorite Godard Film! It's his first time using colour widescreen film, and of course, he goes to town with it. The colours are beautiful, and the compositions are pleasureable, and the accompanying story is surprisingly easy to follow. Angela (Anna Karina) wants to have a baby, but her husband Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy) doesn't. So she goes to Emile's best friend, Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo). This is Godard's homage to American musicals from the studio era. Though in typical Godardian fashion, he eliminates a lot of the actual music! Instead of doing huge musical numbers, Godard has his actors actually singing on screen, as opposed to lip-synching a playback of some pre-recorded track. It's kind of unsettling, but it works. And the movie is so playful! And funny! It's not as dry as some of his other stuff, and it's all there on the screen, so it's very easy to digest. It's arguably his most accessible film.

Here now, is a trailer for the film. It's less interesting as a trailer for the film, but is an brief description (by Godard himself) of the filmmaker's method.



If you want a taste of the movie, watch this! It's probably my favorite part, and actually one of the first scenes I think of when I think of this film. I'm so glad I was able to find it so easily on YouTube! (Update: Since finding this, I've probably watched this YouTube clip twenty times! So good!)



And just for fun, here's another. This is another great scene that shows the playfulness of the whole thing. If you enjoy this then definitely see the whole film. And I love how they carry their one huge lamp around the apartment.

Like Jean Seberg

I just stumbled upon this a couple weeks ago. (Click here for the whole series) Apparently it is a fairly renowned fashion spread from the 1990s for a couple reasons, Christy Turlington for one, and two, it's an awesome set of photos. But beyond the obvious aesthetics, it's the source material I am interested in. I am a huge fan of the Jean-Lic Godard's French New Wave film A Bout de souffle (it's the picture behind the title of this blog!) and this spread takes all its cues from that film, in particular the character played by the gorgeous Jean Seberg!

Gorgeous.

In the film, Seberg plays Patricia, a young American woman in 1960 Paris, who helps her acquaintance and (sort-of) lover Michel (the now iconic French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo), who is wanted for the murder of a police officer. Michel is determined to have Patricia run away to Rome with him, and he spends a couple days bumping around Paris, avoiding detectives and trying eke out cash from whoever will give him the time of day. Patricia also wanders Paris, pondering the many options and choices her life ahead has in store for her.

Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Seberg's performance is delicate, funny, and introspective. Godard largely had his actors improvise the scenes. He was frequently coming up with new ideas on set, and writing the scenes the morning before filming. What resulted are some really genuine sequences between Seberg and Belmondo; they flirt, they laugh, they fight, and they discuss life.

Breathless.

Unfortuntely, Seberg herself had a fairly sad life. A number of personal problems almost derailed her career, and in the 1970s the FBI concocted a plot to discredit her due to her outspoken political and anti-war views. She also lost a child and had several problematic marriages. In 1979, she disappeared and was found dead in her car several days later at the age of young age of 39. It was largely thought to be a suicide.

Seberg's tragic life makes her performance in A Bout de souffle just that much more powerful. Like Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and other actors whose lives ended prematurely, there is something eerie and beautiful about her portrayal of Patricia. Patricia is in the same league as Agnes Varda's Cleo. She is ephemeral and she knows it. She looks at the world with curiosity even though she knows her experience is a fleeting one. Characters in the films of the French New Wave often have that fatalistic outlook. They suffer from ennui, a dissatisfaction with the world as it has been passed to them. They look around, they wander, and they examine their surroundings in a constant search for a meaning to their existence.

Along with Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows, A Bout de souffle is considered the beginning of the French New Wave--le nouvelle vague. These two films and the subsequent films of the movement are creative, fresh, innovative, and playful. The sensations of optimism and opportunity, of exploration and experimentation, are integral to many films of the movement. It was a genuine cry for more, a refusal to accept life as it is handed down, and it gave birth to generations of fascinating and inspiring cinema.