À bout de souffle (1960)

Jean-Luc Godard's classic film, À bout de souffle, takes place primarily in Paris, and is the story of a young couple who may or may not be in love.

Michel Poiccard is the antihero of the story. He serially steals cars and in a getaway from one successful attempt manages to kill a police officer. He, throughout the movie, is on the run. His mission is to go to Rome with the woman he loves, Patricia Franchini, a newspaper girl and sometimes reporter for the New York Herald Tribune.

Patricia is undecided on her love for Michel, and it takes the length of the movie to make up her mind.

Poiccard shares with Franchini a story whereby a man informs his love interest that he is a criminal and upon doing so, his girlfriend decides to help him in his illicit deeds. Poiccard is hoping that when Franchini learns of his misdeeds she will not leave him.

Dialogue in this film, like most Godard films, is hard to summarize as it resonates as profound but it only does so in small doses. Godard does not hit you over the head with pedantic philosophizing, but allows the insights to wash over you. He makes it a point to continue conversations without summarizing what has already been said, which can cause the forgetful person, such as myself, to strain to recall what the original context and statements referred to; this quality makes viewing the films more than once important.

In the beginning of the film, Michel speaks directly to the camera, which is a device used frequently in Godard's movies. This technique is criticized frequently, and reminds one of the Bertolt Brecht methodology of breaking the fourth wall in theatre.

Godard seems to be very proud of his Frenchness, and extols all of France in his films. In À bout de souffle he shows the French countryside as well as the city of Paris. Godard makes it a point to showcase the internationally known landmarks of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Trimphe. The use of these landmarks seems to be a little heavy handed as we know it is Paris for we are told we are in Paris.

During the course of the film, Patricia, an American, is unable to understand some of the idioms that Michel says. I wonder if this is because she does not understand the idioms in French for French is not her mother tongue, or if it is the case that these are not common phrases in either language. I think it might be that Michel is similar to the Beats and he is speaking a language that is not known to the masses. I think a comparison to the Beats is an accurate one for Michel and his coterie, and perhaps they were a great influence on Godard.

While Patricia and Michel are hiding from the police, they decide to see a Western. This later becomes relevant in the closing scenes of À bout de souffle. The final shots depict what one would stereotypically think of as a scene in a Western.

While watching the film, there is a point where the music becomes extremely important. What stands out about this music is not the music itself but what the music is played on: a clarinet. We later learn that Michel's father played the clarinet, and it is only music played on the clarinet that he enjoys.

Godard carefully crafts the elements that conspire to make a film. Anyone interested in understanding film should watch À bout de souffle.