À bout de souffle (Breathless) - Jean-Luc Godard
INTRODUCTION
This review is written in attempt to determine the elements of French New Wave in Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard in 1960. The theory to use is semantic and syntactic approach in genres.
THEORY DISCUSSION
French New Wave emerged in the 1950s during the mobile camera era where shooting and film-making outside studio became possible due to portability of camera. The filmmakers were filming reality to show the truth, and followed the characters around during the shoot.
The film usually puts a sane man in a lunatic asylum which then leads him to frustration and eventually go insane. French New Wave favors mise-en-scene to let visuals tell story, manipulates mise-en-shots and intensify script to create meaning.
French New Wave rejects montage aesthetics and continuity editing. Traditional filming style is also rejected to avoid making an escapist film. It makes sure the audience would think about the film while watching it.
The film usually puts a sane man in a lunatic asylum which then leads him to frustration and eventually go insane. French New Wave favors mise-en-scene to let visuals tell story, manipulates mise-en-shots and intensify script to create meaning.
French New Wave rejects montage aesthetics and continuity editing. Traditional filming style is also rejected to avoid making an escapist film. It makes sure the audience would think about the film while watching it.
SYNOPSIS
Michel Poiccard is a thief who makes money by stealing cars and driving them to Paris to resell. One day, Michel has to escape because he shoots a policeman dead when he is pulled over by the motorcycle policeman.
Michel steals money from his old girlfriend in Paris and looks up an American girlfriend, Patricia who is an aspiring journalist. He needs to collect money for his car but also emotionally drawn to Patricia. Michel has collected money and makes plans for him and Patricia to go away together.
Soon Patricia learns about Michel's crime background from a police. Initially, she works together with Michel to get away from police's sight. Eventually, Michel is reported to the police by Patricia and shot by police in the end.
Michel steals money from his old girlfriend in Paris and looks up an American girlfriend, Patricia who is an aspiring journalist. He needs to collect money for his car but also emotionally drawn to Patricia. Michel has collected money and makes plans for him and Patricia to go away together.
Soon Patricia learns about Michel's crime background from a police. Initially, she works together with Michel to get away from police's sight. Eventually, Michel is reported to the police by Patricia and shot by police in the end.
ANALYSIS
In the film, there were a lot of noticeable jump cuts for the same shots. Editor would just casually trim the cuts he needed for the scene and joined them all together by ignoring the continuity.
The camerawork was mostly handheld, a lot of shots can be seen super shaky especially the scenes in moving cars. There were also times where one long take of specific scene got awkward. Filmmaker didn't really care about the traditional rules of film-making.
The conversations between the characters sounded really random and it's hard to guess the how would the direction of their conversation go. The filmmaker was trying to abolish staged and scripted conversation in the film.
The film was shot in real location such as real streets and features random strangers as passers-by. It was to save budget because this type of independent film usually had low budget for production.
Besides, the sound and lights in the film were all direct sound during on-location recording and available lights in the shooting location. Any unwanted sound such as ambulance siren and office phone rings were totally fine to be recorded and put in as they were. There were also no extra lighting in the film, only natural lights were used.
Women's role in the film was strong and independent. Patricia did not rely her life on Michel like other stereotypical female character normally. She can even make decision for herself whether to keep quiet about Michel's location or send Michel to jail.
The camerawork was mostly handheld, a lot of shots can be seen super shaky especially the scenes in moving cars. There were also times where one long take of specific scene got awkward. Filmmaker didn't really care about the traditional rules of film-making.
The conversations between the characters sounded really random and it's hard to guess the how would the direction of their conversation go. The filmmaker was trying to abolish staged and scripted conversation in the film.
The film was shot in real location such as real streets and features random strangers as passers-by. It was to save budget because this type of independent film usually had low budget for production.
Besides, the sound and lights in the film were all direct sound during on-location recording and available lights in the shooting location. Any unwanted sound such as ambulance siren and office phone rings were totally fine to be recorded and put in as they were. There were also no extra lighting in the film, only natural lights were used.
Women's role in the film was strong and independent. Patricia did not rely her life on Michel like other stereotypical female character normally. She can even make decision for herself whether to keep quiet about Michel's location or send Michel to jail.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, French New Wave rejects traditional film-making style, montage aesthetic, ignores continuity, and staged conversations. It's exciting to watch how all those filming traditions were abolished coolly in the film without reducing the aestheticism of the film.
REFERENCE
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