A Bout de Souffle

During 1960, there were a lot of things happening in the world such as the peak of the Civil Rights Movement and the many African nations which had been French colonies gained independence. Freedom and independent thinking seem to be a common theme of the decade, and that goes for anything from a racial to a creative platform. A notable event that took place in 1960 that helped revolutionize the film industry and broaden its creativity was the movie, A Bout de Souffle. The director Jean Luc-Godard deviated from the conventional narrative of films and applied his own original ideas in what would later be considered the signature film of the New French Wave. Conventional films had a driven narrative that is consistently developed by each scene, but in a Bout de Souffle it doesn’t really have a clear narrative so some things may be irrelevant to the plot and some of the dialogue may come off as rambling or repetitive; the purpose is to give the film a more contemporary perspective. The style that Godard used for his film broke through all the rules and conventions that had been previously applied to filmmaking, and he showed the need for originality and personal expression. During the productions of the film, they used a handheld camera which was very uncommon for professional movies at the time, but it provided Godard with the freedom to improvise and move around without being restrained by technical reasons. After completing filming, they had over three hours of the film while the final product was constrained to a 90-minute run length, and he accomplished this by removing some scenes but also using jump cuts to cut certain scenes together. Jump cuts are a technique of editing of film that Godard pioneered in the modern film industry; professional filmmakers did not use this technique at the time because it gave the film an amateur or newsreel type of sensation. Another aspect of the film you may notice early on is that the character speaks directly to the camera which is a technique you rarely see used. Originality was the key characteristic for the French New Wave films, and Godard’s a Bout de Souffle perfectly captured the meaning. The critics’ reviews about this movie are overwhelmingly good, and it’s been called a landmark film many times. 

The original script for the movie portrayed the main character as a young man who turns to crime out of desperation and despair, but Godard explores some of his own philosophical ideas and develops a character that shows an indifference for morality and the rule of law. This can be easily understood after he kills the cop and shows no remorse and reaction to the event whatsoever; it’s actually a very strange scene because everything happens so quickly and he shoots the cop without a second thought. In the first 5 minutes of the movie, our initial picture of the protagonist is a car thief and murderer. Comments about the movie said that everything moves with haste, and watching the film I understand what they were talking about; each scene takes place right after the other and the music that’s often playing adds to that fast tempo. Like I said before, Godard explores themes like indifference to society’s rules; however, another theme that is central to the movie is the flaws and difficulties of love. A considerable amount of the film is contributed to Michel and Patricia talking and trying to understand each other at her place, but we can recognize that they are very different people and the conversation helps reinforce the conclusion of the movie; Michel portrays existential indifference while Patricia seems more passionate about life. The conclusion is that she tells him she doesn’t love him and betrays him to the police. The love and difficulty of their relationship is just one of the philosophical ideas that Godard included in the film. 

Godard was breaking through all the conventional approaches of filmmaking, and he also paid respects to notable directors and classic film noirs through film quotations. It includes many references to cinema, literature, and art that all display French cultural identity. The film also reflects different aspects of the American cultural heritage displayed in the cars, Michael’s obsession with Humphrey Bogart, and the jazz soundtrack. It was the signature work of the French New Wave of films, so it was important that they included these cultural symbols that helped add to the contemporary style that Godard was trying to create in his film. Something that allowed this film to define the French New Wave is how original it was in terms of how the narrative develops and the young pair of lead actors that represented the new generation of youth. It’s definitely a movie worth watching just because of how influential it was to the film movement.