Céline and Julie Go Boating

Céline and Julie Go Boating aka Céline et Julie vont en bateau (Jacques Rivette, 1974)

This 193 minutes film about two women in Paris living in a total debonnaire attitude reflects the liberty and improvisation that the movie represents. This is an experience of playful and free cinema that few great films have displayed. Weirdly connected to the Czech New Wave film by Vera Chytilova’s Daisies, where two women are getting rid of every social convention and finish in a huge orgy of food that can make anyone hungry as hell.

In the case of Rivette’s film, the two leads also acts as two child-women and it almost always involves playful acts in every scene. There is also a sense of improvisation in the dialogues and the development of the scenes. However, Rivette has stated that the script was written way ahead before filming and that the story was planned. The scenes are quite long and it is interesting to see how they evoluate. Rivette seems to have the instinct of the director who knows how to get those moments of pure cinema (borrowed from Jeffrey Anderson’s superb review at Combustible Celluloid). Especially, considering the long list of writers that contains almost all of the central actresses of the film.

There’s also a superb use of space in Céline and Julie, and it is clear that Rivette knows his Cinema. Some eliptical scenes are refleted between the two leads and the concept of location has a very deep meaning in his means of telling his story. Another important aspect of his storytelling is how he mixes imagination and reality.

A vibrant feeling of cartoon fills the acting of the two leads and it makes all senses when they are together with the little girl of the ghost house where they go and try to change the past. The freedom of Rivette’s filmmaking is unsettling at first, but once you get into his story and let yourself drift into this dream like state that characterizes Céline and Julie you are in for a memorable and a one of a kind movie experience.

With all that said, I believe that it is a monumental film that places itself within the most important films of all time, just like The Discreet Charm of the Brougeoisie or Pierrot le Fou. It is a very fun film that also demonstrates a master’s unique storytelling and his cinematic innovations. However, compared to the two aforementioned masterpieces, I would rank Céline et Julie vont en bateau as a near masterpiece. Still, I would highly recommend it to any French film enthusiast (yes John LaRue it is you I am pointing at) and every film buff.

Alphaville

Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)

A US secret agent is sent to the distant space city of Alphaville where he must find a missing person and free the city from its tyrannical ruler.

Dense, uncanny, avant-gardist, visionary, are some of the many qualities that we can label on the films of Jean-Luc Godard during the 1960’s. His love of Cinema, especially American genre pictures and B-Movies made him the director he was. Each of his films of this era owes a great deal to the likes of Robert Aldrich, Otto Preminger, and Nicholas Ray amongst many others. The most famous New Waver along with the late François Truffaut, Godard was at the peak of his career in 1965 and he was directing films in full speed, all that with few means. However, as every film he has ever made, he uses the message of imagination over everything. Few Science-Fiction films were made by the French New Wave, and Alphaville is one of the most unique films of the genre and the whole group of cineastes. With Truffaut’s hit or miss Fahrenheit 451, Godard delivers a genuinely intelligent mix of private detective meets its near future.

Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constatine) arrives in Alphaville in on a planet similar to the Earth. This environment has forbidden sentiments and personalities to its inhabitants. With his American values, Caution must find a missing person and escape the world of Alphaville.

Ultimately influencing hundreds of its followers, the concept of dystopia and near nihilist future are themes that Godard will overly reuse and exploit ad infinitum in his post May 68 period. In Alphaville, the cineaste uses his lover Anna Karina in a very unique way. Her naïve traits and lectures give to her character, Natacha von Braun, a tragic inhuman robotic presence. Despite being a little limited acting wise, Karina achieves to be particularly convincing with the culmination of the ending when she almost whispers the words: “Je vous aime” (I love you).

Just like George Orwell with his 1984 or Aldous Huxley with his Brave New World, Jean-Luc Godard elevates the “propos” of his film along those masterpieces that reveals the malignant and devious tendencies of the post-modern world. Added to that, Alphaville is still an entertainment of high value while it inspires great thoughts and self-study of our societies.

Along with À bout de souffle (Breathless), Pierrot le fou, Le mépris (Contempt), Bande à part, Alphaville is the cream of the whole corpus of films that Godard directed. Highly recommended.

Seven Days of French New Wave Day 7

Last Year at Marienbad

L'année dernière à Marienbad aka Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)

This post is a part of the Seven Days of the French New Wave going on this Blog. But since Resnais wasn't a "member" of the "vague" I have to categorize him as an outsider that often been mistaken as a French New Waver because he was French and the fact that his films were more written oriented. With Last Year at Marienbad, Alain Resnais made one of the greatest masterpieces of Cinema. See Mediafilm's list of masterpieces.

The plot is a little hard to follow since the story is divided in time, sometimes we are in the present other times in the past and sometimes in the future or what the characters imagine will be their future. This facet of the structure of the story reminded me of the surrealist writing of The Discret Charm of the Bourgeoisie or even the deconstruction of memory of Malick's The Tree of Life. Resnais' adaptation is audacious because even with today's standards this is a fresh film and it is way more thoughful than Nolan's Inception that plays with memory and time without the Sci-fi effects and the spectacular imagery.


The atmosphere of Last Year at Marienbad probably influenced Kubrick on his The Shining, with the reclusion of the characters in this castle turned into a luxurious Hotel where the characters are walking like ghosts with deadpan faces and looking like they are disconnected with time and space. The memory and the presence of the characters is like if they always were a part of the Hotel and they are trapped in a continuum of time.

The beauty of the cinematography juxtaposed with the eerie and omnipresent music gives a mysterious yet thrilling vibe to the film. It makes me want to see more films of Alain Resnais since I deeply loved his Night and Fog while been disgusted by the atrocities it displayed and I've bored by his Hiroshima mon amour. Of Resnais great career, he still makes movies today, many films a yet to be reviewed here. Last year at Marienbad might be a difficult film to get into but since you past the uncommon structure of the story it is a masterpiece every film buff should at least watch one time in his/her life.

Seven Days of French New Wave Day 6

Links!

Robert Bresson's films:

Les anges du péchéBonjour Tristesse

Les dames du bois de Boulogne

Bonjour Tristesse
Journal d'un curé de campagneOnly the Cinema

Bonjour Tristesse

Un condamné à mort s'est échappéOnly the Cinema

Bonjour Tristesse
PickpocketBonjour Tristesse
Le procès de Jeanne d'ArcBonjour Tristesse
Au hasard BalthazarBonjour Tristesse

MouchetteBonjour Tristesse

Une femme douceBonjour Tristesse
Quatre nuits d'un rêveurBonjour Tristesse

Lancelot du LacBonjour Tristesse

Le diable probablement

Bonjour Tristesse

L'argent

Bonjour Tristesse

Alain Resnais' films
Only the Cinema

Le chant du styrene

Hiroshima mon amour

Last Year at Marienbad

Muriel ou Le temps d'un retour

La guerre est finie

Je t'aime, je t'aime

Bonjour TristesseLes herbes folles

Seven Days of French New Wave Day 5

Hey folks! Now it's time for Links and reference! This is the Claude Chabrol day of the fifth instalment of this series. Since I did not had the time to watch and fully review Chabrol's work I will guide you with the best reviews about his films.

First, let's all have a look at Thomas Duke of Cinema Gonzo's great review about one of Jean-Luc Godard's most unique film Week-End. After a computer crash and more than a year in the thinking this long awaited critic is out just in time to be a part of the Seven Days of French New Wave.

- On the West Coast, Bonjour Tristesse has reviewed Chabrol's Les cousins and Le beau Serge.

- Near St. Louis MI, John from The Droid You're Looking For! has put together a list of the 50 Greatest French Directors.

- One of the most read online film critic, Ed Howard has written many excellent reviews over at Only the Cinema about Chabrol's work. Chabrol index.

--> Feel free to link your own reviews in the Comments section and I'll be updating this list as they come!

Michaël

Truffaut Double Bill: Les mistons & Antoine et Colette

Les mistons (François Truffaut, 1957)


François Truffaut’s first film, a brilliant homage to Jean Vigo’s Zéro de conduite about childhood, first and impossible love. The breezy approach, the smooth narration, the comic relief of the kids, the first moments of François Truffaut’s “mise en scène”, the sad denouement, and the bitter sweet conclusion of this short makes it a masterpiece of its own. Hugely overlooked because of the incomparable success of Les 400 coups, Truffaut’s Les mistons deserves way much praise than it actually received. Evoking his sensibility and his subtle humour, this 1957 short offers the critic’s first opportunity to make a film, the medium he is passionate about.



Antoine et Colette [segment of L’amour à vingt ans] (François Truffaut, 1962)

The first segment of L’amour à vingt ans, a film « porte-manteau » co-directed by Renzo Rossellini, Andrzej Wajda, Shinoda Imamura, and Marcel Ophüls, Antoine et Colette is a sequel to Les 400 coups (1959) and the prequel to Baisers volés (1968).

We are catching up with Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), now seventeen and out of a reform school. He is working at Phillips, making records and living like an adult in his apartment. Doinel has made for himself a solitary life with one friend. Shortly, he’ll meet Colette and quickly fall in love with her. However, Colette doesn’t return his advances and she considers him as only a friend. Doinel will be almost adopted by Colette’s parents and he’ll even move in an apartment facing theirs. Their relationship is almost like if it was a family recomposed. For Doinel, this is like the parents he never had and it gives him the opportunity to spend more time with Colette.

This short will give the rhythm to the rest of the Antoine Doinel cycle. This quirky character, naive at times and childish at other moments will have to face the adult life he always wanted to live. Meanwhile, all his life he’ll be acting like a child, the Doinel of Les 400 coups that wanted to be an adult as fast as possible will always have to struggle to understand the world of adults. Antoine et Colette is the perfect link between Les 400 coups and Baisers volés. The melancholy and sadness that the Doinel films own and the bitter sweet savoury touch of the situations will be one of the trademarks of Truffaut/Léaud.

Seven Days of French New Wave Day 4

Seven Days of French New Wave Day 3

Pauline à la plage

Pauline à la plage (Eric Rohmer, 1983)


Pauline, 15 years old, is going with her cousin Marion at Granville to spend the rest of her summer vacation at the Beach. This coming of age story is one of Rohmer’s most famous film. The fact that it depicts the summer vacation of two young women and especially the nakedness of the steamy body of Marion may have a certain attraction to the audience. However, Rohmer’s approach to adult relationships, their love affairs and sexual intercourses represents many of his favourite elements to work with in his most successful plots.

In the case of Pauline à la plage, Pauline is the witness of the many intercourses and visions of the adults about love and how they want it, perceive it, and deal with it. On one side you have the recently divorced Marion who cannot love her husband because she knows him too well and she needs to be burning of love. On the other side you have Pierre who’s deeply in love with Marion and who is her masculine reflection. He prefers to fall in love a person he knows and he can trust, a person who is familiar and reliable. Opposed to him Henri, Marion’s other pretendant and the one she will fall for is the representation of the libertine always ready to charm a new woman and be free of obligations and fidelity. Pauline will also have an adventure be she will learn more from the many intercourse between the adults around her. Rohmer represented the adults in their relationships like people who don’t know how to act and react to the confrontations and how they can hurt others and especially themselves. It seems like if everyone isn’t with the right person and how when on a vacation a person you don’t have anything in common can attract you just because it is something new or different. Well, we people go in vacation they want to be disoriented not only by the scenery or from their normal lives but also by the people that surrounds them. It is really clear that Marion is still looking for what she is and what she wants. At the same time, Pauline knows exactly what she wants.

I kind of liked the breezy feeling of the film and even if some scenes sound false the rhythm feels right. As Rohmer always did there are not a sparse scene or a useless technique used. Minimalist and simple are his films and it makes them efficient and easy to catch at the first glimpse.

Seven Days of French New Wave Day 2

Les parapluies de Cherbourg

Les parapluies de Cherbourg aka The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1963)


Les parapluies de Cherbourg is the concretization of Demy’s childhood fantasy : to direct an entirely French musical. Brought into filmmaking by documentaries, Demy was the mellow part of the French New Wave. A member of the “left bank” because he lived on the left side of the river and because of his left approach on life, Jacques Demy made one of the first films of Catherine Deneuve and one of the most famous French film.

This wonderful tale of a beautiful romance is filled with lavish colours and entirely sang dialogues. At some point this ultimate effort of a total musical can get on the nerves of some viewers. I think it depends of the songs and the moments of the film. Moreover, I ain’t a great fan of musicals at the first place. I love The Red Shoes, Vincente Minnelli, Gene Kelly, and Stanley Donen musicals but it is at most what I can endure. A film like Moulin Rouge or Chicago was a total pain for my tastes. In the case of Demy’s film it is a question of mood, you have to be fully prepared to watch it and the quirky directing of Demy, the costumes, the sets, and many technical aspects can deeply bother someone with more subtle tastes and apprehensions. However, Les parapluies de Cherbourg was one of the most successful films of the French New Wave. The music by Michel Legrand has passed through time and still is a cultural reference for francophones like me.

The reference to Singin’ In The Rain is clear in the generic and Jacques Demy always presented his film like a ballet of umbrellas. Apart from being strongly influenced by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen his French touch comes from Jean Cocteau, Robert Bresson and Austrian born Max Ophüls.

One of the most important aspect of this film is the rigorous reality of the facts presented by Demy. The dates and the Algerian War, two constraints the New Wavers didn’t give much importance. They didn’t wanted to make films about politics or economics. It was one of the first French films to evoke this conflict.

Even with its great success with the critics and the moviegoers on both sides of the Atlantic, Les parapluies de Cherbourg is a film I consider to have aged badly. My favourite scene of the film is the final one at the gas station with the Christmas scenery that fits with the overly coloured palette of costumes and sets. A nice film but not a favourite of mine.

Cléo de 5 à 7

Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)

This post is part of the Seven days of the French New Wave event going on Le Mot du Cinephiliaque from December 1st to 7th 2011.

Agnès Varda, being one of the most famous filmmaker of the Nouvelle Vague and one of the few women to direct films in this era, is still shooting in the 2000's. Her first feature, La pointe courte might be the first film of the French New Wave. But her most widely known picture is Cléo de 5 à 7. Cléo (Corinne Marchand) is a pop singer waiting for the results of her last visit at the doctor. She might be having a cancer. We follow her struggle through the two long hours she has to wait to know the results.

This fable about the 1960's and the bland persona that the modern world and those frivolous years has brought to our society is well portrayed here. Cléo's character is very narcissic and her devotion to her beauty and her career is infectious. She'll even put on a record of one of her songs in a restaurant to watch people if they'll listen to the song playing. Her name, short for Cleopatra, says a lot about her, how she thinks she is a queen, how everyone should listen to her and be at her services. Hardly happy and never satisfied by anything, her mood swings all the time. Well, the wait of the result sure is stressing in some way but we easily guess that it's one of her trait of  personality. The presence of Corinne Marchand is the focal point of the film and Varda's camera just has to swing and follow her around to deliver her beauty and undress the character in front of our eyes. Cléo is like an onion that you have to peel to discover the diamond within when she meets Antoine the first character she seems to really apreciate.
This is a true Nouvelle Vague classic and the style of Varda and her simple technique makes this one of the little gems of this era. Since, Cléo isn't as sympathetic has she'll become near the end of the film it is harder for the audience to fully immerge himself in the story of a whinny woman. However, the princess syndrome of stardom and instant popularity couldn't be more actual. Even if it isn't really scratched by the plot some elements makes us think about anyway. A great film to get into the French New Wave. Since it was my first Varda ever I'll have to catch up and see her earlier and later work to put this one in the perspective of her whole career.

Seven Days of French New Wave Day 1

Launch of the Seven Days of French New Wave Dec. 1 to 7

Starting on December 1st until the 7th, I will be presenting nine of the most important figures of the French New Wave. Alongside you'll have tops of their films and a review of a famous film or a more obscure offering. The schedule goes like that:

1. Agnès Varda & Jacques Demy
Since this is a Seven days event I wanted to catch up with the most important figures of the wave. That's why, like in their time, I united Varda with Demy, only to have a big start for this event and also because I don't like to split lovers apart. 
Let's make it clear: Agnès Varda is Agnès Varda and Jacques Demy is Jacques Demy


2. Eric Rohmer One of the most subtle, interesting, and romantic of the the Nouvelle Vague, Rohmer stands as one of the most accomplished "auteurs" amongst his peers. A director I have seen more than the half of all his films and that I like more and more with the passage of time.


3. Jean-Luc Godard
Does the man needs an introduction? You'll see when you'll read about him and his films in my presentation. An intriguying character and one of the most frustrating to follow.


4. François Truffaut
Truffaut died too young and he was the first director of the French New Wave I really connected with. His bittersweer approach, Antoine Doinel, and his life will be discussed in my presentation of him.


5. Claude Chabrol
A director whom I' ve never seen any film ever. It will be very interesting to discover my first with this event.

6. Alain Resnais & Robert Bresson "The Outsiders"
Even if both of them never been a part of the Nouvelle Vague, their influence and their movies made prior and during the time of the French New Wave made them "the outsiders" of it. As the many figures that gravitated around the Nouvelle Vague I must not forgot to list Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville, Henri-Georges Clouzot, and many others.

7. Jacques Rivette
Idem to Chabrol, I am ashamed to say that I haven't seen one film of the great Jacques Rivette. A great opportunity for me to discover this legendary master.

---
I will accept links to reviews or articles about the Nouvelle Vague and also about each and every "auteur". Feel free to contribute! I'm not displaying which film I will be reviewing for every director on the list to keep the surprise and also because I want you to send any reviews you want and not just about the films I will or won't review!

Send your contributions at michael dot parent at hotmail dot com

I hope to read your submissions and your comments!

Le samouraï

Le samouraï aka The Godson (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)

In my warm up for my upcoming Seven Days of French New Wave I wanted to catch up with the French filmmakers that made films during the Nouvelle Vague years that weren't a part of it or considered as New Wavers. Jean-Pierre Melville has been very influential on the "auteurs" of the French New Wave, with his neo-noirs starring impassive leading characters wearing trenchcoats and hats. Melville's presence in the wave was resented as the presence of a big brother for all the young directors like Truffaut, Godard, Rohmer, etc. He even made a famous cameo in Godard's À bout de souffle.

Le samouraï is the first Melville film I've ever seen, the fact that he wasn't a part of the New Wave was probably one of the reasons why I didn't watched any of his films before. Well, now I know I should have looked up Melville before. This 1967 release is an instant classic, the slow paced action, the dead pan face of Alain Delon's Jef Costello the Samurai theming and the wonderful simple but efficient cinematography took me 30 seconds into the film to know I would fall in love with this film.

Having read the Bushido many years ago, when I first saw Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, I completely understood the main character and the title: Le samouraï (The samurai). With only one reference to the title in the openning of it, Jef Costello is literally a samurai, always dressed like if it was the most important day of his life, with a clean trench coat, a well worn hat, always clean shaven and even when he gets hurt he'll take care properly of himself and clean his wounds himself. His final mission was a suicidal one an aspect of the Bushido that is more than central is the fact that the samurai must die in a valiant way by his enemies or by a clean suicide.

The direct influence of Kurosawa's samurai film is palpable not only in the Bushido references but also in the framing of the film that doesn't mistake at all. There is also the influence from the contemporary theme films of Kurosawa; The Bad Sleep Well, High and Low, Stray Dog. The kind of story where the details are more than important and the construction of the plot is strongly mastered. I will be discovering more Melville films in the next weeks because this is a filmmaker that diserves  my attention. He makes the kind of films I admire like Coppola's The Conversation, Pakula's All The President's Men, and Fincher's Zodiac. A must see!

Announcement: Seven days of Nouvelle Vague

Starting on December 1st until the 7th, I will be presenting nine of the most important figures of the French New Wave. Alongside you'll have tops of their films and a review of a famous film or a more obscure offering. The schedule goes like that:

1. Agnès Varda & Jacques DemySince this is a Seven days event I wanted to catch up with the most important figures of the wave. That's why, like in their time, I united Varda with Demy, only to have a big start for this event and also because I don't like to split lovers apart. 
Let's make it clear: Agnès Varda is Agnès Varda and Jacques Demy is Jacques Demy


2. Eric Rohmer One of the most subtle, interesting, and romantic of the the Nouvelle Vague, Rohmer stands as one of the most accomplished "auteurs" amongst his peers. A director I have seen more than the half of all his films and that I like more and more with the passage of time.


3. Jean-Luc Godard
Does the man needs an introduction? You'll see when you'll read about him and his films in my presentation. An intriguying character and one of the most frustrating to follow.


4. François Truffaut
Truffaut died too young and he was the first director of the French New Wave I really connected with. His bittersweer approach, Antoine Doinel, and his life will be discussed in my presentation of him.


5. Claude ChabrolA director whom I' ve never seen any film ever. It will be very interesting to discover my first with this event.

6. Alain Resnais & Robert Bresson "The Outsiders"
Even if both of them never been a part of the Nouvelle Vague, their influence and their movies made prior and during the time of the French New Wave made them "the outsiders" of it. As the many figures that gravitated around the Nouvelle Vague I must not forgot to list Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville, Henri-Georges Clouzot, and many others.

7. Jacques Rivette
Idem to Chabrol, I am ashamed to say that I haven't seen one film of the great Jacques Rivette. A great opportunity for me to discover this legendary master.

---
I will accept links to reviews or articles about the Nouvelle Vague and also about each and every "auteur". Feel free to contribute! I'm not displaying which film I will be reviewing for every director on the list to keep the surprise and also because I want you to send any reviews you want and not just about the films I will or won't review!

Send your contributions at michael dot parent at hotmail dot com

I hope to read your submissions and your comments!

À bout de souffle

À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1959)

One day I've read somewhere that everything has been written, but not by me. Well, this review or essay will try to do what Godard did himself with À bout de souffle; everything has been done but not by him.

I have to admit that the first time I watched À bout de souffle I hated it to its deep core. I called JLG a dilettant and a boring pretentious wannabe filmmaker. You what? I think Godard intentionally made a film that could provoque this kind of reaction. He likes to provoke the spectator to make him think. Well it worked because many years after, the film stuck in my mind and different parts of it were recurent memries. After watching it again lately I had the urge to write down, or type down if you prefer, some thoughts about it.

Something new, no something different!
At the first viewing of À bout de souffle I must admit that I didn't knew very much who was Humphrey Bogart, Jean-Paul Belmondo or even Jean-Luc Godard himself. I am currently reading Antoine De Baecque's biography on Godard, that I deeply recommend by the way. The more I know about Godard the more I understand and appreciate his films.

The story of À bout de souffle is simple and very Hollywood film noir oriented: a young man Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo) steals a car and on the run on a provincial route to Paris he kills a policeman. He goes to Paris and tries to get paid for some earlier car thief and most importantly he wants to find Patricia (Jean Seberg) an American girl he "likes". Michel plays a tough guy "à la Humphrey Bogart" and even his twitch is inspired by Bogart's character in The Big Sleep; Bogart constantly rubs his ear.

From the first scene and even the first words pronounced in À bout de souffle we actually know that Poiccard is doomed: Je suis con! Ah ce que je suis con! "I'm dumb! Ah! I'm so dumb!". Just before he steals a car. Then he goes on the run and kills a cop. In these first scenes all the genius and creativity of Godard is demonstrated: the jump-cut and the narrative. The editing of the scene on the road is done with such slight angles between the takes that the viewer is destabilized. It's unnatural and if you asked a technician of the time he would say the scene just can't work. Well, it works very well! Without mentionning it or giving any indications on it the scenes are cut like a comic book. They seem to be shot in continuity but the eye knows that it is not the case. Same thing happens when Michel shots the policeman we see the gun for a second, we hear the gunshot and after we see the policeman falling near a tree. But we don't actually see Michel shooting the gun and the bullet entering the body. Why? Well Godard took for granted that any spectactor has seen this scene a thousand times shot the same classic way. Well, at first it may seem that Godard didn't knew how to shot a like that but it's the complet opposite he exactly knew how anyone would have shot that scene so he does something completly different.

If Antoine Doinel was François Truffaut, is Michel Poiccard Jean-Luc Godard?
There have been three biographies written on Jean-Luc Godard, a man that always tried to be mysterious and provocate with his films and declarations. I don't think that at nearly 80 years old he will ever write an autobiography, because there are so much in his films about himself that it is our job to take all the elements and put them together to try to understand the man, his oeuvre, and life itself.

Michel Poiccard represents the teenage years of JLG, like his character he used to steal, lie and sleep with many girls. Godard was in his teenage years a soft delinquent from a wealthy family on his mother side; the Monods. Like Poiccard, he tried to be against the current by stealing in order to get a little for each day. The long scene in Patricia's apartment represents the juvenile preoccupations; getting up at 12PM, sleeping and fooling around without any real ambition in life. Like Quentin Tarantino does in his films, Jean-Luc Godard gives lines to his characters that explains his preoccupations and his ideas. The interview scene when Patricia asks: "Quelle est votre ambition dans la vie?" for the second time and the writer answers: "Être immortel et ensuite mourrir" we can interpret thoses lines as the lines of Godard himself: with this film I want to become immortal. In the way of being recognized forever in the memory of humanity instead of never die.

Deep Impact or Jean-Luc Godard is Cinema
As of today, 50 years after its release, À bout de souffle is recognized by initiates as a masterpiece. To others, its the symbol of the French New Wave, and for some it's just another boring french film.

It's appreciation is not the most important, it's its impact on filmmaking and its reflexion of Cinema itself. In À bout de souffle when can find many references from the many filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard admired, the three scenes where conversations are muted by noises, just like Alfred Hitchcock's films. The use of handheld cameras. The exteriors filmed on the Champs Élysés and the streets of Paris instead of the studios. The many improvised scenes like Roberto Rossellini's Neorealist films and we can go on for another 1000 words on the references. In France the impact was huge and after this approach or this way of filming inspired the generation of the second golden Age of Hollywood Cinema the 1970's: Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Terrence Malick, etc.

À bout de souffle carried every ingredient that Godard praised in 1950's Hollywood Cinema and reinterpreted its recipe to serve it back. Sometimes an external point of view gives you the push you needed to push yourself to a level you wouldn't expect yourself to able to attain.

If you don't like Godard, you don't like Cinema! to cite someone I don't remember whom but I think it was so right.

This is an uncommon lenght for a review here but I think great films inspire dense reviews. À bout de souffle is a passionate film from a passionate filmmaker.