Jean-Luc Godard’s extraordinary debut feature was this iconoclastic crime film, which almost singlehandedly changed the face of French cinema and went on to inspire countless New Waves around the world.
A laid-back homage to Godard's beloved Hollywood B-movies of the 1940s, this simple story of an American student's (Jean Seberg) relationship with a charismatic young hoodlum (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is steeped in naturalistic and innovative touches, from pop-culture references and Seberg's androgynous haircut to the then revolutionary adoption of jump-cut editing.
The result is a film that, despite the cliché, genuinely feels as fresh today as it did upon its radical emergence into the staid cinematic culture of 1950s France.
- There will be a Cinébabies screening (for parents/carers of babies under 12 months) of Breathless on Wed 21 Jan at 11:00.