MyBelmondo cure this week concludes with ‘A bout de souffle‘, Godard‘s 1960 film, a film I love so much that I unhesitatingly gave it a very rare 10/10 on IMDB. Why do I really like this movie? In my opinion, it is the essence of everything that brought the New French Wave good in the history of the film. The joy of exploring and discovering new ways of cinematic expression. The skill of doing it in a way that serves the audience and doesn’t seem dry and theoretical, although director Godard and screenwriter Truffaut were both experts of film culture. The vibration of a love story as Truffaut knew how to write so well, supported by a perfect selection of the actors who combine youth and talent. Reverence for American cinema and assimilation of what the directors of the ‘wave’ loved in it. Fantastic soundtrack (original music by Martial Solal, but also free jazz and Mozart). A generational film (Chabrol as a co-writer and ‘advisor’, Melville in a delicious supporting role). Paris. Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg.
The film begins as a light-hearted story with a petty gangster fascinated by the heroes of American movies, a guy who avoids complications by taking life as a joke, but whose life is complicated first by a murder, and then by a love story with an American student and journalist. Much of the film consists of dialogues between the two – in bed, in stolen cars, or on the streets of Paris. It’s a love story that we know from the beginning that it can’t end well, that oscillates between teenage games and absurd-existentialist dialogues. Love, as in many of the screenplays written by Truffaut (who also benefited from Chabrol‘s help here), is not an alternative to the violent world around and no salvation opportunity for the characters, on the contrary, it is rather a dangerous game that can prove fatal.
Belmondo creates here his first big role, a first appearance for a type of character that will accompany his career for a long time and not only his. Jean Seberg creates one of those roles of the-American-girl-in-Paris, a role loaded with a dose of fascination and mystery. The film is full of anthological scenes, quotes and bows to the filmmakers who preceded the directors, innovations and firsts in artistic expression. Some of them may not be so obvious today because in the more than 60 years since the film was made, they have entered the repertoire of cinema of all genres and styles. But what is striking today is the naturalness with which the elements of style are incorporated into the narrative and build a bridge between heroes and spectators. I can’t help but reflect on the fact that Godard himself, after some formidable films at the beginning of his career, including this one, continued on the path of experimentation both when needed and when it wasn’t needed. When experiences respond to a creative need, when they are designed to communicate and create emotions in souls and interest in the minds of viewers, the results are excellent. Experiences for the sake of experience, however, can give results contrary to expectations, can be annoying and boring, and viewers vote with their feet. Any wave, including La Nouvelle Vague, had its peak or peaks after which leveling is inevitable. ‘A bout de souffle‘ was the peak of that wave.