Thursday, July 8, 2010

Breathless... (the movie)

Breathless  -  San Francisco, CA  -  June 2009

Jean-Luc Godard's 1961 debut feature, Breathless, is among the premiere films of the French New Wave It was shot entirely with a hand-held camera and Godard had no permission to shoot on any of the film's Paris locations. The film is full of the exciting angst of the early 1960's when revolution seemed imminent and heady ramblings ruled young discourse. 

Jean-Paul (Michel Poiccard) is a Bogart-obsessed thief full of bravado. Jean (Patricia Franchini) is the American beauty he can't shake. Both harbor some deep questioning driven by innocence turning to experience. 

We caught the 50th Anniversary Restoration last night at Film Forum. The theater started in 1970 as a screening room for independent films. Now it's the only non-profit cinema in New York City. Their three screens are dedicated to American independent and foreign art films, but classics, genre works, festivals and directors’ retrospectives claim the screens from time to time.

Breathless is beautiful and perfect in every way. I want to watch it in that hole-in-the-wall theater a thousand times. 
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