Nihilism in film: Godard's Breathless (1960) - Film Discussion

This event is organized in relation to the recent passing away of the famed director on Sept. 13, 2022.

"Modern movies begin here, with Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" in 1960. No debut film since "Citizen Kane" in 1942 has been as influential. It is dutifully repeated that Godard's technique of "jump cuts" is the great breakthrough, but startling as they were, they were actually an afterthought, and what is most revolutionary about the movie is its headlong pacing, its cool detachment, its dismissal of authority, and the way its narcissistic young heroes are obsessed with themselves and oblivious to the larger society." (Ebert)

"There was before Breathless, and there was after Breathless. Jean-Luc Godard burst onto the film scene in 1960 with this jazzy, free-form, and sexy homage to the American film genres that inspired him as a writer for Cahiers du cinéma. With its lack of polish, surplus of attitude, anything-goes crime narrative, and effervescent young stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, Breathless helped launch the French New Wave and ensured that cinema would never be the same." (Criterion)

The movie is available here: https://vumoo.to/movies/breathless-1960

Please watch the movie before our discussion.

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About the movie:

Voted 11th greatest movie of all time in the 2012 Sight and Sound Poll Director's poll.

"A pop artifact and a daring work of art." (NY Times)

"Breathless rewrote the rules of cinema" (Rotten Tomatoes)

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