Left Breathless – A reflection on a Narrative in Conflict

Film Still from Jean-Luc Godard’s film “Breathless”

This past week has led to me reflecting on many of the films I have watched in the past and exactly how they were edited. Upon looking through my old hard-drive of downloaded films my eyes were caught by Breathless, Jean Luc-Godard’s 1960’s classic.

I had first encountered this film in a philosophy class back in high school when it was used to comment on the concept of morality. Michel (seen above) is an amateur thief who, in the very beginning of the movie, steals a car on his way to visit his American girlfriend Patricia. He is followed by a policeman, who he shoots, and for most of the movie this action goes without consequence. The film was a brilliant pick on my teachers behalf as, even now, just looking at the title reminded me of the bizarre hollowness of the film and its characters.

The main character, Michel, idealizes Humphrey Bogart and his narrative seems to attempt to mimic Bogarts filmic repertoire, except that something is off. His acts of brazen criminality have no grandeur and his demise at the end of the film is drawn out in a comically long 36 second shot. On reflection it is by no fault of the narrative that his lawless story is lackluster… It is the construction of this narrative that deprives Michel of his story’s crime/action/thriller genre.

I realise now that what is possibly the strangest thing about this film, and why it still inspires strong memories of my first viewing of it, is the fact that Michel seems to be in  conflict with the editors of his story. His actions express a deep internal need for glory and personal triumph, yet the postproduction seek to strip him of that.

The scene that is most memorable to me was the scene in which he shot the police officer that was in pursuit of him. Not only was Michel’s reaction way out of proportion to the situation, but the scene itself plays out as if nothing much of interest had happened at all. We never get a shot of the police officers face, instead, we get a close up of Michel pulling the trigger and the officer falling back into the shrubbery. The film then cuts to Michel, running through a field away from the scene of the crime and everything returns to normal. The pacing of the film after that point is languid an the characters meander in and out of the scenes. The pace of the film seems to mock Michel’s actions and spite his wish to live up to his hero, Bogart.

This conflict between character and creator gives the film a deep sense of unfulfillment as we are never truely invested in the characters that we are posed see as obscure. We can neither connect with nor fully comprehend their actions as we see their narrative through the eyes of an editor that has sought to strip them of the self-image they wished to display.

This editing technique is solitary within my film repertoire and has had a distinct and tenacious effect on me. Understanding only now why the film made me feel the way I did has made me curious as to what other films have actively acted against the will of their main characters. What effect did it have? What was the critical reception?

I never conceived that elements of a film could work in opposition in this way and it has inspired me not only to explore more of Godard’s work, but also to explore french New Wave cinema (the movement Godard is known to have pioneered) as a whole. It is work like this that reminds me of the true power of film and television media and inspires me to look beyond my perceived boundaries of presenting narrative.