Breathless

1960 ‘À bout de souffle’ Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

The film that was banned for 4 years. Why..?

A young car thief kills a policeman and tries to persuade a girl to hide in Italy with him.

Jean-Paul Belmondo Jean Seberg Daniel Boulanger Jean-Pierre Melville Henri-Jacques Huet Van Doude Claude Mansard Jean-Luc Godard Richard Balducci Roger Hanin Liliane Dreyfus Michel Fabre André S. Labarthe François Moreuil Liliane Robin José Bénazéraf Jean Domarchi Jean Douchet Gérard Brach Philippe de Broca Raymond Huntley Michel Mourlet Louiguy Guido Orlando Madame Paul Jacques Serguine Virginie Ullmann Emile Villion

Alternative Titles

穷途末路, A bout de souffle, Sin aliento, Do posljednjeg daha, El último aliento, Az-Nafas-Oftadeh, Katte ni shiyagare, Til siste åndedrag, Horas candentes, O Acossado, Do poslednjeg daha, Iki paskutinio atodusio, ¡En las últimas!, Do zadnjega diha

crime drama

90 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Stevie ★★★ 23

Me: hi
Jean-Luc Godard: Did someone say MOVIES???🤔🤔🤷‍♀️😂 I only make FILMÉS👌🤣😌😊 Oh you like Cinema?😏🙂 Well I AM CINEMA 😤🔥🎬😈My skin 💪 is celluloid 🎞 and my heart ❤️ is a BOLEX 📽 Don't talk to me 🙅unless you smoke cigs 🚬 wear fedoras 🕵️ or wanna f*ck HUMPHREY BOGART 😱😍😭👅💦 Ugh, WOMEN 💋🙄🙄 am I right lads??😒🤢😷 They only want SEX! 😖 👉👌(especially from ME 👀😜😂☺️) NO OTHER FILMMAKER 🙈🎥📸 can even COMPARE 💀💀💀 I AM THE MESSIAH OF THE SILVER SCREEN 🙌🙏😤😤😝🔥🔥
Review by Wes ★★★★★ 6

a narration by a french person in an old movie: *puts an entire pack of cigarettes in their mouth and lights them all at once* I'm Sad
me, wiping away a tear: wow...........five stars
Review by maria ★★★★ 15

jean-paul belmondo: toes are important in a girl
quentin tarantino: 👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀 good shit go౦ԁ sHit👌 thats ✔ some good👌👌shit right👌👌there👌👌👌 right✔there ✔✔if i do ƽaү so my self 💯 i say so 💯 thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mMMMMᎷМ💯 👌👌 👌НO0ОଠOOOOOОଠଠOoooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ👌 👌👌 👌 💯 👌 👀 👀 👀 👌👌Good shit
Review by brat pitt ★★★★ 2

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

i only support snitching when women do it on toxic men 👀
Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★★ 2

Tfw u love movies so much that you make a movie
Review by Leticia Fernandes ★★★★ 5

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Me, in my dior dress, after causing my annoying boyfriend's death: Oh No! Mon Dieu! This Is Une Tragédie! Je Suis So Sad!
Review by Wes ★★★★★ 6

jean seberg: new york harold tribune!!!!
me, pouring a pot of black coffee down my throat with a baguette up my ass: I LOVE MOVIES
Review by Karsten Runquist ★★★ 61

this movie (oh sorry, this FILM) gave me lung cancer

sorry i guess i need to see it again, i didn’t really give a hoot about anything happening. aesthetically it was pleasing i guess but that can only get you so far. good score.
Review by dEL ★★★★ 2

This film is called Breathless because after smoking all those cigarettes, Jean-Paul Belmondo developed emphysema.
Review by Rida ★★★ 44

Breathless is an exercise in detachment. The camera hovers above the city, but it never seems to touch it. The dialogue is simple and profound, but it’s often so completely unrelated to the paper-thin plot that it's reduced to mere mechanics. And the characters are abstracts, not human beings.
And yet, there is something beguiling about Breathless too, a sense of spontaneity, the promise of careless fun. It’s cool and offhand, and that’s the secret of charm. But if I compare it to Truffaut, the only other New Wave director whose work I've watched (and loved with all my heart), it falls short, because it lacks warmth and humanity and a sense of universality, and those are the things I’ve…
Review by iana ★★★★★

godard invented the manic pixie dream girl
Review by SilentDawn ★★★½ 3

Ok, here it is, my ramblings and impressions after my first viewing of Breathless. Yeah, yeah; I know I'm late to the party. Although, everyone has a supposed classic that they haven't seen. It turns out that mine is Breathless.
The Awesome: It changed everything. EVERYTHING. The back of the Criterion states: "There was before Breathless, and after Breathless." That couldn't be more true; the editing, the music, the camerawork was and still is revolutionary. The acting was great as well, filling archetypal roles with likability and happiness.
The Terrible: It's hard to watch Breathless without taking the historical influences into account. It was enjoyable because of the wonderful advances that were made at that time in history. Yet, underneath the style and flash, is an underwhelming story.
Overall, Breathless is a revolutionary piece of cinema that has aged decently. It's a film that I deeply admire, but I felt distant from it, never truly connecting with the characters.

Recent reviews

Review by Helmi Aziz Muhammad ★★★½

Inject cigarette ashes into my bloodstream.
Review by Dumbass_filmbro ★★★½

Something about how much of a prick Michel was through out most film had me giggling like a little kid for some reason. I don’t know why, he is just such a charming asshole I can’t help but really like his character.
Didn’t care much for the story, was kind of bland. Also the editing got really annoying after a while, but had some really good cinematography especially the scenes at night, the white blinding lights in contrast with the dark city night was beautiful.

I also found this film like really really funny? I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be a comedy, or if I’m laughing at it unintentionally. Because I was laughing a lot because it’s kind of goofy and dated, but it’s dated in a charming way.
Review by Daniela Dani ★★★★

3/52
Criterion Challenge 2021
Review by Keith Ford ★★★★

“The cops are stupid to be after me, I’m one of the few who like them.”
The world’s most relaxed fugitive and worst taxi passenger.
It is always tough to watch groundbreaking films so long after they were made, as inevitably the techniques that made them unique have been replicated in other works. Breathless is certainly one of these, though the jump cuts used throughout are still fairly unique, likely owing to the unplanned nature of their conception.
There are some truly stunning and incredible shots; the camera work is fascinating throughout, though I’m not sure the camera really needed to linger on Humphrey Bogart’s face for quite so long to get the point across.
I’m going to be thinking…
Review by otherotherbenz ★★★★½

Adored this.
I felt myself mesmerized by the dialogue of the film, which comprises most of it. The ebbs & flows of the conversations between Michel & Patricia felt so natural, like they had known each other for ages.
Was also in love with this portrayal of Paris. Everything felt so alive, the city shots were transporting, but never too overwhelming. This is a movie I will definitely rewatch plenty in the future.
Review by Michael ★★★

Michel was such a goddamn prick, ugh
Review by Nathan Rhea

Seam-less
Review by Niclas Svensson ★★★★

The Criterion Challenge 2021 #3
"J'aime beaucoup le café, le café noir et très fort, très chaud. Avec une cuillère dedans. Ah, le virage de la cuillère, le virage des poitrines. Je mets la cuillère dans la bouche." –Eddie Izzard, Dressed to Kill
Whenever I watch one of these experimental and groundbreaking french films from this era in film history, my tiny monkey brain always thinks back to that bit from Eddie Izzard's masterpiece standup Dressed to Kill. It summarizes the beauty and absurdity of this type of genre film Breathless occupies, in that it is gorgeous but also self indulgent and kind of silly; playful you could say.
In the end I think this is worth a viewing for…
Review by liamneesons ★

Terry Crews in Brooklyn 99 made me think I'd enjoy this. I didn't
Review by keegan ★★½

some amazing lines of dialogue, cool shots and a nice score, but that can only get you so far.
as this is my first Godard film i’m very disappointed
Review by Jackaman ★★★

Not something I enjoyed
Review by MahirAdib ★★★★

I would recommend 'Breathless' as an essential viewing for every film buff because of its technique and style, but if you were to ask me if I honestly Enjoy watching this movie I would have to say no, I don't.