A Bout de Souffle

A Bout De Souffle was a very interesting film. It was directed by Jean-Luc Godard in 1960, and is translated to mean Breathless or more literally “at breath’s end.” This film followed a french man named Michel’s quest to obtain money owed to him after he killed a cop. He is being followed by inspector Vital, and is also trying to take a young American girl, Patricia, with him on his getaway.

The film has a very interesting plot, and the main character is also very interesting. Michel is a thief and constantly steals things such as cars and money. He is very sly, and is a smooth talker and ladies man. The viewer identifies with Michel because he is so likeable, which makes this film even better.

Jean-Luc Godard put together this film brilliantly. His use of jump cuts were something I had never really experienced before. He did not use the traditional way of cutting scenes, but instead used the jump cuts to skip through unimportant times such as Patricia’s dinner with the American journalist. This kept the viewer interested because they did not know what to expect. In some instances, he didn’t actually cut the scene but instead just sped the scene up. It was almost as if I was watching a film set on fast forward at some points.

This film had many themes. Some of them were death, fate, speed, cinema, greed, love, and betrayal. I believe that the most dominant theme was reality. This is because Michel does not have a grip on reality. I felt as though he did not know his own identity which is shown by the fact that he is always trying to act like a tough guy to be more like Humphrey Bogart. He even constantly rubs his thumb across his lip just like Bogart. Also, Michel acts as though he can get away with anything. He steals cars and money throughout the film, and believes that Patricia will not turn him in. This proves to be false because she does in fact turn him in and gets Michel killed. This film was very interesting, and fun to watch.