Breathless - Criterion Collection

BREATHLESS starts fast out of the gates. And it's a race to the end. To death. Alot of talk about death; existential themes of questioning life, men vs. women, chaotic lifestyle that in the end the protagonist (anti-hero, that I'm sure could be a hero to many) gives up. He's tired. Tired of living and struggling and would rather face prison (murdered a cop) and look at walls and not have anyone talk to him than continue on. Part of the perspective of this film is showing an immature young man grappling with a life that is corrupt and flawed and his only concern is sex and being with the young american fledgeling writer. She (the american writer) mentions William Faulkner as an influence. BREATHLESS also seems to be satire on pop-culture, with many other references to popular people (americans) and culture at that time (late fifties). I enjoyed the raw style and feeling the "French New Wave" creates. I'm excited to watch more from Jean-Luc Godard, among others.

Every director has their beginning but for Jean-Luc Godard, his 1960 film "À bout de souffle" a.k.a. "Breathless" was the beginning of a cinema revolution and bringing the world closer to nouvelle vague, the French New Wave.

Godard is a unique director who attracted attention for his innovative editing and his use of jump cuts, his style of not giving his talent a script until the morning of and using improvisation and utilizing film techniques that most directors would never do. In fact, his filmmaking even infuriated his producer because instead of using a full day to shoot a film, sometime he was in the mood to do only 12 minutes. But then again, Jean-Luc Godard is not your typical director and in 1960, no one knew what to expect from him.

Many looked at him as a rebel as he wanted to challenge the conventions of traditional Hollywood cinema and for those who watched his films evolve year after year, the more we get to see Godard in his characters but also his political ideologies as well.

But "Breathless" was a film that helped change cinema. For decades, many followed the Hollywood tradition and sure, Jean Renoir did something unique and special decades earlier with "The Rules of the Game" (unfortunately, no one at the time was ready for the film until three decades later and people acknowledge that his film was ahead of its time) but it was "Breathless" that inspired young directors and showed them that directors, auteurs can do something different.

From the use of jump cuts to capturing Paris with a hidden camera, the film and its director was hailed for its innovation and it was the beginning of the French New Wave. Interesting enough, although the film made Jean-Luc Godard a popular name, the director himself was not as thrilled by all the attention and popularity of "Breathless" that led him to create "Le Petit Soldat" (The Little Soldier) which was highly political and banned in France for three years. Regardless of whether or not Godard enjoyed the success of the film, the film was unique and an inspiration to many filmmakers.

For over 40 decades, "Breathless" has been regarded as a film that cinema fans must watch and eventually own and in 2007, The Criterion Collection released "Breathless" in a 2-disc DVD set (with a slipcase cover) and booklet.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

"Breathless" is presented in black and white in its original aspect ratio of 1:33:1. The film looks absolutely great and the Criterion Collection once again does a wonderful job with the transfer. According to Criterion, the transfer is approved by director of photography Raoul Coutard. The new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35mm fine-grain master positive. Thousand of instances of dirt, debris and scratches were removed using the MTI Digital Restoration System.

As for audio, the audio is in French Monaural and was mastered at 24-bit from a 35 mm optical track print, and audio restoration tools were used to reduce clicks, pops, hiss and crackle. The Dolby Digital 1.0 is clear and understandable but for a more immersive soundtrack, I chose to have my home theater receiver set with audio on all channels.

Subtitles are in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"Breathless" comes with a good number of special features plus an 82-page book featuring writings from Godard, film historian Dudley Andrew, Francois Truffaut's original film treatment, and Godard's scenario.

DISC 1:

* INTERVIEWS - (27:00) Featuring interviews with director Jean-Luc Godard, actors Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg and filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville, recorded for French television between 1960 and 1964.
* Theatrical Trailer - (2:02) The original theatrical trailer.

DISC 2:

* Coutard and Rissient - (22:28) Cinematographer Raoul Coutard (who worked with Godard for 14 films) and cinephile Pierre Rissient, assistant director on "Breathless" recall working with Godard and working on his first film.
* Pennebaker on Breathless - (10:32) Documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker talks about working with Jean-Luc Godard and his film "Breathless".
* Jean Seberg - (18:54) A video essay written by Mark Rappaport (From the Journals of Jean Seberg) reveals the beginning of Jean Seberg and her life ending in tragedy.
* Breathless as Criticism - (11:09) A video essay written by film historian and author Jonathan Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum explores the cinematic and literary references in "Breathless".
* Chamber 12, Hotel De Suede - (1:18:26) A 1993 documentary by director and popular French TV host Claude Ventura who tracks down, over nine days, the locations and the people who were involved in the making of "Breathless". Interviews include actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, filmmaker Claude Chabrol, cinematographer Raoul Coutard, assistant director Pierre Rissient, editor Cecile Decugis and more.
* Charlotte et Son Jules - (12:42) One of the short films from 1959 starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anne Collette. The short film is about a boyfriend who continually admonishes his girlfriend.

JUDGMENT CALL:

For anyone interested in French New Wave films, "Breathless" is a film that is recommended watching. It's a film that changed cinema and launched the career of director Jean-Luc Godard.

What I loved about the film is the acting. The whole 25-minute improvisation scene in the bedroom is incredible. I've learned through the special features that the scene involved Godard yelling and instructing the Belmondo and Seberg on what to do and also learned that the jump cut scenes were accidental but yet made the film quite creative, unique and artistic.

But is it one of the best Godard films? This is difficult to answer because personally, there are so many Godard films that I do enjoy but yet this is his first and is an important film in his career. But the problem is, to enjoy Godard films is to know Godard films. You appreciate his films, the more you watch several of them and learn his unique style of filmmaking.

Also, the film has been given so much credit for its innovation that so many people come to the film expecting something like Orson Welles "Citizen Kane" or a film that with this groundbreaking story and people who experience this Godard film are perplexed and don't understand what the big deal is. And I think that is what has perplexed Godard after the success of the film. Godard was very critical of the film to the point that he distanced himself from it and thus created the film "Le Petit Soldat".

But as mentioned, to enjoy Godard is to know Godard and that is watching his films and learning about them. Fortunately, The Criterion Collection does a fantastic job with this release of "Breathless" in presentation and also its content. Not only do you get the film but you get to see the various interviews with the talent, interviews with those who worked with him and easily enough, different interpretations of what people got from the film. The 1993 documentary "Chamber 12, Hotel de Suede" is a magnificent addition to the film as we get to see and hear from those who are involved with "Breathless", giving us some insight to Godard and his unique filmmaking style.

As far as my enjoyment of the film, I absolutely enjoyed it! Godard and Belmondo had a magical partnership during their short time together and as for Jean Seberg, this is an actress that had a bad experience in her earlier years as an actress, given a chance in "Breathless" (and worked once more with Godard) and had a rollercoaster of a career that ended in tragedy. If there was one positive, she is immortalized through her role as Patricia in this film.

"Breathless" is a film about two different people, their words and what they mean are different, they talk about themselves but yet never really talk to each other. Are they even listening to each other? Do they even care for each other?

There's no doubt that one can rewatch "Breathless" and see something different each time. May it be the two talking about paintings, the two talking about Faulkner, this dialogue between the two is something that I found so enjoyable (as I have with Eric Rohmer's moral tale "My Night at Maud's" with also a magnificent, smart and enjoyable long bedroom dialogue scene). There is something about the tone about the film that is just so enchanting.

Despite Michel being the uncaring young bad guy, somehow you can't help but be intrigued by his character. He's a dangerous man but yet Patricia is even more dangerous in some ways. Compared to other films showing around the world during its time, "Breathless" was fresh, unique and different from what was seen in traditional cinema.

Cinematography for "Breathless" is absolutely beautiful. Because timing and space was a concern, Godard elected to use a wheelchair to film. Not wanting to use expensive lighting, Godard wanted to capture a realistic feel of these two characters by using natural light. So, many different techniques employed in this film.

In fact, when they were seen in public, cinematographer Coutard was hidden in a cart as the two are seen walking down the street. No one around the two actors are aware that the scene was being filmed. And of course, I go back to the jump scenes and the editing but accidental as it may be, it was definitely a major part in introducing the world to nouvelle vague and changing the scope of cinema.

If you are a Godard fan or a cinemaphile, "Breathless" is an important film worth owning in your film collection. Is it Godard's best film? For me, I enjoy "Band of Outsiders", "Pierrot le fou" and "Mascullin Feminin" even more. But in the context of importance, "Breathless" is the feature film that launched Godard's career and for that, I'm so grateful that The Criterion Collection gave fans a magnificent release for this film.

Highly recommended!

Choosing between this 1960 origional or the 1980s Richard Gere version of Breatless, it is this, no contest.

This is arguabley the first French New Wave film, and contains the ingrediants. Lots of jump cuts, ten minute shots, uniuqe camara angles.
Watch the scene where Belmondo steals the car, or where he is in the room with Jean Seaberg, where the same shot is held for the whole dialouge, panning camara.

Breathless is a pretty simple crime film: steel car, accidental murder, elude police, romantic interest. But it is the way that Godard uses film technique to tell the story that makes it work. You see a old stroy told in a fresh way.

These shooting and editing techniques are now used constantly on TV to make the medium look hip, but in 1960, these were truely experimental and enhanced the STORY. Godard remebered here, story came first.

Jean-Luc Godard has been credited with revitalizing cinema in the early 60's with his interesting and unique style of filmmaking, a style that has bleed over into even modern cinema and continues to influence and inspire. To say that Jean-Luc Godard is one of the greatest directors of all time (in company with Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Ingmar Bergman) is perhaps too simple. The fact remains that Godard isn't simply one of the best, he's one of the most important. `A Bout de Souffle' (better known as `Breathless') is a sublime example of why he is so important. With his debut feature film he stunned audiences and critics alike by breathing a breath of fresh air into cinema and creating something new and intriguing and completely entertaining.

`A Bout de Souffle' is one of those films you have to be wary about `over-praising' because once you `get' it you totally fall head over heals for it, but until you `get' it you may find yourself baffled at all the praise. That was me upon my initial viewing. I was about halfway into the film and I was stumped as to why this movie was so well loved. Sure, it was stylistically exuberating and blatantly original in construction, but as far as being a great `movie', well, I just wasn't `feeling' it in that way. The third act though is a huge wallop to the viewer and completely changed my thinking on the entire film. In fact, upon my second viewing I was able to spot things throughout the films progression that only added to my admiration for it, and now I am completely and utterly in love with the film; so much so that I consider it one of the best ever made.

So, I don't want to raise your expectations so much that you become dumbfounded in the films first and second act. Please, realize that my praise belongs to the film in its entirety, and entirety that cannot be fully appreciated until the third act is through. You really need to judge the film on your second viewing, for it is only after you have put all the pieces together that you can really enjoy the film from start to finish.

The film is part crime noir, part romantic thriller. It centers around a thug named Michel who is on the run after killing a police officer. He hides out in his American girlfriend's apartment. The film sports a neurotic narrative that keeps the audience glued as Michel and Patricia (the girlfriend) go through their day as normal people in abnormal circumstances. The performances are fresh and believable, and the dialog (a lot of which was adlibbed) feels perfect for the situation. Godard brings a lot of his love for film into his construction of `A Bout de Souffle', a film that can be seen as an ode to the great film noirs that came before it. What is remarkable is that, but making this film completely his own, Godard created an ode that is superior to the films he was praising.

During a press conference with an author, Jean Seberg's character Patricia asks the author "what is your greatest ambition in life" to which he responds, after much thought, "to become immortal and then to die". The significance of this statement is seen, not only in this film, but in the idea that art makes the artist immortal. Godard has become immortal. In the context of the film though, the immortality comes from love. When one has become truly loved then they are in essence `immortal'.

The question raised at the end of this film is, `was Michel immortal?'

Through Godard's impressive way of telling a story within a story one really has to watch this film a few times to answer that question. The outcome with each viewing may be different than the last, and the fact that Godard keeps the answer an ambiguity is to the films advantage. Did Patricia really love Michel? Was her emotional reaction to the films conclusion all just an act? Piecing together Godard's point of view may reveal an answer you least expect, which makes this film all the more captivating. The films production notes mention that Patricia commits the ultimate act of betrayal; but exactly what that act is, is up to the audience to decide.

The Bottom Line:

Breathless reminds me of the Blair Witch Project (bet I'm the first person to ever say that) in that looking back it's hard to see what all the fuss was about--Breathless was extraordinarily novel for its time but now it's a far less compelling motion picture, so if you sit down to watch it you might find a find far less masterful than you were lead to believe.

3/4

Get two actors comfortable and have them play out a relationship scene while laying in a bed, bam, instant arthouse classic! This movie seems to be sort of a spoof on regular French crime flicks of the time, Bob Le Flambeur is referenced in the beginning. The movie was more than likely made up as it went along, it honestly reminds me of movies me and friends would make on the weekends some years back just making crap up as we went along. Only this is a hell of a lot better, but seriously, not much. I can't even go into its impact or any of that in fact I'll enrage you by saying I don't care, someone would have made a movie like this at some point. The other reviews are where the genius dissections by REAL film fans can be found I'm just throwing in my two cents, I'd rather watch Phantasm II again but its not on DVD.

Viewing this is surprisingly fresh: all of the protagonists are evident mediocrities and even rather silly. While they use fashionable vocabulary and "all the right moves", they are basically stupid and headed nowhere.

So you get a petty thief, forced to act at extremes and hidden in Paris to get money owed to him, so that he can escape to Italy. He has a string of GFs to exploit, and seeks to find one willing to help him in Paris, after another has apparently given him up to the cops after helping him to steal a car in Marseilles (the pathetic motive of all his crimes). He finds one, a lovely American would-be journalist (Seeburg, who was to make a career in Paris, marry novelist Roman Gary and later commit suicide), whom he uses in the crudest self-serving manner. She obliges, to a point, for unbelievably laughable reasons that are surely meant as satire in her stilted dialogue.

The ending, nonetheless, is anything but expected, which in so many ways is the essence of New Wave realism. I hugely enjoed watching this unfold, even though I had seen this when I first came to Paris. I think it is a classic, though it has aged only medium well.

Recommended. Goddard is worth the effort, and the acting is good, however insipid the characters are by design. It is fun, you see Paris at the beginning of the 1960s, and the ironies - including the unbelievably stale interview by Seeburg character, with a writer at the airport, made while she was harboring an evil fugitive - are well worth the price of admission. But far better was yet to come in subsequent films.

What to write? If you know of the director, you surely own this. If not, and you're interested in TOP FILM CLASSICS, buy it...

At the forefront of the French New Wave along with François Truffaut (The 400 Blows), Alain Resnais (Hiroshima Mon Amour), and Louis Malle (Elevator to the Gallows), Jean-Luc Godard broke all the rules in his 1960 directorial debut with a story borne out of American B-movie conventions but revitalized by his free-form narrative, hand-held camerawork (by Raoul Coutard) and jazz-infused editing style. On the surface, it seems like a standard young couple-on-the-run adventure, but Godard upends the predictability of the situation with a fresh, documentary-style perspective that emphasizes youthful impulses over morality lessons. Some of its fresh, brazen novelty has worn off over the years, but there is no denying its propulsive energy.

The plot is deceptively simple. Michel Poiccard is a young, small-time criminal with a Bogart fixation, living for the moment and taking what he needs with no consideration for the possible consequences. His one obsession is Patricia Franchini, a pixyish New Yorker who lives in Paris and works part-time for the New York Herald Tribune. Michel steals a car in Marseilles and drives to Paris to see her again. On the way, however, he shoots a motorcycle cop with a gun found in the glove compartment of the stolen car. As the police close in on Michel, he holes up in Patricia's apartment and tries to convince her to run away with him to Rome. Godard wrote the script based on a story by Truffaut, and the plot emphasis is placed squarely on the dynamic between Michel and Patricia, especially in a lengthy dialogue scene in her apartment. The thriller aspects seem secondary until the last half-hour and the memorably bitter ending.

In his breakthrough role, Jean-Paul Belmondo captures Michel's surly, amoral nature with a certain magnetic quality that announces his arrival. As the fashionably enigmatic Patricia, Jean Seberg was just 21 but had already been burned by Hollywood thanks to her mechanical performances in two Otto Preminger films, Saint Joan and Bonjour Tristesse. She still strikes me a blank slate here, but it seems to work for the story because the viewer is left wondering what motivates her devotion to him and her final act of absolution. The two-disc 2007 Criterion Collection DVD set is as impressive as expected for the film's aficionados. Beyond a fairly pristine print of the movie, Disc One includes the original French trailer and 27-minutes worth of vintage interviews with Godard, Belmondo, Seberg, and director Jean-Pierre Melville (who has a memorable cameo as a pretentious author. Surprisingly, there is no commentary track from a film scholar, the usual supplement for special Criterion releases.

Disc Two has the lion's share of the extras. There are recent interviews with Coutard and assistant director Pierre Rissient, as well as a ten-minute interview with documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker and his brief experience working with Godard. Seberg gets special attention in an eighteen-minute film essay that covers her tragic life and career, and another essay, "Breathless as Criticism" has Chicago Reader film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum explaining the significance of the film for a new generation. There is a 78-minute documentary from 1993, "Chambre 12, Hotel de Suede" that traces the original film locales. Interviews with Belmondo, Coutard, and technical adviser Claude Chabrol are also included. Finally, there is a twelve-minute comedy short from 1959, "Charlotte et son Jules" co-starring Godard and Belmondo. A comprehensive eighty-page booklet accompanies the set.

This is one of the best (and first) movies made by Godard. It is historic in it's introduction of jump cuts and as an important contribution to the french New Wave, and so on. And it's very fun to watch. This Criterion edition contains a good transfer of the film plus tons of extras. Well worth buying.

Breathless is a great example of French New Wave, a film with innovative camerawork and editing. It does not resemble the majority of films made previous to it which is why it is interesting. Jean Luc Godard was one of several filmmakers who felt that movies were getting stale, so he attempted to rejuvinate the medium.

Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo) kills a cop after stealing a car. He overreacted but now needs to play it cool to avoid detection. He is a wanted man, but he steals cars left and right and persues a beautiful American girl (Jean Seberg) instead of fleeing the country. She is ambivalent about him, but the two spend a lot of time together. Their conversations are the most enjoyable parts of the movie, especially the one in her apartment.

A simple movie that sometimes feels like sneaking into a stranger's conversation, Breathless is highly enjoyable. It was made on a modest budget, but it comes off as being slick and interesting.

This DVD edition has an extra disk just brimming over with special features. For die hard fans, this is essential.

I was actually looking forward to watching "Breathless" but it was certainly a disappointment for me. This is the story of a man who is going nowhere and who doesn't seem to care too much about what happens along the way. Yes, he had momentary interests and vague notions of where he would like to be tommorrow and maybe as far into the future as next week. However, we are given 90 minutes to marvel at his chain-smoking, car-stealing, pick-pocketing self absorbed life. He has friends in the underworld who show up on occassion and he has a string of girl friends for whom he shows up on occassion. No one is immune to his manipulation; not even the poor cab driver who got stiffed for the fare. I got tired of his pointless, hedonistic thievery (not to mention murder).

This movie is highly rated so the problem may well be me. Maybe it's meant to portray a new Lost Generation in Europe but all the more reason to pity the once great continent. It may be a brilliant look at a lone wolf's inability to exist in modern society but why empathize with a person who goes to excessive means to avoid assimulating? This is one of those movies where the dialogue doesn't fit the action. Murder, thievery, manipulation all takes place with a script that sounds like a college sophomore's intellectual efforts to seduce a coed. I'm not sure I'm cut out for Godard. I guess that's what I learned from "Breathless".

O parting ways, the past from the conscience
but heavy steps leave prints of sorrow
Grasp thy beauty in its fallen splendor
let not what it remind you
from hence you have attempted
A love so fragile
and swift to slip away
Deeds forever always close the distance
and actions somehow eventually get repayed
Chances abandon all foolish endeavors
yeah, I don't know what the f#!@ I'm saying ;-D


Okay sorry, I'm not sure how to really describe this classic, other than it is brilliant. It's also more accesible than the last Goddard movie I watched, Pierre le Fou. Basically it's about an bad man in love with a good girl. Very well shot and influential piece of filmmaking, a masterpiece of the French New Wave.

This is one of the greatest movies of all-time, and certainly one of the most influential. This Criterion Collection release is a must-own. Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo give two of the most memorable performances in the history of cinema. This film's influence continues to be felt in everything from Pulp Fiction (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) to In the Mood for Love - Criterion Collection to Time and Tide.

a Good remix of an old chestnut. I wish though the sound had been updated.

This is the type of movie that you'll want to watch again and again. It's pristine condition in this Criterion collection and lots of great special features. The photography is impeccable, the music is cool, the performances are engaging - this is a great movie in every aspect, pretty much flawless.

Breathless (1959) Crierion Release: October 2007
The most influential "art" movie ever made. Influenceed by everything that came before it. Influenced everything that has come after it. I keep watching it over and over. The best Criterion release I own.

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

Breathless, released in France as "À bout de souffle" is the premiere feature film of Jean-Luc Goddard.

It is the story of an American jornalist in France who befriends a cop-killer. Initally unaware of his crime, she is unsure as to whether to turn him in when she is informed of it.

This film stars Jean Seberg who was very famous in her day and later had troubles that lead to her death.

The two disc set has many special features including a large booklet. The other special features are as follows.

Disc one has the film, the French theatrical trailer, and interviews with director Jean-Luc Godard, and actors Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, and director Jean-Pierre Melville who makes a cameo appearance in the film.

Disc two has video interviews with Coutard, Pierre Rissient,filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, two video essays, Mark Rappaport's "Jean Seberg", a documentary on the life and death of Seberg and Jonathan Rosenbaum's "Breathless as Film Criticism", "Chambre 12, Hotel de suede", a French documentary on the film's production, and a 1959 short film by Godard, "Charlotte et son Jules".

This release has many good features and I especially enjoyed the Jean Seberg biography.

Earlier commentators have quite rightly praised the excellence of the technical quality in this film's transfer to DVD and the general distinction as well of the included special features. Outstanding among the latter is the insightful discussion of the film not only in the usual context of its homage to Hollywood noir but of its not so readily recognized role as an art work in the lengthy tradition of "the international theme," that of the naive young American girl adrift among money-hungry Europeans, a favorite of numerous artists since Henry James' "Daisy Miller."

"Breathless," it's true, has always been rightly understood as a tribute to Monogram Pictures, B movies, and Bogie, but it is equally illuminating to see it as a satirically meaningful interaction between a psychotic, though charming, evil European and a presumably naive, though even more lethal, American girl. Henry James predicted in despair that the American girl of the future would know "little of mystery, and even less of manners." In confirmation of his prediction,, we have in this film the American girl in the person of the deadly careerist, ultimate betrayer Patricia, seller of the New York Herald Tribune, speaker of grotesquely pronounced French, herself a species of unwitting last Mohican, the reductio ad absurdam in fact of the presumably innocent American encountering the presumably wicked European. The film "Breathless, thus, is much more than a piece of meaningless "existential" viciousness celebrating the merits of film noir. It is rife with more literary and cultural resonance - to wit, the clever yet moving arrival at rock bottom of an old tradition - than is usually acknowledged.

As a French New Wave director, Jean-Luc Godard (1930) was at the head of his class. Drawing from politics, film history, French intellectualism, existential and Marxist philosophy, Godard's radical films challenged the conventions of Hollywood cinema. Breathless (1964) is among his most accessible films. With all the energy of a 1940s' American gangster B-movie, it tells the simple story of Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a young French petty street thief, who steals a car and kills a policeman, while meanwhile pursuing an American girl Patricia (Jean Seberg). Although she is wary of Michel's intentions and questions his lack of ambition, and proving that nice girls have a thing for bad boys, Patricia nevertheless spends time with him in Paris before deciding to turn him in. Throughout the film, using jarring editing techniques, handheld cameras, and a musical soundtrack that seems out of sync with the action, Godard succeeds at making his audience constantly aware that his film is a constructed reality having little to do with actual reality. Although the film's plot is thin, Breathless revolutionized French cinema. Of his films, Bande à part (also called Band of Outsiders - Criterion Collection) (1966) remains my Godard favorite and should not be missed.

The new dual-disc Criterion edition of Breathless includes a restored high-definition digital transfer (approved by director of photography Raoul Coutard), interviews with Godard, and actors Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, video essays: filmmaker and critic Mark Rappaport's "Jean Seberg" and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum's "Breathless as Film Criticism," an eighty-minute French documentary about the making of Breathless, with members of the cast and crew, the French theatrical trailer, and a booklet featuring writings from Godard, film historian Dudley Andrew, Francois Truffaut's original film treatment, and Godard's scenario.

G. Merritt

* - SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES
* - New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director of photography Raoul Coutard
* - Archival interviews with director Jean-Luc Godard, and actors Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, and Jean-Pierre Melville
* - New video interviews with Coutard, assistant director Pierre Rissient, and filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker
* - New video essays: filmmaker and critic Mark Rappaport's "Jean Seberg" and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum's "Breathless as Film Criticism"
* - Chambre 12, Hotel de suede, an eighty-minute French documentary about the making of Breathless, with members of the cast and crew
* - Charlotte et son Jules, a 1959 short film by Godard, starring Belmondo
* - French theatrical trailer
* - New and improved English subtitle translation
* - PLUS: A booklet featuring writings from Godard, film historian Dudley Andrew, Francois Truffaut's original film treatment, and Godard's scenario

1959
90 minutes
Black & White
1.33:1
Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Not Anamorphic
French