Breathless (1959) | Jean-Luc Godard’s hip and happening New Wave trendsetter

Jean-Luc Godard’s debut film Breathless (À Bout de Souffle) was the big hit at Cannes in 1959 and a cinematic trendsetter that kicked off the French New Wave.

Slick and sexy and filmed from the hip (literally) on the streets of a picture postcard Paris, Godard (with the help of his Nouvelle Vague cohorts, Francois Truffaut, Claude Chabrol and Jean Pierre Melville) threw out the rulebook for this sly, avant garde take on American gangster films.

Jean-Paul Belmondo plays a small-time villain turned killer on the run with a fixation for Humphrey Bogart, while Jean Seberg is the chic American girlfriend he’s recklessly in love with. Despite the cops breathing down their necks, the couple live life on the edge set to a jazzy-cum-Mozart soundtrack… and their motto is ‘only live for the moment’. This one set the standard for cinematic cool.

Breathless (À Bout de Souffle, Cert 15, 115min) is available on StudioCanal’s Jean-Luc Godard The Essential Blu-ray Collection five-disc box set alongside featuring Alphaville, Le Mépris, Pierrot Le Fou, and Une Femme est Une Femme.

The special features include the following…
• Introduction by Colin McCabe (5min)
• Godard, Made in USA (51min)
• Room 12. Hotel de Suede (79min)
• Jean-Luc According to Luc (8min)
• Jefferson Hack interview (8min)
• Tempo: Godard episode (17min)
• Jean Seberg featurette (12min)
• Trailer (3min)
• Posters