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30 years ago I first saw Breathless, which was then 30 years old. It’s hard to believe the same time has passed. The film has stayed with me ever since as one o

by robga 4y ago

30 years ago I first saw Breathless, which was then 30 years old. It’s hard to believe the same time has passed. The film has stayed with me ever since as one of my favourite movies. It had such verve, style, self confidence, and a sense that it already knew it would be revolutionary. Even if Godard had stopped making movies after his first, he’d still be a legend.

bambax 4y ago
I really like Breathless, Le Mépris, and Pierrot Le Fou, this last one less often mentioned, yet super interesting. But I don't get the trashing of the cinema that existed before Godard, as this article, following so many others, seems to want to do. Contemporary superhero franchises are trash, certainly (at least to my eyes). But what's wrong with Casablanca (1942) or Double Indemnity (1944) for example? Why couldn't we have both?
- atoav 4y ago
  In hindsight this is always easy to say. But film was (and still is) a money-intensive art. And like usual in the arts the people with the vision are not the people the money. When Godard started out there was not a lot of money and infrastructure for the type of films people like him wanted to make. Yet someone like him had to witness that what was in bis eyes utter trash had became budgets he could only dream of. On top of that his film making was certainly interwoven with the upcoming 68 counter culture and has to be seen as the effort of an generation to break with the existing tradition. Typically what film makers like him tried to reach was not that all films should be like his, but that there is the chance for something else to exist than cheap, dumb entertainment and that film makers can also try to make actual art with their works without always having to do a target market analysis.
- bazoom42 4y ago
  You can have both. The nouvelle vague and new hollywood creators loved the hollywood classics, film noir, westerns etc. They just wanted to create something new. And the next “new wave” will probably be spearheaded by creators who love superheroes but want to create something new.
laserlight 4y ago
Not to contradict your experience, but to state an opposite view, Breathless is one of the worst movies I saw.

by robga 4y ago

bambax 4y ago

I really like Breathless, Le Mépris, and Pierrot Le Fou, this last one less often mentioned, yet super interesting. But I don't get the trashing of the cinema that existed before Godard, as this article, following so many others, seems to want to do. Contemporary superhero franchises are trash, certainly (at least to my eyes). But what's wrong with Casablanca (1942) or Double Indemnity (1944) for example? Why couldn't we have both?

atoav 4y ago
In hindsight this is always easy to say. But film was (and still is) a money-intensive art. And like usual in the arts the people with the vision are not the people the money. When Godard started out there was not a lot of money and infrastructure for the type of films people like him wanted to make. Yet someone like him had to witness that what was in bis eyes utter trash had became budgets he could only dream of. On top of that his film making was certainly interwoven with the upcoming 68 counter culture and has to be seen as the effort of an generation to break with the existing tradition. Typically what film makers like him tried to reach was not that all films should be like his, but that there is the chance for something else to exist than cheap, dumb entertainment and that film makers can also try to make actual art with their works without always having to do a target market analysis.
bazoom42 4y ago
You can have both. The nouvelle vague and new hollywood creators loved the hollywood classics, film noir, westerns etc. They just wanted to create something new. And the next “new wave” will probably be spearheaded by creators who love superheroes but want to create something new.

laserlight 4y ago

Not to contradict your experience, but to state an opposite view, Breathless is one of the worst movies I saw.