Film

Breathless

Name: Breathless
Genre: Drama, Crime, Romance
Released: 1960
Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger, Henri-Jacques Huet, Roger Hanin

Other titles called Breathless: the 1983 film.

Godard's 1960 debut turns a pulpy little crime story into a jolt of pure cinematic freedom: jump cuts, handheld camera, a hero who talks straight to the lens and worships Bogart from a movie poster. It's restless, funny, cool and cruel all at once - less about plot than about the thrill of watching the rules of filmmaking break in real time.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you fall for films where the editing itself has attitude, with jump cuts, restless Paris streets and a charming, aimless hero who would rather talk than plan.

Skip it if you need a clear plot to carry you, since this one drifts on mood and attitude, and its cool can slide into posing rather than purpose.

What it asks of you: A brisk ninety minutes, with abrupt cuts, sudden stops and characters who act first and explain never; it rewards close watching over easy following.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Bonnie and Clyde1967

America's answer to Godard's cool killers-in-love: same restless charisma and tragic momentum, but with gunfire, open highways and a media-age self-awareness of its own.

But The violence is more graphic and mythologising than Godard's detached cool, leaning into spectacle rather than irony.

Badlands1973

Malick's debut turns young lovers on a killing spree into something dreamy and elegiac, echoing Poiccard's drifting nihilism but slowed to a hush.

But Its poetic voiceover and languid pacing are almost the opposite of Breathless's jittery, caffeinated energy.

Jules and Jim1962

Truffaut's New Wave companion piece follows a love triangle with the same freewheeling, in-the-moment filmmaking that made Breathless feel so alive and unrehearsed.

But It's gentler and more melancholic overall, without the crime-thriller pulse driving Godard's film.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Breathless

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Gun Crazy1950

Godard adored this pulpy programmer and borrowed its plot bones and reckless lovers-on-the-run engine almost directly for Breathless's story.

A decade before Godard, this cheap American B-movie about a couple who fall for each other and for guns invented the doomed-crime-spree romance with raw, unpolished ferocity.

But The moralising 1950s crime-doesn't-pay ending and stiff dialogue date it in ways Breathless never feels dated.

The 400 Blows1959

One of the films that helped launch the New Wave alongside Breathless, following a wayward Parisian kid with the same handheld, unglamorous intimacy.

But It's a coming-of-age story rather than a crime picture, so the stakes are quieter and the tone more tender.

Le Samouraï1967

Melville distills the cool-criminal mystique into something more controlled and stylish - trench coat instead of trilby, silence instead of Michel's constant chatter.

But It trades Godard's chaotic jump cuts for a slow, minimalist precision that some viewers find cold.

Pierrot le Fou1965

Godard and Belmondo reunite for a wilder, more anarchic lovers-on-the-run story, splashed with garish colour and even stranger digressions.

But It's more fragmented and self-indulgent, testing patience even for people who loved Breathless.

Drive2011

A neon-lit modern descendant - a near-silent driver falls for a woman he can't have, wrapped in the same outlaw-romantic cool as Poiccard.

But It swaps New Wave spontaneity for meticulous, synth-scored style, a very different rhythm from Godard's rough edges.

True Romance1993

Tarantino's script turns the doomed-couple-on-the-run formula into pulpy, blood-soaked Americana, unashamedly besotted with movies the way Michel is.

But It's louder, gorier and far less interested in ambiguity than Godard's detached, jittery cool.

Contempt1963

Godard again, this time turning his restless camera on a marriage collapsing amid movie-making itself - fascinating to see where his art went next.

But It's slower and more talky, a meditation on cinema and money rather than a chase.

Branded to Kill1967

Suzuki worked in the same rule-breaking spirit as Godard, using disjointed editing and genre logic to make the criminal antihero's cool something to question rather than simply admire.

A gonzo Japanese yakuza film that takes the New Wave's jump cuts and anti-narrative swagger into pulpy gangster territory - stranger, funnier, more violent, still gorgeous.

But The plot is deliberately incoherent and surreal in ways that can feel like style without a destination.

Bottle Rocket1996

Both films are about men who learned how to be criminals from cinema itself - Poiccard imitates Bogart, Anthony imitates crime movies - one plays it as tragedy, the other as gentle farce.

Wes Anderson's shaggy comedy about a hapless would-be criminal performing "outlaw" straight out of the movies gives you Michel's self-mythologising without the body count.

But It's a deadpan comedy with modest stakes, missing the existential dread and doomed romance that make Breathless linger.