A BOUT DE SOUFFLE- AN IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS

If you thought A bout de souffle is remembered for its uniquestoryline or its powerful performances, then you are probably one of thosewho have heard about it but haven't yet seen the movie. This is because hadyou watched the movie, you would have never connected it with thetraditional ingredients of a great film. For one the film, which is known,as Breathless in English speaking world doesn't have a distinctivestoryline to begin with. But still it is one the best movies to come out of1950-60 decade and is remembered as a great milestone in the history andevolution of French cinema. Why, you may wonder' To answer that question,you really need to study the film from various different angles whiletaking into account its historical significance. Before we conduct an in-depth analysis of the film, let us firstunderstand that genre and movement that the movie belonged to. It is aromantic thriller that was made under the influence of Nouvelle Vaguemovement in France. Nouvelle Vague or the 'New Wave' movement in France wasprobably the most influential of similar movements in other parts of theworld and it affected every form of expression. But its impact was felt


This is exactly what makes these movies unique andoriginal even if the basic idea is vague or cliched. It is therefore important to read between the lines andseize the real intent of the movie by interpreting the dialogues inhistorical context. She turns to Michel and asks for his opinion. The heavyweights of film industry dismissed itas 'a too-ordinary attempt' by a 'kid' who had no idea what camerawork wasall about. Every film despite the director'saggressive jump cutting and his fascination with American cinema was infact original enough to be termed a personal statement by the filmmaker. New wave filmmakersmust be commended for their effort to bring a fresh perspective to simpleboy meet girl stories. Instead of capturing everysingle movement of his characters, he would jump from one scene to another,linking two seemingly unlinked sequences, thus urging the viewers to fillin the gaps with their own imagination. This originality emerged from a keen desire tobreak free of conventions in filmmaking and highlight the importance ofpersonal expression. The movie may have an ordinary Americanized storyline involving agangster, a less than perfect girlfriend and few cops, but it is pricelesswhere camerawork, direction and depiction through symbolism are concerned. In one scenefor example, Patricia quotes Wild Palms, "Between Grief and nothing I willtake grief". However that very 'kid', Jean Luc Goddard, turned into thegreatest directors of all time just because of this movie. f filmmaking where a group of highlycreative directors gave a new direction to the industry.