The indefatigable and unpredictable Richard Linklater pays heartfelt homage to the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 debut, Breathless (À Bout de Souffle), one of the most influential films of all time, and a defining example of what became known as The New Wave (Nouvelle Vague). A shoe-string production, based on an outline by Francois Truffaut, who had made a splash the previous year with his own debut, The 400 Blows, Breathless starred the American Jean Seberg and the then-unknown boxer, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and was shot in DIY-fashion on the streets of Paris. The film follows the young JLG as he battles financiers, convention, and improvisational chaos to realise his vision; Linklater captures the frenetic energy, and guerrilla-style techniques of the era, using a vintage aesthetic to evoke a movement that changed cinema forever.

There will be Open Captioned screenings at 13.00 on Friday 30th, and 18.10 on Thursday, February 5th.

See also Breathless, screening as part of our Truth, 24 Times per Second: The Films of Jean-Luc Godard

Notes by David O’Mahony