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 enlarge | Actors: Richard Balducci, Jean-paul Belmondo, Daniel Boulanger, Philippe De Broca, Van Doude
Studio: Fox Lorber
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $12.64
You Save: $7.31 (37%)
New (36) Used (15) Collectible (1) from $9.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  84 reviews
Sales Rank: 13558
Format: Black & White, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 90
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5 x 0.6
MPN: D5266D
ISBN: 0794200095
UPC: 720917526621
EAN: 9780794200091
ASIN: B00005NC66
Theatrical Release Date: February 7, 1961
Release Date: November 20, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW Factory Sealed - Ready to be shipped within 24 hrs from California - Average 5 workdays delivery time - Excellent customer service - Buy with confidence!
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| Customer Reviews:
 It Cast Its Light Forward May 9, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
"A Bout de Souffler," ("Breathless")1960, a French crime drama/romance/thriller was the first of the "Nouvelle Vogue"("New Wave") films - made by a school of filmmakers associated with the noted French cinema enthusiasts' magazine "Cahiers du Cinema--" principally Jean Luc Godard, and Francois Truffaut, among others. Truffaut wrote the script; Godard directed; it was his first film. It starred the "jolie-laid," (beautiful-ugly) Jean-Paul Belmondo, making his film debut as Michel Poiccard/Laszlo Kovacs, a petty thief-cop killer. And the stunningly beautiful Jean Seberg, then 21, as Patricia Franchini, a seemingly aimless American girl taking classes at Paris's famed university, the Sorbonne, selling The New York Herald Tribune International Edition along the City's equally famed shopping street, the Champs Elysee. It introduced techniques that were to become commonplace: hand-held cameras, jump cuts, a cool jazz soundtrack, as it told its story, filmed on the streets of Paris for less than $50,000: even then a bargain basement price.
In plot, actually, it could be a typical B crime thriller of the 1930's or 40's; Poiccard kills the cop in the first few minutes of the film -we're never quite sure why; thereafter, he just wants to raise enough money to flee to Italy with Patricia; who doesn't wish to go, and will eventually take steps to assert her independence. Poiccard is much more self-aware than an earlier generation of filmic criminals were; he's a great admirer of Humphrey Bogart; constantly trying on the mannerisms of that iconic actor. It's not easy to sympathize with him; yet we eventually do, to some extent.
"Breathless" is widely considered a great, groundbreaking film, and so it is. But my relationship with it is a little different than most people: I first saw it upon its initial release, as a college freshman. Someone once remarked that great books we read when we are young serve as lighthouses: casting their light forward on where we will eventually go. Well, for me, actually, it was movies rather than books, that illuminated the way forward, and "Breathless" was surely a lighthouse for me. Was it the coolness of the characters? Their ironic, disaffected viewpoints? For sure, the two leads are portrayed as shallow and vain, yet the movie spoke to something in the young woman I was; wish I could put my finger on it. So "Breathless" is no longer technically groundbreaking, of course, but hopefully it can still serve as a lighthouse for those coming upon it for the first time.
 Brainless March 29, 2008
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
I was actually looking forward to watching "Breathless" but it was certainly a disappointment for me. This is the story of a man who is going nowhere and who doesn't seem to care too much about what happens along the way. Yes, he had momentary interests and vague notions of where he would like to be tommorrow and maybe as far into the future as next week. However, we are given 90 minutes to marvel at his chain-smoking, car-stealing, pick-pocketing self absorbed life. He has friends in the underworld who show up on occassion and he has a string of girl friends for whom he shows up on occassion. No one is immune to his manipulation; not even the poor cab driver who got stiffed for the fare. I got tired of his pointless, hedonistic thievery (not to mention murder).
This movie is highly rated so the problem may well be me. Maybe it's meant to portray a new Lost Generation in Europe but all the more reason to pity the once great continent. It may be a brilliant look at a lone wolf's inability to exist in modern society but why empathize with a person who goes to excessive means to avoid assimulating? This is one of those movies where the dialogue doesn't fit the action. Murder, thievery, manipulation all takes place with a script that sounds like a college sophomore's intellectual efforts to seduce a coed. I'm not sure I'm cut out for Godard. I guess that's what I learned from "Breathless".
Weightlessness of breath, innocence go asunder March 9, 2008
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
O parting ways, the past from the conscience
but heavy steps leave prints of sorrow
Grasp thy beauty in its fallen splendor
let not what it remind you
from hence you have attempted
A love so fragile
and swift to slip away
Deeds forever always close the distance
and actions somehow eventually get repayed
Chances abandon all foolish endeavors
yeah, I don't know what the f#!@ I'm saying ;-D
Okay sorry, I'm not sure how to really describe this classic, other than it is brilliant. It's also more accesible than the last Goddard movie I watched, Pierre le Fou. Basically it's about an bad man in love with a good girl. Very well shot and influential piece of filmmaking, a masterpiece of the French New Wave.
It Gets Better with Every Viewing November 30, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is one of the greatest movies of all-time, and certainly one of the most influential. This Criterion Collection release is a must-own. Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo give two of the most memorable performances in the history of cinema. This film's influence continues to be felt in everything from Pulp Fiction (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) to In the Mood for Love - Criterion Collection to Time and Tide.
 An old chestnut! November 16, 2007
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
a Good remix of an old chestnut. I wish though the sound had been updated.
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