Breathless
Watched Breathless. I liked it. Existentialist tone.
Questions asked:
- How do we know what we feel?
- How does what we feel influence how we act?
- Why are rogues attractive?
- Look — we are free; what now?
It’s surprisingly modern, even at 65! Death and love are not big things, not dwelt on. The important part is to live in the now.
Funny that what first comes to mind for many people when faced with absolute freedom is killing. Normally a man killing a man. What does existentialism look like from a female viewpoint?
I felt Patricia was taking her freedom and choosing not to be beholden. She took control. Allowed her actions to choose. She had the agency. And she chooses morally? Or cynically? Michel chooses the immoral just because it is there as a boundary? He is unthinking, unchoosing; but also exhausting and juvenile, cliched?
I think the film also asks: If you are everything are you also nothing? I’ve never really stumbled through a day or a life with no plan, no money, no horizon. Is it faith? Does the world catch you? Or do you just fall, fall and keep falling, unable to get up? What if you have no choice, what if that is life?
I can see why Richard Linklater is a fan. His Before Sunrise trilogy is basically an ode to this film.
I loved the central scene with Patricia and Michel in the hotel room. That anchored the film for me. I found it tender. You felt for both characters, feel they are closest to their real selves. The moment is semi tragic; fleeting.
Strange to see a world with no mobiles, no jobs. People ambled through the day, picking up francs here and there. It’s not a film everyone will love. You can watch this film with one mindset and find it insufferably slow, all talking and ambling. You can watch it with another – open, curious, jazzy – and love it. Which response is true? Which one is you?
Nouvelle Vague
The premise: a film detailing the making of Breathless, shot channeling Breathless.
It’s an entertaining enough film, even if you’re not into pretentious French cinema, or haven’t seen Breathless. But if you do like cinema, pretentiousness, French new wave, Breathless, or the artistic process, you’re in for a treat.
All this makes it sound serious, but it’s not at all, it’s actually very funny.
The film takes all the pretentiousness lightly. It respectfully often deflates it, while engaging with the depths.
It’s best watched as a double-bill with Breathless. Watch Breathless first – go in cold. See what you think of it afterwards (without polluting your opinions with those of the wider web or cultural world). Then watch Nouvelle Vague. Then maybe watch Breathless again. They each enrich the other.
Richard Linklater sneaks in a surprisingly hopeful message in Nouvelle Vague. Trust yourself. Trust your own tastes. Your own disgust. Trust what you love and what you find yourself rebelling against.
I left the film feeling: just go for it. Drop yourself in at the deep end. Make a film in twenty days on no budget. Overthink the depth; don’t overthink the action. Life offers no certainties. The result may be that no one sees it. Or it might set the tone for Hollywood for half a century.
Robotic Ape 