Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless"

A few nights ago I watched the classic Breathless for the first time in my life (I know: bad cinephile! No Milkbone). I don't know how the film flew under my radar for so long especially since it's a benchmark in the French New Wave movement, but I finally got around to it on my Netflix queue and was smitten. Kind of makes you want to lie around all day chain-smoking in a Parisian hotel room with a shirtless Frenchman.  

My favorite scene:

Michel and Patricia

Patricia: Do you know William Faulkner?
Michel: Someone you slept with?
Patricia: No, my pet.
Michel: Then I don't care about him. Take this off.
Patricia: He's a novelist I like a lot. Have you read "The Wild Palms"?
Michel: I told you, no. Take this sweater off.
Patricia: The last sentence is very beautiful.... "Between grief and nothing, I'll take grief." What would you choose?
Michel: Grief is stupid. I'd choose nothing. It's no better but grief is a compromise. You have to go for all or nothing.

2 comments:

  1. On your recommendation... I'm going to try to get my hands on Breathless. I love artistic French movies. I'm going to Amazon in like 60 seconds to see if they've got it!!

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  2. Good -- it's worth a whirl! :) Curious to hear what you think about it.

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