Breathless (1960 film)

Breathless (French: À bout de souffle; "out of breath") is a 1960 French film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard about a wandering criminal (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and his American girlfriend (Jean Seberg). It was Godard's first feature-length work and represented Belmondo's breakthrough as an actor.

Breathless was one of the earliest, most influential examples of French New Wave (nouvelle vague) cinema. Together with François Truffaut's The 400 Blows and Alain Resnais's Hiroshima, Mon Amour, both released a year earlier, it brought international acclaim to this new style of French filmmaking. At the time, the film attracted much attention for its bold visual style, which included unconventional use of jump cuts.

A fully restored version of the film was released in the U.S. for its 50th anniversary in May 2010. When originally released in France, the film attracted a staggering total of over 2 million viewers.

Plot

Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is a youthful criminal who is intrigued with the film persona of Humphrey Bogart. After stealing a car in Marseille, Michel shoots and kills a policeman who has followed him onto a country road. Penniless and on the run from the police, he turns to an American love interest Patricia (Jean Seberg), a student and aspiring journalist, who sells the New York Herald Tribune on the streets of Paris. The ambivalent Patricia unwittingly hides him in her apartment as he simultaneously tries to seduce her and call in a loan to fund their escape to Italy. At one point, Patricia says she is pregnant with Michel's child. She learns that Michel is on the run when questioned by the police. Eventually she betrays him, but before the police arrive she tells Michel what she has done. He is somewhat resigned to a life in prison, and does not try to escape at first. The police shoot him in the street and, after a prolonged death run, he dies “à bout de souffle” (out of breath).

French language

French (le français [lə fʁɑ̃sɛ] or la langue française [la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛz]) is a Romance language, belonging to the Indo-European family. It descended from the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire, as did languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Catalan and others. French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) has largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French.

French is the official language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie, the community of French-speaking countries. It is spoken as a first language in France, southern Belgium, western Switzerland, Monaco, certain parts of Canada and the United States, and by various communities elsewhere. As of 2015, 40% of the francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania.

Mon Amour

Mon Amour is a single by Klaus Dinger + Rhenita Bella Düsseldorf, released in 1985 to coincide with the album Néondian. In reality, Néondian was a solo album for Klaus Dinger, and Mon Amour in effect his debut (and only) solo single. It was also the first Dinger recording to be released on CD, and the last single Dinger would release in his lifetime.

Recording & Release

After the abandonment of the third La Düsseldorf album "Mon Amour", Dinger worked much of the material into a solo album, released on Teldec under the pseudonym Klaus Dinger + Rhenita Bella Düsseldorf (hinting at La Düsseldorf's most successful single - Rheinita). Dinger recorded the album alone in his Zeeland Studios using synthesizers before asking for the help of Conny Plank, who had produced La Düsseldorf's debut album in 1976. Plank oversaw the overdubbing of Dinger's basic tracks by studio musicians (including members of Belfegore and Jaki Liebezeit). "Mon Amour" was chosen as the lead single and released on CD and vinyl in September 1985. It failed to chart, and in 1986 was deleted from Teldec's catalogue along with Néondian and all La Düsseldorf releases, upon the label's acquirement by WMG.