Table Of Content`
A bout de souffle
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Ciné-Files: The French Film Guides
Series Editor: Ginette Vincendeau
From the pioneering days of the Lumière brothers’ Cinématographe in 1895, France
has been home to perhaps the most consistently vibrant film culture in the world,
producing world-class directors and stars, and a stream of remarkable movies, from
popular genre films to cult avant-garde works. Many of these have found a devoted
audience outside France, and the arrival of DVD is now enabling a whole new generation
to have access to contemporary titles as well as the great classics of the past.
The Ciné-Files French Film Guides build on this welcome new access, offering
authoritative and entertaining guides to some of the most significant titles, from the
silent era to the early twenty-first century. Written by experts in French cinema, the
books combine extensive research with the author’s distinctive, sometimes provocative
perspective on each film. The series will thus build up an essential collection on great
French classics, enabling students, teachers and lovers of French cinema both to learn
more about their favourite films and make new discoveries in one of the world’s richest
bodies of cinematic work.
Published and forthcoming Ciné-Files include:
À bout de souffle (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) – Ramona Fotiade
Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) – Chris Darke
Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001) – Isabelle Vanderschelden
Casque d’or (Jacques Becker, 1952) – Sarah Leahy
Un chien andalou (Luis Buñuel, 1929) – Elza Adamowicz
Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda, 1961) – Valerie Orpen
Le Corbeau (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1943) – Judith Mayne
Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955) – Susan Hayward
La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937) – Martin O’Shaughnessy
La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995) – Ginette Vincendeau
Le Jour se lève (Marcel Carné, 1939) – Ben McCann
La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939) – Keith Reader
La Reine Margot (Patrice Chéreau, 1994) – Julianne Pidduck
Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955) – Alastair Phillips
French Film Guide
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A bout de souffle
Ramona Fotiade
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This publication is supported by the AHRC.
Each year the AHRC provides funding from the
Government to support research and postgraduate
study in the arts and humanities. Only applications
of the highest quality are funded and the range of
research supported by this investment of public funds
not only provides social and cultural benefits but
also contributes to the economic success of the UK.
For further information on the AHRC, please go to:
www.ahrc.ac.uk
Published in 2013 by I.B.tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright © 2013 Ramona Fotiade
The right of Ramona Fotiade to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted
by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part
thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978 1 78076 509 9 (PB)
978 1 78076 508 2 (HB)
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
typesetting and eBook by tetragon, London
Printed and bound in Great Britain by t.J. International, Padstow, Cornwall
Contents
Acknowledgements 7
Synopsis 9
Introduction 11
1 Production Contexts 15
Before À bout de souffle 15
Godard the Film Critic 18
First Short Films: From Acting and 23
Editing to Directing
From Idea to the Shooting Script: 28
Writing À bout de souffle
Production and Casting 31
2 The Film 37
À bout de souffle and the Cinema of the 1950s 37
Narrative, Montage and Length of Sequences 39
Remaking Everything the Cinema had 48
Done, but Differently
Montage, My Fine Care: Analysis of 49
the First Sequence
Filming Death at Work: 57
The Postmodern Auteur
Soundtrack and Dialogue 61
Location and Cinematography 68
Gender and Genre: Women in Godard’s Films 75
A Franco-American Love Affair? 84
Language and Failed Communication
3 Reception and Later Influences 92
The French Citizen Kane 92
Film Launch and First Reception 93
Breathless: The American Remake 98
Cinema after Godard: 102
The Critical and Cinematic Legacy
Conclusion 109
Appendix 1: Credits 113
Appendix 2: Scene Breakdown 115
Appendix 3: Filmographies and Awards 119
Appendix 4: Bibliography 137
Index 141
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the AHRC for their assistance in providing an
extended period of study leave. Thanks are also due to Ginette Vincendeau for
the opportunity of writing a book about a film that I have taught for many years
at the University of Glasgow, and that has been a constant source of inspiration
for my writing on cinema and postmodernism. I am grateful for the editorial
guidance and support that Ginette Vincendeau and Philippa Brewster have
provided. My thanks also go to David Scotson in the Learning technology Unit
at the University of Glasgow for his invaluable technical skills. The School of
Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Glasgow funded research
trips to Paris. The staff of the Bibliothèque du film (BiFi) and the Institut national
de l’audiovisuel (Ina) at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) in Paris
were very helpful in assisting me with locating and accessing printed secondary
sources and audio-visual documents.
Synopsis
The film opens with a sequence set in the old harbour of Marseille. Sun-glassed
Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo) hot-wires an American car and drives off
to Paris. On his way, he chatters loudly about his plans to collect a sum of money
and flee to Italy with his girlfriend. He listens to the radio and plays around with
a gun he finds in the glove compartment. Failing to stop at a police check, he is
chased by two motorcycle cops, swerves into a country road in an attempt to
dodge them, but is caught up when trying to re-start the engine. He picks up the
gun from the glove compartment, fires and kills the cop. Early next morning,
Michel hitch-hikes to Paris, arriving penniless. He steals money from a former
girlfriend (Liliane), who works as a television script girl. He then unsuccessfully
tries to find his friend, tolmatchoff, at the Agence Interamericana. Later he
meets Patricia Franchini (Jean Seberg), a young American student and aspir-
ing journalist, who sells the New York Herald Tribune on the Champs-Élysées.
Michel asks her whether she will accompany him to Rome, and they decide to
meet again that evening. Back at the Agence Interamericana, tolmatchoff gives
Michel a cheque but, because of his recent troubles, Michel can only cash it with
the help of another friend, Antonio Berruti. Shortly afterwards, two policemen
arrive to question tolmatchoff. They rush off in pursuit of Michel. In order to
pay for his dinner with Patricia that evening, Michel goes into the toilets of a
bar where he attacks a man and steals his wallet. Patricia leaves Michel to go to a
meeting with an American journalist, and discuss the details of an interview at
Orly airport. The next morning, Patricia returns to her hotel room, only to find
that Michel has been waiting for her. A long conversation follows, during which
Patricia reveals that she may be pregnant. Michel tries several times to phone his
friend, Antonio. Eventually, he and Patricia make love and then prepare to go to
Patricia’s interview at Orly. While Patricia is choosing a new dress for the press
conference, Michel steals another car. They are about to drive off when a man
in dark glasses (Jean-Luc Godard) recognises Michel’s photo in the newspaper
and reports this to the police. Patricia takes part in the press conference of the
novelist Parvulesco (Jean-Pierre Melville) at Orly. Michel unsuccessfully tries
to sell the stolen car to a garage in the suburbs and ends up getting into a fight.
At the newspaper offices, Detective Vital questions Patricia and shows her
Michel’s photograph on the front page of France-Soir. She is followed as she
leaves, but dodges her pursuer by going into a cinema and leaving through the
toilet window. Patricia and Michel go to see a western, then steal a Cadillac in
a car park. Later that evening, Michel finds Berruti, who promises to get him
10 à bout de souffle
the money, and suggests that Michel and Patricia go to spend the night in the
flat of a photographer friend. The next morning, Michel asks Patricia to buy a
newspaper and get a bottle of milk. She leaves, browses through the newspaper,
then goes into a café and calls Detective Vital. Back in the flat, she tells Michel
she has just called the police. When Berruti arrives in a convertible with the
money, Michel refuses to run away with him. The police car arrives, and Michel
is shot in the back and dies.
