Breathless (1960), directed by Jean-Luc Godard and starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, follows a small-time car thief who kills a policeman and hides out in Paris with his American girlfriend while planning an escape to Italy. Shot on handheld cameras on the streets of Paris with a stolen car and a wheelchair.
Why It Matters
- The founding film of the French New Wave — a movement that liberated cinema from studio constraints worldwide
- Godard's jump cuts — editing out the middle of shots rather than cutting between scenes — broke every filmmaking rule and created a new visual language
- Influenced every indie filmmaker from Scorsese to Tarantino
Made for almost nothing, Breathless treated Paris as a movie star, cinema as conversation, and the audience as intelligent. It remains the most influential low-budget film ever made.
Reference:
TaskLoco™ — The Sticky Note GOAT
