Breathless

In the spring of 1960, a young film critic turned director, Jean-Luc Godard, shocked Paris and the entire world. His debut film, “Breathless” (À bout de souffle), broke every rule: the script was unfinished, much of the dialogue was improvised on set, and in editing, pieces of film were simply cut out between shots — thus the famous jump cut was born. What was once considered “wrong” became the language of a new cinema. Godard and his contemporaries — Truffaut, Rohmer, Chabrol — laid the foundation for the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague), a movement that changed cinema forever. Their films were free, personal, and filled with the rebellious spirit of youth. It is precisely this movement that inspires Richard Linklater’s upcoming film Nouvelle Vague, arriving in cinemas in November 2025, which tells the story behind the making of Breathless and its revolutionary impact on film history.

Synopsis: Breathless follows a young car thief, Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo), who kills a policeman and flees to Paris. There, he hides with his American lover Patricia (Jean Seberg), a newspaper seller who dreams of becoming a journalist. Between them ignites both passion and doom — a restless longing for freedom and the quiet despair that defined the youth of 1960s France. Today, Breathless is regarded as one of the most influential films ever made — a work that changed cinema’s language, rhythm, and attitude. It is a film that doesn’t ask how things should be done, but shows how they could be.