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Breathless

1983, Movie, R, 100 mins

Breathless: Review

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Remaking a movie is always a dicey proposition. Remaking a classic is even dicier. This version of BREATHLESS? No dice. The original burst upon the scene in 1959 and blew us all away, and even though we've become somewhat used to its tricks, it can still suggest its original impact. Godard took big chances then with technique, content, and casting and it paid off in spades. The new BREATHLESS features Gere as the wanton criminal Jesse (the Jean-Paul Belmondo role) and Kaprisky as Monica (Jean Seberg's original part). This version follows Godard and Truffaut's story of Jesse's escalating crimes and his involvement with Monica, but pays far too much attention to it, whereas the point of any Godard film is not what is told but how. Rather than trying to recapture the France of the late 1950s, the talented director, Jim McBride (DAVID HOLZMAN's DIARY) was probably right to switch locations to 1980s Los Angeles and make both characters American. In an attempt to duplicate Godard's feel for contemporary culture, McBride also adds bizarre colors and more than a dozen pop tunes, but the attempt is only modestly successful. The gradually increasing use of violence is effective in an oddly cartoon-like sort of way, but all involved fail to really impress their own creative slant on the project. Gere gives a flashy and not uninteresting performance and shows off his body a lot; Kaprisky shows hers too, though she fails completely to make her character really compelling. In keeping with the tentativeness of the entire enterprise, the ending is one of the great cop-outs in modern moviedom. leave a comment
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Essentials Directors Series - Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless / Le Petit Soldat / Les Carabinieres / Notre Musique)
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