You don’t have to be a film studies major or even an amateur movie maven to get a kick out of this fast-paced, unexpectedly endearing look at the largely unendearing Jean-Luc Godard at his first gig as feature film director on BREATHLESS/’60, an early standard bearer for the French New Wave. Godard chomping at the bit as other ‘Cahiers du Cinéma’ journalists, like Claude Chabrol & François Truffaut, get there before him. And those are the two hot names Hollywood star Jean Seberg thought she’d be working with. Instead, this jokey, saturnine intellectual with his own ideas about how to make a movie. Helped by its quick shooting schedule (20 days), and a big cast of strong personalities, director Richard Linklater opens in media res using superimposed names on the screen as I.D. rather than explanations, letting the action take care of any questions, tacitly allowing us not to worry about what we miss in the race to get the film finished on time in spite of Godard’s abbreviated working days and waits for spontaneous inspiration. Shooting in a style that apes Godard (Academy Ratio/b&w/on the run tracking shots), we’re immediately caught up in the on-set action while generally admiring the (not quite) lookalike cast playing the well-known leads and the unknown crew. (That crew probably a tenth the size used on this tribute film.) Zoey Deutch easily steals the film as leading lady Seberg, frustrated, bemused, and having more fun than she’ll admit to. Others also coming thru vividly (in the story and as actors in this recreation). The real surprise is that the behind the scenes hero ain’t Godard with all his stubborn confidence in new ideas, but the resilient professional in the face of impossible demands, unflappable cinematographer Raoul Coutard (seemingly observed rather than played by Matthieu Penchinat), accomplishing everything Godard throws at him, and turning out revolutionary images without personal drama getting in the way.
DOUBLE-BILL: BREATHLESS/’60, the original.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: While it was probably the right decision to get out as quickly as possible once main filming had completed, the brief bit of post-production we do get to see might have emphasized more New Wave stylistics (okay, idiosyncracies) Godard pushed forward. Particularly the way his ‘jump cuts’ were as much born from necessity as from choice. As in, “We haven’t got the shot to link these two pieces of action so let’s simply ‘jump’ past that bit.’
No comments:
Post a Comment