Michel Poiccard is petty criminal who steals cars like some people speed on the highway. He lies and cheats people close to him, including a girlfriend. He is dangerous when cornered and has murdered a police officer. Yet, at the same time, he is young and glamorous, faithful in his way to Patricia, and in the end willing to pay for his crimes. The film follows some of the rules of a film noir or gangster film. Yet, the film also plays around with those conventions: the police, for example, are incompetent and there is not much tension or excitement in the chase scenes. So what is going on? Is this film saying anything about crime and punishment? Or is it just messing with us?
In Jean-Luc Godard's film "Breathless," the portrayal of the police as incompetent, as well as the absence of drama in the chase scenes, are deliberate stylistic decisions that question standard cinematic tropes about crime and punishment. Rather of portraying law enforcement officers as efficient and capable competitors, Godard paints a more ambiguous and frequently ludicrous picture of authority figures. The police's clumsy nature implies dissatisfaction with established institutions and societal norms, implying cynicism about the efficacy of traditional law enforcement measures. Furthermore, the lack of intensity in the chase scenes defies spectator expectations and challenges the typical narrative structure of crime dramas. Rather than focusing on suspense and excitement, Godard stresses the prosaic and everyday features of criminal action, blurring the distinction between good and wrong. This technique encourages viewers to challenge the moral absolutes that are commonly linked with crime and punishment narratives, resulting in a more critical analysis of social norms and ethical principles. Finally, "Breathless" can be read as a reflection on the arbitrary nature of justice and the intricacies of human behavior. By depicting crime and punishment in an unconventional manner, the film forces viewers to reevaluate their established beliefs about morality and authority. Whether Godard intended to make a specific statement about crime and punishment or simply to disrupt audience expectations with his unconventional filmmaking techniques is debatable, but "Breathless" is undeniably memorable as a provocative and thought-provoking exploration of these themes.
ReplyDeleteMichel Poiccard is an all around bad guy. I think that we can all agree on that. He cheats, steals, and kills as he pleases and seems to have no moral contradictions with himself. In addition to this, he mistreats and speaks to his girlfriend in a terrible way. I don’t think that the movie is saying much about crime and punishment. Obviously, in the end, Michel gets shot and killed, but I would argue that this is only a sign of the times that the movie was in. In addition, Michel appeared somewhat prepared to go to jail. There was a rule that a criminal cant go unpunished in hollywood and I think that this film, while not being a hollywood movie, is following this rule. Throughout the movie, the cops proved to be not great at their jobs. They did a good job of finding out who Michel was, but they had so many times where the police were just right across the street from Michel, but they did not notice him. This demonstrates a certain level of incompetence that would imply that the movie was just messing with us. The cops incompetence had to be purposeful because the movie would have ended an hour earlier if the cops were competent at their jobs. To wrap this whole thing up, the police in the movie Breathless are incompetent on purpose, a decision made by the directors to allow for the movie to be longer and to humor us.
ReplyDeleteJean-Luc Godard's iconic French New Wave film "Breathless" from 1960 is about a character named Michel Poiccard who is a petty criminal, he steals cars and other small crimes with little to no care for some of the things that he is doing to the people. In the movies we can see that he is constantly looking over his shoulder for police because of an incident where he kills a cop. This incident is a lingering danger for Michel and ends up catching up to him. Michel is depicted as charming, reckless, and charismatic, but also as morally ambiguous and ultimately flawed. In this movie, the main love interest was Patricia Frachini who is a French-American journalist and Michel has a genuine love and care for her. One main interpretation that people have on Michel is that he is a lover who is charming and has a rich lifestyle, but in reality his petty crimes have very serious consequences. But because of his characteristics it seems to glorify his behavior. His action truly blurs the lines between what is right or wrong in the movie. Even though his life seems very rich and he is able to drive expensive cars and is able to get the girl he wants. But at what cost, he isn’t able to be in the same city for too long, he has to be around people who won’t tell on him, and lastly he has to be aware of whoever he is around. In addition, the chase scenes' lack of suspense and the cops' incompetence portrayal could draw attention to how ridiculous certain scenes from the film are.
ReplyDeleteIn the film Breathless we follow the life of a gangster named Michel, and throughout the movie see how his lifestyle backs him into a corner where he has nowhere else left to run. Michel has three goals throughout the movie: get his money from Antonio, get a genuine girlfriend, and move to Rome to escape the French police. He lives a somewhat glamorous lifestyle, driving in expensive cars, smoking cigarettes, and getting many women. The way he acquires these luxuries though is not moral in the slightest. All of his goods are achieved through lying, stealing, and deceiving everyone around him. Including his so-called lovers. The way the movie portrays this non-ethical lifestyle is very contrasting to how it ends. The entire time he is seen on screen running from the police, hiding right in front of them and never getting caught, even having his current lover, an American woman named Patricia, help him run from them by acting like an innocent tourist or blatantly lying to the detectives and officers. Michel loves Patricia, and hates himself for having these genuine feelings for someone he was trying to have a casual hook up with. It is not until the very end when Patricia turns him in that he stops running. He achieves one of his three goals, getting the money from Antonio. A few minutes later she ends up dying on the street, having given up because he could not get Patricia to love him the way he loved her. Being caught in the middle of an open street he is gunned down by the police, walks about 50 yards and falls to the ground, finally dying from the bullet wound on his lower back.
ReplyDelete