Movie · 1960 · Drama, Crime · 1h 30m · NR · French
Curator score: 8.7/10 (374.9K ratings)
Wild! Violent! Outspoken and Honest!
Overview
A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he attempts to persuade a girl to run away to Italy with him.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.7/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.91/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Metacritic: 96
TMDB: 7.5/10
Director
Jean-Luc Godard
Production
Les Films Impéria, Les Productions Georges de Beauregard, SNC
Cast
Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel Boulanger, Henri-Jacques Huet, Roger Hanin, Van Doude, Claude Mansard, Liliane Dreyfus, Michel Fabre, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Luc Godard, Richard Balducci, André S. Labarthe, François Moreuil, Jacques Lourcelles, Liliane Robin, Gérard Brach, Philippe de Broca, José Bénazéraf, Jean Domarchi
Where to watch
Darkroom, Max
Curator Review
Verdict
A landmark of the French New Wave: loose, stylish, funny, and suddenly tragic. Its plot is almost secondary to the attitude, editing, and sense of urban drift, but the film’s cool surface and emotional detachment are exactly what made it revolutionary.
Best for
viewers interested in film history and influential cinema
fans of crime stories with a romantic, anarchic edge
people who like improvisational energy and self-aware style
audiences open to fragmented, anti-traditional storytelling
Skip if
you want a tightly plotted crime thriller
you dislike abrupt tonal shifts and jumpy editing
you prefer emotionally direct, psychologically grounded characters
you are not in the mood for a highly stylized, talky black-and-white classic
Overview
Breathless is one of those movies that feels less like it was made than like it happened. The story is simple—crime, pursuit, seduction—but Godard turns it into a restless collage of gestures, glances, cigarette smoke, and jump cuts. The result is breezy on the surface and radical underneath, a crime film that keeps breaking its own rules while inventing new ones.
Worth noting
What lingers most is the attitude: playful, insolent, self-conscious, and oddly sad. Belmondo’s swagger and Seberg’s cool detachment create a chemistry that is less romantic than elusive, as if both characters are performing versions of themselves. The film’s famous looseness can feel alienating if you want conventional emotional payoff, but that looseness is the point.
Bottom line
Seen today, it remains a cornerstone of modern cinema because it made style feel like thought. It is not just historically important; it is still alive, still mischievous, and still capable of making a familiar crime setup feel newly dangerous.
Top Letterboxd reviews
maria (4★) · 8288 likes
jean-paul belmondo: toes are important in a girl
quentin tarantino: 👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀 good shit go౦ԁ sHit👌 thats ✔ some good👌👌shit right👌👌there👌👌👌 right✔there ✔✔if i do ƽaү so my self 💯 i say so 💯 thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mMMMMᎷМ💯 👌👌 👌НO0ОଠOOOOOОଠଠOoooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ👌 👌👌 👌 💯 👌 👀 👀 👀 👌👌Good shit
Wes (5★) · 6610 likes
a narration by a french person in an old movie: *puts an entire pack of cigarettes in their mouth and lights them all at once* I'm Sad
me, wiping away a tear: wow...........five stars
Leticia Fernandes (4★) · 5420 likes
Me, in my dior dress, after causing my annoying boyfriend's death: Oh No! Mon Dieu! This Is Une Tragédie! Je Suis So Sad!