New wave.com (Review) suite
 
It wasn’t only in the montage of images that Godard expressed his personality, but also through the rich depth of references to cinema, literature, and art. À bout de souffle abounds with quotations of movies by directors such as Samuel Fuller, Joseph H. Lewis, Otto Preminger and any number of classic film noirs.

There are also quotations and references to writers such as Faulkner, Dylan Thomas, and Louis Aragon, as well as painters like Picasso, Renoir and Klee. Reflecting the film’s cultural heritage, American iconography and influence is everywhere: in the cars (Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles), Michel’s obsession with Humphrey Bogart, and the jaunty, improvised jazz score (played by French pianist Martial Solal).

Godard also included his friends in the film. He asked Jean-Pierre Melville to play the celebrated novelist who Patricia interviews at Orly Airport (the other journalists were all played by friends such as André S. Labarthe and Jean Douchet), and Jacques Rivette had a cameo role as a man run over in the street. Godard himself played the informer who recognizes Michel in the street and turns him in.

On a deeper level, Godard used the film’s framework to explore some of the themes which preoccupied him, and which he would continue to explore for years to come. Some of the key ideas of existentialism, such as stressing the individual’s importance over society’s rules and the evident absurdity of life, lie at the core of the narrative. Death is an everyday event and generally treated with indifference.(mouais surtout celle des autres)

The impossibility of love, another central Godardian theme, is played out in the relationship between Michel and Patricia. In the long hotel room scene, which takes up nearly a third of the screen time, the two lovers talk, joke, argue and fool about, but frequently fail to completely understand each other. Michel’s use of slang (argot) is often lost on Patricia. That she fails to even understand his dying words sums up the flawed nature of their relationship.

Although Godard was the last of his Cahiers du cinema colleagues to make a film – Truffaut, Chabrol, Rohmer and Rivette had all completed or at least shot their debuts before À bout de souffle went into production – it was A bout de souffle that became the cornerstone of the New Wave, and is still the film that defines the movement in the public mind. Sight and Sound magazine called it “the group’s intellectual manifesto” and it, more than any other film of the time, captured the New Wave revolt against traditional cinematic form. It also had a youthful exuberance and a pair of leading actors whose style and attitude seemed to epitomize a new generation of youth.

In one fell swoop, Godard had succeeded in making the movement representative of the times, defined cinema as the artform of the moment, and personally become one of its most important figures. A bout de souffle was an immediate success. In January 1960, just before the film’s release it won the annual Jean Vigo Prize, given to films made with an independent spirit. The critics were unanimous in their praise (absolument pas !!), recognizing the film as the greatest accomplishment yet to come out of the New Wave.(c'est en tout cas mon opinion...pour moi la Nouvelle Vague c'est UN film les autres sont -soit des "essais" plus ou moins ennuyeux (Rohmer,Rivette,etc...- soit ils n'ont rien de "Nouveau")

One wrote: “The terms ‘old cinema’ and ‘new cinema’ now have meaning… with À bout de souffle, the generation gap can suddenly be felt.” Celebrated British critic Penelope Gilliat commented that: “Jean-Luc Godard makes a film as though no one had ever made one before.” When it opened in four commercial cinemas in Paris, it immediately drew large crowds. In the end its profits were estimated to be fifty times the original investment.

More importantly, it inspired a generation of filmmakers – for whom Godard had become the embodiment of the New Wave and the archetypal cinematic intellectual – to emulate what he had done. Now, 50 years after its release, the film’s impact and its popularity with critics and the public has not diminished. It continues to influence both directors and the wider culture, and every few years a new generation discovers and falls in love with its unique charm all over again.

A BOUT DE SOUFFLE

Analyse pédagogique

Une séquence, située en particulier est intéressante sur le plan rythmique et elle joue un rôle important. Dès le début du film, Godard impose un rythme et un montage particuliers. La rapidité des plans, le traitement elliptique de l’action et la liberté de ton du personnage sont des éléments nouveaux pour un spectateur des années 60: A bout de souffle agresse le spectateur pour le déstabiliser et, peut-être, le séduire. Plusieurs figures nouvelles (car auparavant «interdites» ou jugées comme des fautes) du montage sont ici utilisées :

Le faux raccord:
 il n’y plus de cohérence entre deux plans, la continuité entre les deux plans est rompue.
*
La «saute» (jump cut):
c’est lorsqu’il n’y a pas de différence d’échelle des plans*; au sens strict du terme: l’image donne l’impression de «sauter»
*
L’ellipse:
l’art du raccourci ou du sous-entendu. Godard veut démontrer dans son film que les règles des raccords sont devenues des contraintes inutiles. Pour lui, le regard du spectateur peut très bien intégrer des enchaînements rapides et discontinus. Il va utiliser ces sautes pour accélérer le rythme de la séquence et rendre la poursuite en voiture plus palpitante. Le réalisateur s’amuse aussi à déconstruire les règles du cinéma et à rendre visible le montage. Alors que le montage a pour objectif de gommer l’artificiel du cinéma et de rendre naturelles des images filmées séparément les unes des autres.

Mais le film noir est surtout omniprésent grâce aux nombreuses références cinématographiques. Godard a affirmé vouloir refaire Fallen Angel de Preminger ou Du plomb pour l’inspecteur de Richard Quine, ou encore les petits films de la Monogram Pictures, firme américaine à laquelle est dédié A bout de souffle (cette firme produisait des films de série B, c’est-à-dire à petits budgets. Les films noirs étaient souvent des films à petit budget). Le résultat est loin de l’idée de départ car le film n’est pas un pastiche mais une réflexion sur le genre qui passe par une accumulation de signes distinctifs. Cette accumulation s’exerce sur tous les modes (allusion, hommage, emprunt, commentaire …) et la pratique de la citation connaît mille facettes.