For such a then radical film, it's interesting to me that the structure is actually super traditional: very precisely that of a tragedy, a series of events triggered by a single fatal decision and then playing out a series of manoeuvres on the part of the main character to ward off the resulting encounter with deadly nemesis. You can even read its postmodernism through this lens, seeing the character's fatal hubris as being born of an immersion in Hollywood and consumerism: even in his imperilled state, he does not stop boyishly enthusing about flashy cars and imitating and identifying with Bogart. It's as if he cannot fully comprehend the danger of his own situation because of the spell these fantasies have him under. In a way, Godard's Brechtian strategies might then be read as a way of saying: I'm not going to let you become similarly, dangerously spellbound.
@@CinemaTyler Did you ever get around to seeing JLG's King Lear? It is definitely out there (and incredibly hilarious - especially the girlfriend who wasn't there).
Great video, just one small correction: Not all the directors were critics. The French New Wave is often split into two groups, the critics from Cahiers du cinema (Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, Rivette, Rohmer, etc.) and the Left Bank (Resnais, Varda, Demy, Marker, etc.). The second group did not start as critics and were not necessarily cinephiles. While the groups interacted and frequently were friends (even collaborators), the big distinction was that the Left Bank often came from other arts and that they were slightly more experimental/avant grade - often taking inspiration from the broader art movement - such as Nouveau Roman (Duras and Robbe-Grillet worked with them, and sometimes they are counted among them too).
The level of detail in this is amazing thanks so much for putting this channel together. The time and effort you put in is deeply appreciated. People like you make the web go round and make the rest of us more educated cinefiles. Thank you.
@@marafortune3713 Nice, good luck! The Cahiers du Cinema crowd, Andre Bazin and Bresson, Godard etc were the first to recognise Hollywood narrative film as an art form and we've never looked back.
Thank you soooooo much. I finally understand why this film is soooooo important to film history. While I have known about Goddard, Breathless and jump cuts for decades until I watched this video I never knew that Goddard's primary rationale for the use of this editing technique did not PRIMARILY stem from an aesthetic/artistic choice but rather from a simple desire to shorten the running time of the film. Thank you for also educating me about Berthold Brecht's influence on this film. 😊
Been watching your stuff man, and honestly.....*HONESTLY* it's awesome. Like you'll have a lot of people post on others and go "Oh man your channel where you just mumble and go 'ummm' for like half of it with out really making a point or really put any extra effort is so awesome and you deserve more subscribers". Nah. You can see the effort, quality, and passion in *every* single one of your videos. Know that you're doing an awesome job and that your videos are impacting. Keep on keeping on. Ps. Great idea for this video. Worked phenomenally.
@@CinemaTyler I totally concur. See my comment above. I've watched your videos on The French Connection and Dog Day Afternoon recently as well as others and learned so much from them . You do such awesome work for such a young person (I'm almost 59).the care effort and love that you put into your videos really shows and I am certain that there are thousands of viewers who are just as appreciative of your work as I am. Kudos and a standing ovation for you. Keep up the great work🖕❤😊
@@CinemaTyler Great video. I love movies. I love seeing them reviewing them and then writing my own stories. I love films made by film lovers I hope to see this film soon and also I saw your inherent vice video which is a movie I am dying to see. Wonderful video, great explanation. You got yourself a sub
This was your best video so far. There are a lots of videos about people talking about cinema on UA-cam but somehow most of them end saying nothing new. Your videos are awesome and I really like the movies you have chosen to discuss. Also the supplements idea on this video was great. Keep up the good work!
What I learned from Breathless is don’t even try to make a living as a cheap hustler robbing people because that will end in jail or Death 💀! Instead learn a good trade and make a good living earning your pay and keep living.
These lessons in film are so exciting. And wow, to see this about Breathless after the study of Dog Day Afternoon, two films with profoundly different directorial philosophy and raison d'être - yet you treat each purely in its own terms and with enormous insight.
Saw "Breathless" recently at the "arthaus" filmfestival for the first time...made me breathless...the beautiful editing....the soundtrack, the simplicity of everything...this is truly a "directos´s movie" if you know what I mean.
Definitely check out some of the other films in Godard’s cinematic period (1960-1967) if you haven’t already. Pierrot le Fou is probably my favorite. It’s one of the most beautifully shot movies I’ve ever seen.
Yeah watched it on my collection. So great. What I love the most about movies from this period (or put it this way: movies from the french new wave), is that no other director would have the balls to have a scene in the forest with the actors singing along for 4-5 minutes...just this simplicity and poetry to it is so fascinating to me.
Such a great scene. I also love scene where she is singing in the apartment and the piano music is played live on-location, but you never see where it's coming from.
Cinema Tyler...I have just discovered your channel, and I have to say between this video on Breathless (one of my favorite films along with Bande A Part) and your 2001 docs I have come across the most thorough and detailed film production sites on the web...keep up the great work man
I like "400 Blows" much more, but one can see how the style and methods of Godard work for other directors. I think his work is interesting mainly in how it influenced others who had more talent.
I loved your video, it is very interesting and I really liked the interactive form. Thanks to you I finally understood what is the Nouvelle Vague (and yet I am French!). It is a shame because now in France, people often criticise the Nouvelle Vague, they say it is "pretentious" "intellectual cinema", that takes itself too seriously (but I am sure they have only seen a few movies). Yet, Nouvelle Vague movies are among the rare French films that are famous in the world. But after your explanation, I understand the Nouvelle Vague, its aims and its qualities. Thank you very much for your work.
Thanks! The Nouvelle Vague has really been the most fascinating film movement I've researched. I don't think I've seen a film in the Nouvelle Vague that wasn't interesting. Thanks for watching!
Some feedback about the interactive component: I found it very effective. It mimics how i use the web. It was well executed and enhanced my viewing experience. Good work, keep it up. Thanks.
Don H Thanks for the feedback! Glad to know it was effective! There are a couple more interactivity experiments I’m working out for my next vid. Thanks for the comment!
6:03. I don't believe there is a relation between both tools. Jump cuts in video blogging are just to rush the dialogue, it's a sound thing. You can jump cut in film in moments of silence, and the background in each frame may actually change. That's art. Video Blogging is so uncreative that the camera is always in the same place.
Dinastía Chow Fan They are still jump cuts, but I specify in the video that it is being used for a different purpose in video blogging. This device was borrowed by the video blogging culture as a way to circumvent the pacing issues that inevitably arise from amateur presenters. It’s nothing on them-it’s actually quite effective. People are still experimenting with it and I’ve seen some pretty creative uses of it, but you’re right, the motivation is very different than its use in film. Thanks for the comment!
Most discussions about Breathless talk about the filmic elements like this video does. Another thing that struck me about it was his portrayal of on film of the two main characters. Jean Seberg has a short boyish haircut, no 50's bullet bra, and wears a t-shirt. Belmondo is shot for long periods of time wearing only shorts with his legs propped up on something. These are the opposite of traditional male and female roles both in reality and as portrayed on film, and all before modern feminsm really called the male gaze and traditional sex roles and all that into question.
One of the best and most revolutionary films in the sound era. Very few films are owned by their directors like this was. And very few films have ever wedded their style to what the film was about than this one. Very few films have ever used their two stars like the director wanted them used. Raoul Coutard's work was simply excellent. IMO, no film ever got across the idea that things happen not out of human volition, but because other things make them happen--serendipity. E.g. Belmondo gets shot because his friend throws a gun at him.
Loved this video! THanks for making it and I totally appreciate the interactive features! It couldn't have been easy to edit and compile all of this information but it is one of the most helpful sources I have found on my brief research of Godard. Will be watching the rest of your videos too!
I don't really understand how one could talk about the birth of the new wave without talking about the films of Agnes Varda.. especially in this day and age..
I have an oral exam tomorrow about the history of films, thank you so much for explaining this movie, it helped a lot to understand the french new wave :)
very good.. the only thing I would add is that the reason La Nouvelle Vague, particularly Godard, was that they/he had much smaller, easier to carry cameras (eg. the Beaulieu & the Bolex) - many of which came out of WWII.. the reason why they had sound stages was for 'sound' which also required large cameras which allowed for very little movement.. watch late silent film & then watch an early sound film of the post mid 20's through the 30's & even the 40's...
+jfloyd wggmn Thanks for the insight! On a similar note, I was just reading up on the audio recorders they used (Nagra sound recorders) and that Kodak Tri-X film stock was launched in 1954, which was much faster and allowed for shooting in lower light. Funny enough, Raoul Coutard used Ilford stock for still cameras and spooled them onto film reels himself.
I hear you Tyler and your position is as well thought out as your vid, I suppose my concern is that "there are no rules in art". I remember well, discussions at the coffee house about censorship of Henry Miller, D. H. Lawrence, Lenny Bruce, censorship of form and content. The universally held opinion was that the artist should be free of any cultural constraints. Living in post, post modern times when and where pretty much anything goes, I see all that freedom at the service of commercial concerns. It's like the food at restaurants is better now but mcdonalds is the order of the day. Goddard and everybody else, all that liberating out of the box thinking, if the message is junk food it ain't good for us, no matter the technique used to lure us in. Film is the most powerful influence of culture we got and I seldom hear the word responsibility used in its creation. After all what is art for, the artist or the audience. Technique does not exist in a vacuum. Thanks for your time.
This is a very insightful and clear video! I'm impressed with your level of knowledge - thanks for sharing this so everyone can understand the incredible beauty of the French New Wave :)
***** Thank you! The French New Wave is responsible for many of cinema's greatest films and not just the ones made during the New Wave, but also those that it inspired. Thanks for the comment!
great video, but i would add the influence of the italian neorealism too. especially the shooting on location and the use of non-professional actors which contributed to the aspect of reality of a movie.
Thoughts to Jean Seberg and Jean Paul Belmondo, two of my favorite actors. The américans mostly know Belmondo as one of the emblematic actors of the French "New-Wave" appreciated by Quentin Tarantino or Spike Lee but he was also a huge européan star of the action movies in the 60's, the 70'' and the 80's.. Also a boxer appreciated by Sly Stallone or Myckey Rourcke and a genuine Stuntman appreciated by Jackie Chan.. Finally , a lifelong friend of An other french legend, Alain Delon.. Jean Seberg was so charming..
Verry complete and interesting video! Thanks a lot for that! I really think there should be more analysis and less critics in Cinema. I'm pretty glad you did so :)
Clara Imbeau Thanks very much! I always found the idea of art criticism very strange because art is so subjective. I imagine it takes a bit of creativity to dislike a piece of art and consider what should have been done differently. I find it fascinating that the major players of the French New Wave started out as critics themselves. That said, the thing I really love about film analysis over film criticism is that it doesn't seek to end the conversation (through persuasion), but instead it seeks to provoke discussion.
Awesome , because you used the very tools you were showing, more important it get me thinking and wondering how I could use them in my own art. Thank you and well done. Al
Tyler,Tyler,Tyler where to start? Ok, you got yarbles, great big bolshey yarbles. I mean here it is, the new wave of film criticism, anybody can do it and you have, I salute you. Now about technique, I have to agree with Goddard and you, technique is in the way but in the way of what? I didn't hear the word meaning in your essay. The way things look and how they got on screen is and should be in the service of meaning but no mention of it. I know I'm old enough to have seen Breathless when it first hit the art houses but technique in the service of money, success, sex, violence etc that cries out for criticism. Young film makers have the benefit of freedom of technique but usually don't have much meaningful to say. Young critics seem to think it's not so important either.
+Batta Beru Thanks for taking the time to comment. With this video, I wanted to take the approach of introducing the techniques through historical context and then talking about technique from a practical standpoint. I felt that the meaning behind the documentary style was based more on constrained production and it was the critics that kind of forced the meaning onto it. The same can sort of be said for the jump cuts. The legend is that Godard first decided to use the technique as a way to shorten the film and it just so happened to work with his desire to destroy established conventions. I don't want to be a critic, but rather analyze what ideas and concepts can be taken from cinema history and applied today. I feel that the meaning is really up to whoever decides to use the concepts.
it's always important to watch in order to learn because, what you watch on a TV screen, it'll help you to acquire enough knowledge to make your own film, and this movie isn't the exception. On Godard, I've heard good things about him, so apart from Breathless, I'd like to ask you; what other movies of his are actually good to watch?
I enjoyed your presentation and look forward to hearing more from you. I like the buttons. They enhance the discussion by defining the concept in the discussion.
Tyler, you speak my language. I see how much work that you put into it and the required passion to push it forward. Makes me want to see and learn more. Watching this vid reminded me of stuff that I had forgotten! Cheers to you!
Didn’t Italian neorealist films really do all of the things French new wave movies did decade(s) earlier? 1) real locations 2) more ordinary stories, social concerns and ordinary people 3) more radical cinematography?
Molto Bene. I was listening to a cut of Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" that played cuts of "What About The Soufflé, not knowing anything about it. not even knowing that it was a full movie. In that moment, for me it was a fantastic silent movieNow I am richer by far with the words you spoke. Thanks
+marie welsch Thanks for watching! Happy I could help! I have such love for the French New Wave and I always seem to be able to trace the influence of my favorite films back to Breathless and The 400 Blows.
wow! great essay!! just subscribed to your channel and watched the inherent vice video, wich is also fantastic. Would love to see more stuff like this from you! keep it up! :) Best Regards!
shannon mcfarland Sorry it has been taking me so long! I've been splitting my attention between a rather in-depth video for my channel and a video series I'm doing for IndieWire. If you're interested, you can check out my IndieWire vids here: cinematyler.com/category/indiewire Thanks for taking the time to comment! I'll try and get the new UA-cam video out soon!
Can you put the supplements into one clip on your main channel? It was a bit confusing to find them first, and as they were unlisted, my guess is you couldn't search for them.
Just one tip ;) Resnais didn't pertain to the "Nouvelle Vague" (French New Wave) he was associated with the "Rive Gauche" movement with Jacques Rivette and Margueritte Duràs among others. Yes, both waves are contemporary but you should distinguish between the two in order to understand cinema history and their different imputs.
IvanRSaldias Thanks for the comment! Yes, Resnais felt that he was more of a part of the Left Bank. However, Hiroshima mon amour is often credited as one of the films that jumpstarted the French New Wave and I felt that delving into the Left Bank would deviate from the subject of Breathless and Godard too much. I have been kicking around some ideas for a video on Resnais for the future and I’ll make sure to address the distinction when I end up making it. Thanks again!
CinemaTyler I really liked your videos so far and I'm sure that one on Resnais will be awesome! He's one of my favorites with the Marienbad, Muriel... Cheers! ;)
IvanRSaldias Thanks! I still need to see Last Year in Marienbad! I hear such great things about it; I guess I’ve been waiting for it to come to the Film Forum or at least until I get a proper TV, so I don’t have to see it for the first time on my computer.
In case you watch it at home I really recommend you the Criterion Collection BR. There are at least 3 versions around but that one is restored from the original Cinematheque Française Archives. That is because of a particular light effect that can't be appreciated in an earlier DVD version. But if you get a chance to see it in a theater it is way better. Cheers! PS: Actually I'm going next tuesday to the Cinematheque to see it in 35mm ;)
Thanks for the suggestion! I will make sure to go with the Criterion Bluray when I see it. That’s great that you get to see it on film! I’ll keep an eye out for any screenings that come this way.
chelsey charles I still need to see Under the Skin! I love Jonathan Glazer. Birth was great, but I particularly love his commercial work. Some of those ads he’s done are like short films themselves. I’ll check out Under the Skin soon. Thanks for the comment!
You are SERIOUSLY missing out! It's unlike any other movie experience I've ever had with contemporary cinema. I watched it in theaters and had a mini panic attack, but for obvious good reasons. You'll see what I mean haha :) Also, it's better to go into it with as little knowledge about it as possible. It's much more intense! If you're into ambiguity art-housey films (which I mean based on the 2001 and French New Wave appreciation I'm guessing yes?) then you should also check out Denis Villeneuve's Enemy, another brilliant one that came out last year.
chelsey charles Sounds like a trip! I love that stuff. Luckily, I have managed to stay uninformed about it for the most part. I’ll put it at the top of my list. It sounds kind of weird, but I loved Prisoners so much that I’ve been saving Enemy for a special occasion. Those kinds of movies you can only see for the first time once (if that makes sense, hehe). It seems there are so few truly brilliant unfolding crime narratives these days. Thanks for the suggestions!
I learned that you should not settle for less because you will face the consequences later in life. Jean is a classic example. She paid the penalty with her life too soon Rest In Peace dear Jean
Today’s rabbit hole - watching paint your wagon and thought who’s this jean Seberg ? which in turn bought me to breathless which whilst searching for film bought me here to this most educational study (thank you) . Now I’m desperate to watch full film ....anyone know where I can view it ?
The best video essays on UA-cam are about films.
I sgree
Always
For such a then radical film, it's interesting to me that the structure is actually super traditional: very precisely that of a tragedy, a series of events triggered by a single fatal decision and then playing out a series of manoeuvres on the part of the main character to ward off the resulting encounter with deadly nemesis. You can even read its postmodernism through this lens, seeing the character's fatal hubris as being born of an immersion in Hollywood and consumerism: even in his imperilled state, he does not stop boyishly enthusing about flashy cars and imitating and identifying with Bogart. It's as if he cannot fully comprehend the danger of his own situation because of the spell these fantasies have him under. In a way, Godard's Brechtian strategies might then be read as a way of saying: I'm not going to let you become similarly, dangerously spellbound.
Bonnie and Clyde in japan as teenagers!!! Fuck !! that sounds awesome!!
+SonofSivadas I know, right!? I still need to see his King Lear, which I hear is pretty 'out-there' as well.
@@CinemaTyler Did you ever get around to seeing JLG's King Lear? It is definitely out there (and incredibly hilarious - especially the girlfriend who wasn't there).
RIP Jean-Luc. IMO one of the 3 most influential directors in cinema, along with Griffith and Welles.
Great video, just one small correction: Not all the directors were critics. The French New Wave is often split into two groups, the critics from Cahiers du cinema (Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, Rivette, Rohmer, etc.) and the Left Bank (Resnais, Varda, Demy, Marker, etc.). The second group did not start as critics and were not necessarily cinephiles. While the groups interacted and frequently were friends (even collaborators), the big distinction was that the Left Bank often came from other arts and that they were slightly more experimental/avant grade - often taking inspiration from the broader art movement - such as Nouveau Roman (Duras and Robbe-Grillet worked with them, and sometimes they are counted among them too).
Duras always said she wasn't involved in Nouveau Roman mouvement.
The level of detail in this is amazing thanks so much for putting this channel together. The time and effort you put in is deeply appreciated. People like you make the web go round and make the rest of us more educated cinefiles. Thank you.
Amen!
I watched Breathless and studied the Nouvelle Vague at University on a film course. It blew my mind.
I am honestly exactly in the same position now haha
@@marafortune3713 Nice, good luck! The Cahiers du Cinema crowd, Andre Bazin and Bresson, Godard etc were the first to recognise Hollywood narrative film as an art form and we've never looked back.
Thank you soooooo much. I finally understand why this film is soooooo important to film history. While I have known about Goddard, Breathless and jump cuts for decades until I watched this video I never knew that Goddard's primary rationale for the use of this editing technique did not PRIMARILY stem from an aesthetic/artistic choice but rather from a simple desire to shorten the running time of the film.
Thank you for also educating me about
Berthold Brecht's influence on this film.
😊
I really liked this. Unassuming and modest, but densely informative and accessible. Chapeau x
Thanks so much!
What a fascinating name.
I didn't know that Godard almost directed Bonnie and Clyde, that would make the New Hollywood completely different.
One of those great if onlies.
its crazy he was even considered lmao
@Maria Ortiz-Metzger Thank you very much for your comments! Your kind words make this all worthwhile.
Been watching your stuff man, and honestly.....*HONESTLY* it's awesome. Like you'll have a lot of people post on others and go "Oh man your channel where you just mumble and go 'ummm' for like half of it with out really making a point or really put any extra effort is so awesome and you deserve more subscribers". Nah.
You can see the effort, quality, and passion in *every* single one of your videos. Know that you're doing an awesome job and that your videos are impacting. Keep on keeping on.
Ps. Great idea for this video. Worked phenomenally.
Thanks for the comment! I really appreciate it. It really makes it all worthwhile.
@@CinemaTyler
I totally concur. See my comment above. I've watched your videos on The French Connection and Dog Day Afternoon recently as well as others and learned so much from them . You do such awesome work for such a young person (I'm almost 59).the care effort and love that you put into your videos really shows and I am certain that there are thousands of viewers who are just as appreciative of your work as I am. Kudos and a standing ovation for you. Keep up the great work🖕❤😊
@@CinemaTyler Great video. I love movies. I love seeing them reviewing them and then writing my own stories. I love films made by film lovers I hope to see this film soon and also I saw your inherent vice video which is a movie I am dying to see. Wonderful video, great explanation. You got yourself a sub
This was your best video so far. There are a lots of videos about people talking about cinema on UA-cam but somehow most of them end saying nothing new. Your videos are awesome and I really like the movies you have chosen to discuss. Also the supplements idea on this video was great. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, that really means a lot! This one took forever to make and I was unsure if the interactivity idea was going to work out. Glad you liked it!
Thorough yet assertive and oversaturated analysis. Great work, keep it up!
What I learned from Breathless is don’t even try to make a living as a cheap hustler robbing people because that will end in jail or Death 💀! Instead learn a good trade and make a good living earning your pay and keep living.
Better rusted than busted
These lessons in film are so exciting. And wow, to see this about Breathless after the study of Dog Day Afternoon, two films with profoundly different directorial philosophy and raison d'être - yet you treat each purely in its own terms and with enormous insight.
Thanks so much!
Saw "Breathless" recently at the "arthaus" filmfestival for the first time...made me breathless...the beautiful editing....the soundtrack, the simplicity of everything...this is truly a "directos´s movie" if you know what I mean.
Definitely check out some of the other films in Godard’s cinematic period (1960-1967) if you haven’t already. Pierrot le Fou is probably my favorite. It’s one of the most beautifully shot movies I’ve ever seen.
Yeah watched it on my collection. So great. What I love the most about movies from this period (or put it this way: movies from the french new wave), is that no other director would have the balls to have a scene in the forest with the actors singing along for 4-5 minutes...just this simplicity and poetry to it is so fascinating to me.
Such a great scene. I also love scene where she is singing in the apartment and the piano music is played live on-location, but you never see where it's coming from.
Oh really? I didn´t know that.
OneManProduct Yeah, and they do it once more when Ferdinand talks to the man on the pier (if I recall correctly).
Cinema Tyler...I have just discovered your channel, and I have to say between this video on Breathless (one of my favorite films along with Bande A Part) and your 2001 docs I have come across the most thorough and detailed film production sites on the web...keep up the great work man
+stevesharief7 Thanks so much!
I like "400 Blows" much more, but one can see how the style and methods of Godard work for other directors. I think his work is interesting mainly in how it influenced others who had more talent.
its of great use for understanding french new wave films
Thanks!
I loved your video, it is very interesting and I really liked the interactive form. Thanks to you I finally understood what is the Nouvelle Vague (and yet I am French!).
It is a shame because now in France, people often criticise the Nouvelle Vague, they say it is "pretentious" "intellectual cinema", that takes itself too seriously (but I am sure they have only seen a few movies). Yet, Nouvelle Vague movies are among the rare French films that are famous in the world. But after your explanation, I understand the Nouvelle Vague, its aims and its qualities. Thank you very much for your work.
Thanks! The Nouvelle Vague has really been the most fascinating film movement I've researched. I don't think I've seen a film in the Nouvelle Vague that wasn't interesting. Thanks for watching!
Some feedback about the interactive component: I found it very effective. It mimics how i use the web. It was well executed and enhanced my viewing experience. Good work, keep it up. Thanks.
Don H Thanks for the feedback! Glad to know it was effective! There are a couple more interactivity experiments I’m working out for my next vid. Thanks for the comment!
6:03. I don't believe there is a relation between both tools. Jump cuts in video blogging are just to rush the dialogue, it's a sound thing. You can jump cut in film in moments of silence, and the background in each frame may actually change. That's art.
Video Blogging is so uncreative that the camera is always in the same place.
Dinastía Chow Fan They are still jump cuts, but I specify in the video that it is being used for a different purpose in video blogging. This device was borrowed by the video blogging culture as a way to circumvent the pacing issues that inevitably arise from amateur presenters. It’s nothing on them-it’s actually quite effective. People are still experimenting with it and I’ve seen some pretty creative uses of it, but you’re right, the motivation is very different than its use in film. Thanks for the comment!
Most discussions about Breathless talk about the filmic elements like this video does. Another thing that struck me about it was his portrayal of on film of the two main characters. Jean Seberg has a short boyish haircut, no 50's bullet bra, and wears a t-shirt. Belmondo is shot for long periods of time wearing only shorts with his legs propped up on something. These are the opposite of traditional male and female roles both in reality and as portrayed on film, and all before modern feminsm really called the male gaze and traditional sex roles and all that into question.
One of the best and most revolutionary films in the sound era. Very few films are owned by their directors like this was. And very few films have ever wedded their style to what the film was about than this one. Very few films have ever used their two stars like the director wanted them used. Raoul Coutard's work was simply excellent. IMO, no film ever got across the idea that things happen not out of human volition, but because other things make them happen--serendipity. E.g. Belmondo gets shot because his friend throws a gun at him.
rip Jean Paul Belmondo
This is so well-researched and thought-out. I appreciate your time as I explore film.
Really good essay! Very important lesson to remember young filmmakers to use what they have! Great job!
Ivan José Hurtado Barón Thanks! Glad you liked it!
Great lesson Mr. Tyler! Us film students can add to their curriculum with your collection of videos!
Thank you!
WE film students. We________can add. Not: Us_____can add. See?
Loved this video! THanks for making it and I totally appreciate the interactive features! It couldn't have been easy to edit and compile all of this information but it is one of the most helpful sources I have found on my brief research of Godard. Will be watching the rest of your videos too!
+sailjpt Thanks! This one was really fun to make!
Great analysis of a classic film.
Richard Woolfenden Thanks!
I don't really understand how one could talk about the birth of the new wave without talking about the films of Agnes Varda.. especially in this day and age..
this is not the first time i say this, but your channel is remarkable. thank you for this.
hope you somehow get paid by youtube
I've just discovered New Wave cinema and your video is a nice and useful way to understand what I'm watching. Thank you!
Glad you liked it! Thanks!
I really appreciate all you've brought to light and taught us through this video. Love from a big Godard fan xo
I have an oral exam tomorrow about the history of films, thank you so much for explaining this movie, it helped a lot to understand the french new wave :)
very good.. the only thing I would add is that the reason La Nouvelle Vague, particularly Godard, was that they/he had much smaller, easier to carry cameras (eg. the Beaulieu & the Bolex) - many of which came out of WWII.. the reason why they had sound stages was for 'sound' which also required large cameras which allowed for very little movement.. watch late silent film & then watch an early sound film of the post mid 20's through the 30's & even the 40's...
+jfloyd wggmn Thanks for the insight! On a similar note, I was just reading up on the audio recorders they used (Nagra sound recorders) and that Kodak Tri-X film stock was launched in 1954, which was much faster and allowed for shooting in lower light. Funny enough, Raoul Coutard used Ilford stock for still cameras and spooled them onto film reels himself.
Thank you.. also for the additional info...
This is great stuff. I teach a class on New Waves and this has proven very useful. Thanks!
+Kerim Aytac Wow, thanks! I'm honored and happy to help!
Great job - I enjoyed your analysis and the interactive feature worked out well...looking forward to seeing more!
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Great video and channel. Thx for making such a great job! Cheers
Gabriel P. G. Santos Thanks for the comment! I appreciate it!
Wow, what a detailed analysis! I love the style of this movie so much. The protagonists are gorgeous.
This is a great, elaborate, insightful video essay man! Love your videos!
+Mark Ng Thank you!
That's good.
I've studied the Nouvelle Vague when I was at the University but still learned new things with your video. :)
+Raisonnance Thanks! That's great to hear!
I watched pretty much all of your video since yesterday. Great job mate.
Thank you!
Jean don’t deserve all of tragedy in is life , but deserved love and respect.
Rip Jean we miss you .
Wow. What an cinephile action toward a very loving film. Thanks for this "full of Idea" Video
Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching!
Good job, the interactive content works well. I believe Goddard's 3D movie was made using two Canon 5d cameras together as a 3D pair.
I hear you Tyler and your position is as well thought out as your vid, I suppose my concern is that "there are no rules in art". I remember well, discussions at the coffee house about censorship of Henry Miller, D. H. Lawrence, Lenny Bruce, censorship of form and content. The universally held opinion was that the artist should be free of any cultural constraints. Living in post, post modern times when and where pretty much anything goes, I see all that freedom at the service of commercial concerns. It's like the food at restaurants is better now but mcdonalds is the order of the day. Goddard and everybody else, all that liberating out of the box thinking, if the message is junk food it ain't good for us, no matter the technique used to lure us in. Film is the most powerful influence of culture we got and I seldom hear the word responsibility used in its creation. After all what is art for, the artist or the audience. Technique does not exist in a vacuum. Thanks for your time.
This is a very insightful and clear video! I'm impressed with your level of knowledge - thanks for sharing this so everyone can understand the incredible beauty of the French New Wave :)
***** Thank you! The French New Wave is responsible for many of cinema's greatest films and not just the ones made during the New Wave, but also those that it inspired. Thanks for the comment!
great video, but i would add the influence of the italian neorealism too. especially the shooting on location and the use of non-professional actors which contributed to the aspect of reality of a movie.
If it wasn’t for The Godfather this would be my all time favorite film. It’s what really catapulted me in to wanting to be a film maker.
excellent video, encouraging, interactive, and resourceful. keep up the good job.
Subrata Chatterjee Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
This is a great review, Tyler, thank you very much for putting it all together.
Amazing work! I've watched two of your videos and feel like I've learnt more than three years of college. Subscribed!
Thanks!
Masterful. Favorited in less than a minute.
Oh, and subscribed. Keep up the excellent work my friend.
so much info in such a well made video!!! really informative stuff man
Great Video, I liked Breathless but now I like more, I think should do a 8 or 9 minute video for The 400 Blows and Hiroshima mon amour.
David Kubrick Thanks! Both of those films certainly deserve a longer video. Someday!
Thoughts to Jean Seberg and Jean Paul Belmondo, two of my favorite actors.
The américans mostly know Belmondo as one of the emblematic actors of the French "New-Wave" appreciated by Quentin Tarantino or Spike Lee but he was also a huge européan star of the action movies in the 60's, the 70'' and the 80's.. Also a boxer appreciated by Sly Stallone or Myckey Rourcke and a genuine Stuntman appreciated by Jackie Chan..
Finally , a lifelong friend of An other french legend, Alain Delon..
Jean Seberg was so charming..
"JLG"Jean-Luc Godard RIP
Thank you - really enjoyed the education! I'll be off to click through the links in my second and third times through.
Mark Freeman Thanks for the comment! Glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent, CinemaTyler. Seen it 3- timer +
Wonderful. Love the tab idea as it works :)
Thanks for making this video. Learned a lot about one of my fav films.
Nice video essay bro!!
+SonofSivadas Thanks!
what a great video! very informative in an interesting way
+Sigal Deluya Thank you!
Verry complete and interesting video! Thanks a lot for that! I really think there should be more analysis and less critics in Cinema. I'm pretty glad you did so :)
Clara Imbeau Thanks very much! I always found the idea of art criticism very strange because art is so subjective. I imagine it takes a bit of creativity to dislike a piece of art and consider what should have been done differently. I find it fascinating that the major players of the French New Wave started out as critics themselves. That said, the thing I really love about film analysis over film criticism is that it doesn't seek to end the conversation (through persuasion), but instead it seeks to provoke discussion.
this was a great great essay, thanks!
Amazing video. thanks for making this. Inspirational.
ibopwebop Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching!
Awesome , because you used the very tools you were showing, more important it get me thinking and wondering how I could use them in my own art. Thank you and well done. Al
Tyler,Tyler,Tyler where to start? Ok, you got yarbles, great big bolshey yarbles. I mean here it is, the new wave of film criticism, anybody can do it and you have, I salute you. Now about technique, I have to agree with Goddard and you, technique is in the way but in the way of what? I didn't hear the word meaning in your essay. The way things look and how they got on screen is and should be in the service of meaning but no mention of it. I know I'm old enough to have seen Breathless when it first hit the art houses but technique in the service of money, success, sex, violence etc that cries out for criticism. Young film makers have the benefit of freedom of technique but usually don't have much meaningful to say. Young critics seem to think it's not so important either.
+Batta Beru Thanks for taking the time to comment. With this video, I wanted to take the approach of introducing the techniques through historical context and then talking about technique from a practical standpoint. I felt that the meaning behind the documentary style was based more on constrained production and it was the critics that kind of forced the meaning onto it. The same can sort of be said for the jump cuts. The legend is that Godard first decided to use the technique as a way to shorten the film and it just so happened to work with his desire to destroy established conventions.
I don't want to be a critic, but rather analyze what ideas and concepts can be taken from cinema history and applied today. I feel that the meaning is really up to whoever decides to use the concepts.
it's always important to watch in order to learn because, what you watch on a TV screen, it'll help you to acquire enough knowledge to make your own film, and this movie isn't the exception. On Godard, I've heard good things about him, so apart from Breathless, I'd like to ask you; what other movies of his are actually good to watch?
I love this approach! Great work
Only recently got around to seeing this one. Great video
+ActuallyDarcy Thanks! Glad you liked it!
thank you for your videos, keep up the good work!
Thanks!
I enjoyed your presentation and look forward to hearing more from you. I like the buttons. They enhance the discussion by defining the concept in the discussion.
Thanks! I wish that UA-cam still allowed you to make annotations!
Tyler, you speak my language. I see how much work that you put into it and the required passion to push it forward. Makes me want to see and learn more. Watching this vid reminded me of stuff that I had forgotten! Cheers to you!
Thanks a lot for this video.
It helped me a lot while writing my analysis to school.
Didn’t Italian neorealist films really do all of the things French new wave movies did decade(s) earlier?
1) real locations
2) more ordinary stories, social concerns and ordinary people
3) more radical cinematography?
Molto Bene. I was listening to a cut of Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" that played cuts of "What About The Soufflé, not knowing anything about it. not even knowing that it was a full movie. In that moment, for me it was a fantastic silent movieNow I am richer by far with the words you spoke. Thanks
this is such a great video! Really helped me out with my history of film class, thanks!!!
+marie welsch Thanks for watching! Happy I could help! I have such love for the French New Wave and I always seem to be able to trace the influence of my favorite films back to Breathless and The 400 Blows.
wow! great essay!! just subscribed to your channel and watched the inherent vice video, wich is also fantastic. Would love to see more stuff like this from you! keep it up! :) Best Regards!
Thanks! You will!
Good work on this vid! Would you be able to send me a link, or a copy of the photo of Truffaut and Chabrol on the sofa at 1:46, awesome pic!
Thanks! It was actually Chabrol and Godard. Such a great pic!
i.imgur.com/NIRXHep.jpg
Make more videos! I really,really loved your approach to Breathless ,I'd love to see more!!
shannon mcfarland Sorry it has been taking me so long! I've been splitting my attention between a rather in-depth video for my channel and a video series I'm doing for IndieWire. If you're interested, you can check out my IndieWire vids here: cinematyler.com/category/indiewire
Thanks for taking the time to comment! I'll try and get the new UA-cam video out soon!
this was such a help! thank you
+ayushi koul Glad you liked it!
Can you put the supplements into one clip on your main channel? It was a bit confusing to find them first, and as they were unlisted, my guess is you couldn't search for them.
Really enjoyed this. Thank you. (Subbed)
Thanks!
very good analysis, thanks!
Thank you!! :) Great information!
Glad you liked it!
Just one tip ;)
Resnais didn't pertain to the "Nouvelle Vague" (French New Wave) he was associated with the "Rive Gauche" movement with Jacques Rivette and Margueritte Duràs among others. Yes, both waves are contemporary but you should distinguish between the two in order to understand cinema history and their different imputs.
IvanRSaldias Thanks for the comment! Yes, Resnais felt that he was more of a part of the Left Bank. However, Hiroshima mon amour is often credited as one of the films that jumpstarted the French New Wave and I felt that delving into the Left Bank would deviate from the subject of Breathless and Godard too much. I have been kicking around some ideas for a video on Resnais for the future and I’ll make sure to address the distinction when I end up making it. Thanks again!
CinemaTyler I really liked your videos so far and I'm sure that one on Resnais will be awesome!
He's one of my favorites with the Marienbad, Muriel...
Cheers! ;)
IvanRSaldias Thanks! I still need to see Last Year in Marienbad! I hear such great things about it; I guess I’ve been waiting for it to come to the Film Forum or at least until I get a proper TV, so I don’t have to see it for the first time on my computer.
In case you watch it at home I really recommend you the Criterion Collection BR.
There are at least 3 versions around but that one is restored from the original
Cinematheque Française Archives. That is because of a particular light effect that can't be appreciated in an earlier DVD version.
But if you get a chance to see it in a theater it is way better.
Cheers!
PS: Actually I'm going next tuesday to the Cinematheque to see it in 35mm ;)
Thanks for the suggestion! I will make sure to go with the Criterion Bluray when I see it. That’s great that you get to see it on film! I’ll keep an eye out for any screenings that come this way.
I think you should do one on Under the Skin! The content & technique are incredible. These are great, keep it up! :)
chelsey charles I still need to see Under the Skin! I love Jonathan Glazer. Birth was great, but I particularly love his commercial work. Some of those ads he’s done are like short films themselves. I’ll check out Under the Skin soon. Thanks for the comment!
You are SERIOUSLY missing out! It's unlike any other movie experience I've ever had with contemporary cinema. I watched it in theaters and had a mini panic attack, but for obvious good reasons. You'll see what I mean haha :) Also, it's better to go into it with as little knowledge about it as possible. It's much more intense!
If you're into ambiguity art-housey films (which I mean based on the 2001 and French New Wave appreciation I'm guessing yes?) then you should also check out Denis Villeneuve's Enemy, another brilliant one that came out last year.
chelsey charles Sounds like a trip! I love that stuff. Luckily, I have managed to stay uninformed about it for the most part. I’ll put it at the top of my list. It sounds kind of weird, but I loved Prisoners so much that I’ve been saving Enemy for a special occasion. Those kinds of movies you can only see for the first time once (if that makes sense, hehe). It seems there are so few truly brilliant unfolding crime narratives these days. Thanks for the suggestions!
Learned a lot , cheers!
I don't know who directed it, but the film, " 9 Songs" is very similar to this movie. RIP
This was a great video :)
itsFlyxe Thank you!
This is one of the greatest films ever made!
@CinemaTyler Thank you. Thank you Thanks a lot. Lots of love from a random cinephile.
I learned that you should not settle for less because you will face the consequences later in life. Jean is a classic example. She paid the penalty with her life too soon Rest In Peace dear Jean
AMAZING JOB with this video
Intellectual but lively, free of pretension and cant. Love Godard.
Just brilliant! Thank you.
Abby Brill Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching!
Today’s rabbit hole - watching paint your wagon and thought who’s this jean Seberg ? which in turn bought me to breathless which whilst searching for film bought me here to this most educational study (thank you) . Now I’m desperate to watch full film ....anyone know where I can view it ?
Best Channel Ever...
Great job!
Andrea Crema Thank you!