Read this article. Choose a scene in Breathless and respond to the following quote. Be sure to write at least 2 paragraphs. Respond to each others' posts for extra credit. Here's the quote:
"This basic sequence of events is the minimal thread of continuity that holds the filmic narrative together. However, causal development and character motivation in the traditional sense are relatively loose. While the film does not reject narrative conventions as a whole, it goes a long way towards weakening the tight-knit structure and explanatory mechanisms affiliated with dominant narrative. The film's visual construction works even more aggressively against conventional film style. It systematically departs from the aesthetic guidelines and rules defined by continuity editing, relying variously on long-take sequences (often shot with hand-held camera) and jump cutting."
"This basic sequence of events is the minimal thread of continuity that holds the filmic narrative together. However, causal development and character motivation in the traditional sense are relatively loose. While the film does not reject narrative conventions as a whole, it goes a long way towards weakening the tight-knit structure and explanatory mechanisms affiliated with dominant narrative. The film's visual construction works even more aggressively against conventional film style. It systematically departs from the aesthetic guidelines and rules defined by continuity editing, relying variously on long-take sequences (often shot with hand-held camera) and jump cutting."
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ReplyDeleteIn Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 A Bout De Souffle, better known as Breathless, the director utilizes techniques such as discontinuity editing to explore the possibilities of bending narrative conventions. Near the beginning of the movie, Michel Poiccard pays a visit to one of his girlfriends to borrow some money. However, this girlfriend only shows up once, and her only importance is so that Michel can steal some of her money for his own convenience. This shows how Godard is experimenting with the traditional narrative style by weakening the cause-and-effect relationship. This scene of the film does little to serve the narrative, acting more as a tangent or side note than a driving piece of plot.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to breaking narrative conventions, Godard also experiments with discontinuity editing, namely the jump cut which Godard makes use of many times throughout the scene. For example, when the girl is asking Michel what he's been up to, the camera cuts to a shot of Michel already sitting when we haven’t observed him sitting down before. In two other shots where the take should have been continuous, we see the framing jump slightly as the dialogue continues, creating a jarring effect. The most noticeable jump cut occurs after Michel has sat down at the girl's makeup table and the shot jumps from a medium long shot of both characters looking at each other to an over-the-shoulder close-up of Michel looking at himself in the mirrors. With all these jump cuts, Godard defies standard editing conventions by attracting attention to the editing. He creates a scene that is very casual and loose-knit within itself, just like the narrative.
Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless was created during the French New Wave as an antithesis to the predictable and stale conventions of french cinema that had preceded it, and this is heavily portrayed through its experimental and unorthodox use of editing, shots and narrative structure. The film meanders through its story with the same casual attitudes as the characters, as plot threads and characters are introduced and abandoned just as shot length, established setting and scene transitions are only loosely utilized if at all.
ReplyDeleteConsider the opening sequence, wherein Michel drives to an unknown destination monologuing in a stream of consciousness fashion over nothing in particular. Though his character is revealed, his motivations beyond being a general gangster is left unknown to the audience. This confusion is aided by the unconventional editing and disjointed shots. In some moments the camera is positioned in the front seat showing the road ahead; in others it's pointed at Michel, jumping between both front and back seats; in others still it's outside and pans as the car moves. The shots themselves are cut with the same disjointed feel as Michel's monologue, and twice in the scene he breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience directly. In all of this, the sequence indicates how the rest of the movie will play out; instead of an easily understood plot, it's a meandering story with no real structure, and the audience is only along for the ride.
Breathless is a 1960 crime/drama film that was directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Breathless is a French New Wave film and because of this, it does not follow the same conventions as most other films. This film had gone against the grain by doing things that have been either avoided or not commonly used such as discontinuity editing, on location filming, and increased use of handheld shots.
ReplyDeleteFor example, the second scene of this film opens up with our main character driving down the highway by himself. Most films at this time period would use fades or cut out unimportant footage to show the passage of time but discontinuity editing is used to compress time in this scene. Many jump cuts are used in this scene to show more of the plot without increasing the screen duration. Another convention that is broken in this scene is maintaining the fourth wall. It seemed that Michel was talking to himself in this scene until he started talking to the camera. This not only made it seem like he was addressing the audience, but it also served to make the audience feel like they were in the car with him, as the camera was placed in the passenger seat. This helped the audience get a more intimate sense of his personality. Last but not least, the longer handheld takes gave the scene and increased feeling of realism.
Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless is a film born out of French New Wave, a movement of cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Released in 1960, Breathless attempts to defy the conventions of films that had preceded it. Through the usage of techniques such as discontinuity editing, Godard creates a unique narrative that flows differently from other films. However, despite the unconventional approach to editing, Breathless has an equal, if not greater impact on its audience when compared with other films.
ReplyDeleteGodard’s use of discontinuity editing can often be jarring, but he often will use this style of editing specifically for that purpose. Godard uses jump cuts to speed up the pacing of a scene where the action in that scene is slower in pace. This is evident in a scene nearing the end of the film, in which main characters Michel and Patricia are in the backseat of a cab and in a great rush to get back to Michel’s apartment. In this sequence, there are numerous jump cuts from the viewpoint of the backseat in which Michel is ordering the cab driver to hurry through traffic. The framing of each of these shots stays relatively the same, with the cab driver being the only prominent figure in the foreground, and the traffic in front of him occupying the background. Variance in the flow and volume of traffic within each frame, in addition to the abruptness of the jump cuts, speeds up the pace of the scene. In doing this, Godard is adding suspense and urgency where it did not exist before. He is able to demonstrate the narrative power of a jump cut and how it can solidify the mood of a scene or even an entire film.
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ReplyDeleteJean-Luc Godard's Breathless is a significant representation of the French New Wave and depicts discontinuity editing and jump cuts. Breathless breaks away from the conventions of films that preceded it. Through editing style, the use of jump cuts creates a jarring affect which takes away from the actual narrative in itself and causes the viewer to pay more attention to the cut rather than what's happening. This makes sense as the French New Wave had loose narratives where the preceding "dominant narrative" had been replaced.
ReplyDeleteIn the scene where Patricia and Michel are waiting outside for the car, Patricia asks Michel where the car is. He tells her that it is in the garage and the camera cuts to a shot of Michel where the cars are parked. The use of this discontinuity editing creates a different pace as certain actions are taken away completely such as how Michel got from the restaurant with Patricia to outside, trying to steal a car. The jump cuts also create more attention towards the editing style while at the same time creating more suspense and anxiety as Patricia is unaware to the fact that Michel is stealing a car. Godard defies the normal conventions of film through his ways of drawing more attention to the editing itself than the narrative structure which is loosely knit along with character motivation. As Ates had said in his response, the main motivation for the movie is creating a meandering structure rather than a strong, dominant, tight knit narrative that is the focus of the film. Everything about the structures within the film are casual with no real emphasis on narrative.
A Bout de Souffle is a 1960 crime/drama film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It was Godard's first full-length feature film and was one of the eaqrliest examples of French New Wave. In the film, Godard uses discontinuity editing and jump cuts to break away from the previous boundaries of film.
ReplyDeleteJump cuts and discontinuity editing are used in the film to test the limits of what can be accomplished cinematically rather than develop the story or narrative. Before A Bout de Souffle, almost every film used continuity editing with the goal of developing the narrative and story, and not worrying about testing the limits of cinema. Godard uses jump cuts to make an otherwise boring scene exciting and fast to the viewer. This creates a tone of comedy and carelessness rather than drama and seriousness. The jump cuts also draw much more attention to the editing in the film, while in most other films, the editing is practically unnoticeable.
Breathless, a New-Wave film by Jean-Luc Godard, is an exemplary example of technique and discontinuity editing as per the time in France. Within, we see several of the standard practices of New Wave, such as jump cuts and long shots. What makes them distinct however, is how Godard uses them to grab attention or to convey meaning.
ReplyDeleteThere is a sequence in the movie during which Poiccard is taking a long drive through the country side. Here we are shown him from the same front view, but we don't get a particular instance to focus on. This is because Godard jump cuts between different parts the drive. This is later shown to be a window into Poiccard's view of instances. There are instances like here, where he isn't really focused, so the movie skips around. This is evident in the dialogue and his actions, as he talks and acts to distract himself and almost crashes at one point. However, there are points later on, like when he insists on knowing who the man kissing Patricia was, that are completely cut free. This is because Poiccard is very focused on the matter at hand. This kind of unique use of jump cuts is a large part of why it works; even though Godard breaks rules, he conveys even greater meaning then following the rules would've.
Breathless is a film made during the French New Wave Movement in cinema. Like many of its counterparts within the same genre, Breathless marks a departure from the previous standard of continuous and formulaic method of storytelling. The director Jean Luc Godard uses discontinuity editing and jump cuts to fragment the storyline into a string of events that seem only loosely related. This style of editing calls attention to itself, unlike the "invisible" cuts favored by earlier filmmakers.
ReplyDeleteIn one of the scenes toward the beginning of the film, the main character Michel is shown driving down a road in the countryside before murdering a policeman. This scene includes several jump cuts, which are very deliberately noticeable and jarring for the viewer. At the beginning of the sequence, there are three consecutive shots of the road from Michel's point of view as the car is moving. Each of these shots take place in a completely different location, as if parts of his drive were intentionally left out. Later on, Michel is shot from the side as he talks directly to the camera, before the scene jump cuts to a later point in time where he is looking at the road. These two actions were likely only a few seconds apart, but the jump cut creates a sense of uncertainty, making it more difficult to predict what will happen next. When he is pursued by a police officer, another series of jump cuts are used to show close ups of the gun as he loads it to kill the policeman. These images of the gun seem very sudden, given that he was enjoying a casual country drive moments earlier. As a result, the murder seems entirely unprompted and thoughtless. Throughout the rest of the film, there is no clear explanation for the murder, raising more questions than answers about Michel's character.
Breathless, directed by Francois Truffaut, is an exceptional example of experimental editing and continuity. The quote is spot on where it identifies the narrative as relatively loose. The movie seemed to be an expansion of one small idea instead of a whole plot on its own, focusing heavily on technique and aesthetic instead of development of the narrative. This is especially clear when it comes to the characters themselves, who besides their names and careers, are left primarily up to the viewer's imagination. Almost as if the editor had decided to completely delete the beginning of the movie. Instead we are dropped into a film with already established relationships and a plot that seems already set in motion.
ReplyDeleteHowever the use of cinematic technique throughout the film makes the very odd narrative work and work well, especially with jump cuts. The jump cuts work to create the feeling that we aren’t supposed to have a full grasp on the plot. Just as the jump cuts leave holes or missing pieces so did the narrative. Which is why it worked so well versus a movie with a traditional narrative. It left the holes by deleting the fluff and focusing solely on what we needed to know about the characters and plot. Such as the scene where Patricia and Michel are driving in the car and he is describing her or the scenes where they are in bed and he tells her to take off her shirt. The use of jump cuts separating each description or demand creates the feeling that the conversation is extremely long and that is all they talk about. Showing that despite their comfortability level their relationship is superficial, without taking the time to show that through normal methods of dialogue. The jump cuts help focus on only the important parts of the conversations without taking the time to show the whole thing. The minimal continuity is actually what holds the film together. Piecing together unconventional narrative into one cohesive and exciting film.
*Jean-Luc Godard
DeleteBreathless, directed by Jean-Luc Godard, is a highly recognized French new wave film. The most memorable scene is the last one, in which Michel lays dying in the center of the street. Patricia looms over him and watches as he makes faces at her. This scene would be entirely different, and much less notable, if it had closely followed narrative conventions. For example, neither Patricia or Michel are explicitly meant to be sympathized with. The viewer is freely able to develop opinions on these characters without being deliberately influenced to sympathize or to not sympathize with them. There is no protagonist or antagonist. However, if there were a protagonist and an antagonist, the final scene would inflict a more concrete feeling on the viewer. But, instead, each individual is able to form a unique emotional response to the end of the film depending on their thoughts on Patricia and Michel. There is no bias. All of the loose character development occurs within an outside perspective as well, which makes the film a much more personalized experience.
ReplyDeleteFrench new wave is similar to Italian neorealism in some ways. In fact, the French new wave movement was inspired by Italian neorealism. Still, new wave is less dramatic. Breathless was shot on location, which is a common characteristic of a neorealist film. Its usage gives a film not only a convincing environment, but a sense of comfort. Godard’s film also utilizes a shaky camera. This style of cinematography gives the movie a documentary feel. Breaking conventions by employing the on-location shooting and the shaky camerawork was a daring choice. However, it was the correct one. These aspects of the film give the viewer a very realistic impression. Breathless is genuine, it’s different. Godard managed to invent his own aesthetic guidelines and change cinematic history forever.