Breathless, a low-budget film, came to be regardedas one of the major accomplishments of the French New Wave cinema of the early sixties. It had a tremendous influence on French filmmakers and on world cinema in general. Beyond its significance in film history, it was also a film of considerable cultural impact. In Breathless, Jean-Luc Godard captured the spirit of a disillusioned generation and fashioned a style, which drew on the past, to parade that disillusionment.In his introduction, Dudley Andrew brilliantly explains what Godard set out to accomplish in Breathless. He illuminates the intertextual and cultural references of the film and the tensions withiin it between tradition and innovation. This volume also features, for the first time in English, the complete and accurate continuity script of Breathless, together with Francois Truffaut's surprisingly detailed original treatment. Also included are an in-depth selection of reviews and criticism in French and English; a brief biographical sketch of the director's life that covers the development of his career, as well as a filmography and selected bibliography.Dudley Andrew is a professor of film studies and comparative literature at Yale University. He is the author of Concepts in Film Theory, Andre Bazin, Flim in the Aura of Art, and other books on film.

Introduction 

Breathless: Old as New / 3
Dudley Andrew 

Jean-Luc Godard: A Biographical 
Sketch / 21

Breathless

Credits and Cast / 31

The Continuity Script / 33 

Notes on the Continuity Script / 147

The Original Treatment, Francois
Truffaut / 153

Interviews, Reviews, and Commentaries

Interview with Godard 

    Yvonne Baby, Le Monde, March 18, 1960 / 165

    Jean-Luc Godard, "I'm Not Out of Breath," Art, March 1960 / 167

    Films and Filming, September 1961 / 169

    Cahier du Cinema, December 1962 / 171

Statements 

    Geoges de Beauregard, Producer, 1963 / 175

    Raoul Coutard, Director of Photography, 1963 / 175

    Francois Truffaut, 1963 / 177

Reviews 

    Le Monde, Jean de Baroncelli / 181

    Arts, Pierre Marcabru / 183 

    Le Figaro Litteraire, Claude Mauriac / 184

    Le Figaro, Louis Chauvet / 186

    Variety, Gene Moskowitz / 188

    Sight and Sound, Louis Marcorelles / 189

    The New York Times, Bosley Crowther / 191 

    The New York Republic, Stanley Kauffmann / 193

    Times / 195

    Film Quarterly, Arlene Croce / 197

    Esquire, Dwight MacDonald / 200

    The Times (London) / 203

    Films and Filming, Gordon Gow / 204

Commentaries 

    Jean-Luc Gordard, Luc Moullet / 209

    On Breathless, Jean Carta / 215

    A Bout de Souffle, Charles Barr / 220

    The Graphic in Filmic Writing, Marie-Claire Ropars / 224

Filmography and Bibliography 

    Gordard Filmography, 1954-1985 / 235

    Selected Bibliography / 239