criterionforum.org

Moe Dickstein wrote:If that's the case (Dual Format reissue) it will be interesting to see how they handle the release, it's not technically a "new" release since both Blu and DVD were previously available. Will it just be put out for sale with no warning or will it be part of monthly announcements?

They could add on some additional Godard supplements to justify a new release

They do have the rights to the documentary "Chambre 12, Hotel de suede", don't they? That could be the reason... like how that Bruce Lee doc on the old "Enter The Dragon" disc was deleted from the subsequent pressings.

If it's a new edition then of course it would go in with the announcements. I wonder how they will handle something strictly moving into Dual Format with no other changes though.

Criterion's message is so specific and peculiar that it's probably something as straightforward as a reprint (and maybe a repackage), and they've depleted their own stocks of the disc until the new ones are available.

There are many titles on the website with that message about going to Amazon.

anything new or lost?

movielocke wrote:anything new or lost?

From the first post in this thread:

-New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director of photography Raoul Coutard
-Archival interviews with director Jean-Luc Godard, and actors Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, and Jean-Pierre Melville
-New video interviews with Coutard, assistant director Pierre Rissient, and filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker
-New video essays: filmmaker and critic Mark Rappaport’s “Jean Seberg” and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum’s “Breathless as Film Criticism”
-Chambre 12, Hotel de suede, an eighty-minute French documentary about the making of Breathless, with members of the cast and crew
-Charlotte et son Jules, a 1959 short film by Godard, starring Belmondo
-French theatrical trailer
-New and improved English subtitle translation
-PLUS: A booklet featuring writings from Godard, film historian Dudley Andrew, Francois Truffaut’s original film treatment, and Godard’s scenario

From Criterion's website:

Restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director of photography Raoul Coutard, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Archival interviews with director Jean-Luc Godard and actors Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, and Jean-Pierre Melville
Contemporary interviews with Coutard, assistant director Pierre Rissient, and filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker
Two video essays, one on Seberg and one on Breathless as film criticism
Chambre 12, Hôtel de suède, an eighty-minute 1993 documentary about the making of Breathless
Charlotte et son Jules, a 1959 short by Godard starring Belmondo
Trailer
One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by scholar Dudley Andrew, writings by Godard, François Truffaut’s original treatment, and Godard’s scenario

So, no.
I guess "Breathless" is their first foray into a full dual-format catalogue. No upgrades, no additions, no subtractions. Probably just a full repackaging.

I haven't read up on much of the (surely plentiful) critical theory to be written in the wake of this film, but I was just wondering whether I am alone in thinking that the main tension of the film is between the spectator's deep investment in cinema (and, by extension, probably all forms of popular culture) and the consequent alienation from one's emotions engendered by excessive exposure to fiction. As has been well-observed by many others in this thread, one of the main attractions of the film is how absolutely fascinating Belmondo's character is. The indebtedness of his attitudes and mannerisms to post-war Hollywood genre cinema render him something of a walking anachronism, a movie character torn out of a movie and placed into a city which is otherwise portrayed in relatively documentary-like fashion (with the exception being some of the supporting characters, like the detective who meets with Seberg, who bring to mind classic Hollywood character actor parts). Seberg's character, on the other hand, is vastly easier to relate to (fascinating as she is in her own right) so, as an audience member, one tends to more readily place oneself in her shoes, and the relationship between the two becomes more one of spectatorship than of love, a concept the film already treats ambiguously (the closest thing to a definition of love given being Belmondo's story about the rich girl who stuck with a crook and went to jail with him). Consequently, a major thrust of the film is the power of attractiveness that cinema can have on the audience.

At the same time, the film explores the tendency of film (and all fiction) to desensitize the spectator, as evidenced in the scene where Belmondo is relatively unmoved on witnessing the accidental death of a random pedestrian by car. This desensitization leads to the callousness of Seberg, who - in spite of being something of an audience surrogate - takes the somewhat jarring steps of being less than shocked on discovering Belmondo's murdering of a cop, and goes on to, with a similarly unsettling dearth of emotion,

Spoiler

inform on him. The alienation from one's emotions is shown, in this act, to be extended to alienation from other people, which culminates in the communication breakdown that takes place as Belmondo lays dying, his final words receiving no response but her inscrutable stare (making the situation all the more pointedly awkward by being pointed directly at the camera) and also being misunderstood.

Somebody, please argue with me!

Per Amazon, separate DVD and blu-ray editions are coming on November 15

Again? What's the point, unless they're finally ditching the Digipak?

The only one in print right now is dual format. They are probably running out of stock...

It still seems surprising they made this / 400 Blows Dual Format in the first place. I guess they used to have lofty ideas of making everything Dual Format.

Again, everyone should probably expect all of the Dual Formats to go OOP at some point, so if you want a free DVD or Blu included in your purchase price, then act sooner than later. Criterion.com usually has stock of the DF release long after other retailers.

Finally thumbed through my coffee table book of Raymond Cauchetier's the New Wave (Or maybe it should have been called Set Pictures of Breathless and Jules and Jim), and this picture of Chabrol and Godard on the set is the greatest thing:

DISCUSSION ENDS MONDAY, November 26th.

Members have a two week period in which to discuss the film before it's moved to its dedicated thread in The Criterion Collection subforum. Please read the Rules and Procedures.

This thread is not spoiler free. This is a discussion thread; you should expect plot points of the individual films under discussion to be discussed openly. See: spoiler rules.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

I encourage members to submit questions, either those designed to elicit discussion and point out interesting things to keep an eye on, or just something you want answered. This will be extremely helpful in getting discussion started. Starting is always the hardest part, all the more so if it's unguided. Questions can be submitted to me via PM.

Our discussion this week is the final winner of the Jean, Jean, and John mini list project.

I was rereading the Nouvelle Vague thread recently and this came up a couple times, so I'm curious: When/how did everyone first see this film? What was your first impression like? Was it your first Godard film?

Naturally I heard about Godard long before I saw any of his films. He's just one of those names that's entered the collective unconscious. I didn't search out his films though until the OOP scare picking up this and Contempt.

For obvious reasons I chose to watch this though it was under noisy circumstances making this feel too fast paced and frantic exhausting me entirely. Even when rewatching it under ideal conditions though the film just didn't work for me. Since I have warmed up a little, but it actually remains one of my least favorite Godard's and I actually prefer the remake.

I first saw Breathless at film school in about 1985. I appreciated it more from an academic point of view and historical value than it knocking my socks of. Unlike Vivre sa Vie which came next and to this day remains my favourite Godard even though I am over my Brechtian infatuation.
I did however borrow Belmondo's iconic gesture a couple of months later for the first ever video clip I did for the Redskins 'Bring it down'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXo6jRGHgr4. Hommage or rip off? Who cares.

domino harvey wrote: Mon Dec 10, 2018 4:41 pm I was rereading the Nouvelle Vague thread recently and this came up a couple times, so I'm curious: When/how did everyone first see this film? What was your first impression like? Was it your first Godard film?

It was my first. I'd already seen several of Truffaut's films and had probably spent a little more time reading about movies than watching them, so I knew the essence of what Nouvelle Vague was. This was one of the first discs I had sent to me when I got Netflix in 2006 (I would have been 22 if that's relevant). To be honest, I fast-tracked it less because of its historical importance than because I'd seen clips of it in some documentary (some of the driving scenes, as I recall) and was really enticed by the style of it, both in terms of its frenetic sense of motion and its choppy jump cuts. It lived up to my expectations. I'm still trying to find my connection to Godard's other films.

I think I've talked about this before elsewhere on the forum, but I'll answer my own questions: A bout de souffle was my first Godard film, shown on the first day of a French New Wave class in college. I'd already had a few film classes under my belt, but had no real passion for movies, though these courses helped me lay a groundwork for being able to receive what Godard's film did differently. It's melodramatic but true: this film changed my life. I had no idea movies could do what this movie did. I sought out as many Godard films as I could outside of the syllabus-- luckily my professor was a published Godard scholar and not only had a great collection of VHSes of most of his films in an era when subtitled US DVDs were few and far between, but also made me copies of his published scholarly articles, none of which I've ever encountered collected in Godard-specific books and journals. He was also the most far Right Wing professor I ever had, just as a side note-- trust me, for some the right wing politics of Godard's early films are quite apparent (though he was also a fan of late period Godard-- it takes a true madman to program Comment ca va? in an intro to French New Wave class!). I soon picked up Godard on Godard and read it cover to cover and took note of all the films I hadn't seen or heard of (which was most at that time) and went through the process of slowly watching as many as I could, then branching off from those films into other films and so on until my own tastes were discovered and nourished in a combination of my influences/guidance and my own discoveries. It is a film I owe a great debt, and like anyone's first love, I will always remember it fondly (and unlike most first loves, I'm still in touch and on good terms with it!)

First Godard? Les Carabiniers. Why? Bought this on DVD based on a whim. Luckily, I liked it. Breathless may have been the 4th or 5th Godard film I saw.

Actually, first heard of Godard through reading about film history and the New Wave. Watched Breathless and 400 Blows, and disliked the first while I loved the latter. I then foolishly jumped to Vivre Sa Vie (which I liked), and then King Lear for some reason. Was sure Godard was all style and no substance and proclaimed him not for my taste.
But, then I started getting more knowledgeable about cinema, genres etc., which made me understand more what the New Wave sought to do, but most of all I read Caboose's book of Godard talks in Montreal and a few other interview books with him, and then caught A Woman is a Woman (35mm)/ Pierrot Le Fou (DCP) double bill while I visited NYC, which made me understand Godard. Once I got home I watched Breathless again and then Contempt and my mind was blown.
As I wrote in Image Book forum, Film School prevents me atm to see the films I want to, but when I'll have the time I plan on going through his films chronologically (doing that with Tsai was such a joy), and to finally reach my Dziga Vertov Blu-rays.

I first saw Breathless in first year film class in University. I’d read plenty about Godard and the French New Wave before then, and had already seen Contempt (my first Godard and still a top ten favourite film) and Alphaville. I enjoyed and appreciated Breathless, but neither it nor the subsequent Godards I saw captured me, and I haven’t followed up with him the way I did with Kurosawa, Bergman, and Fellini, to list a few big-name art-house directors I’d also discovered in high school.

I was familiar with the remake from late-night cable airings in the 90s. My interest in classic film began when I was about 13, and I think Entertainment Weekly published their special Top 100 issue when I was 16 (around 2000 or so). I'll always treasure that list as it pointed me in the direction of The Seventh Seal, Jules and Jim, The Conformist, Celine and Julie Go Boating, and many others that my teen self never heard of. One of the films included was Godard's Breathless, and I was struck because I didn't realize that sleazy Richard Gere movie was a remake of a French film. Next time it aired on TCM, I watched it and was blown away. It was inventive and exciting in a way that was completely new to me (my acquaintance with non-Hollywood movies was still pretty scanty at the time). While I was dipping my toes into foreign film territory, it would still be some years before I began taking note of directors or particular film movements, like the French New Wave. Interestingly, I've been a little cool on Godard ever since, with nothing by him quite captivating me like this first one, though Prenom Carmen comes close.