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I was a bit young for it the first time I saw Breathless -- twelve or thirteen. My dad was playing it on a small reel-to-reel film projector borrowed from the university library. I can remember being dismayed or at least bemused that the death of the policeman was treated so inconsequentially. For whatever reason, the image I retained from that early viewing was of Belmondo fleeing on foot across the fields at dusk.

I believe I checked it out from the university library either my freshman or sophomore year at a time when I was dutifully making my way through some "greatest films" list. My initial response was bafflement at its reputation; I remember looking online for reasons it was supposed to be great and remaining unconvinced. At the time I preferred the accessible warmth of The 400 Blows, which I had already seen. I remember when I had to screen it again for a junior year course in International Film that I remained similarly incredulous about its quality if not importance. For a long time my relative indifference to both Godard and Hitchcock made me wonder if I was some kind of imposter cinephile. It wasn't until I saw Vivre sa vie and later Une femme mariee that I began to appreciate Godard for anything more than his impact upon other filmmakers I preferred. I think I now enjoy my memories of Breathless more than I ever enjoyed an actual viewing experience, which probably means it's time to give it a rewatch!

From Jean Collet's diary tracking the Cine-club screenings he hosted in 1965, as translated via Cahiers du cinema in English. No. 3, 1966

Breathless is being presented at Il Cinema Ritrovato in a fortnight, in the 'Recovered and restored 2020' section.
Other than the fact that the copy is from Studiocanal, does anyone have any further information about this?
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/e ... e-souffle/

BillyLiar wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 2:12 am Breathless is being presented at Il Cinema Ritrovato in a fortnight, in the 'Recovered and restored 2020' section.
Other than the fact that the copy is from Studiocanal, does anyone have any further information about this?
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/e ... e-souffle/

I saw today that StudioCanal announced a new 4K blu-ray.

Part of me thinks: Does this movie really need a 4K restoration? I don't see 4K enhancing the Breathless home viewing experience. I guess it might look a little more filmic or something?

domino harvey wrote: Thu Jul 04, 2019 6:01 am


From Jean Collet's diary tracking the Cine-club screenings he hosted in 1965, as translated via Cahiers du cinema in English. No. 3, 1966

This is great. I taught this movie for a few years in a high school media class and was always a little frustrated by how students talked about it. They'd been so trained in symbology that they couldn't help looking for meaning in everything. Texts to them were like puzzles to be solved, which, in my view, can often diminish the joy of reading and watching those texts.

So we read a little Sontag. I don't think it helped. By the end of the year, they much preferred Bicycle Thieves (which is great!) largely because, as my theory goes, there are concrete things any viewer can say about it. They could never quite wrap their heads around Godard.

TheKieslowskiHaze wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 1:42 am

BillyLiar wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 2:12 am Breathless is being presented at Il Cinema Ritrovato in a fortnight, in the 'Recovered and restored 2020' section.
Other than the fact that the copy is from Studiocanal, does anyone have any further information about this?
https://festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/e ... e-souffle/

I saw today that StudioCanal announced a new 4K blu-ray.

Part of me thinks: Does this movie really need a 4K restoration? I don't see 4K enhancing the Breathless home viewing experience. I guess it might look a little more filmic or something?

Any film would be enhanced by UHD. The restoration of Breathless used on the Criterion BD is quite old. The new restoration even on a BD disc would be an enhancement. On UHD, there will be better contrast, better detail in highlights and shadows, better preservation of high frequency detail, and it will look better in motion (since the higher bitrate preserves more information related to movement).

The resto is also being released on Blu-ray the same day

bluesforyou wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 4:19 amAny film would be enhanced by UHD. The restoration of Breathless used on the Criterion BD is quite old. The new restoration even on a BD disc would be an enhancement. On UHD, there will be better contrast, better detail in highlights and shadows, better preservation of high frequency detail, and it will look better in motion (since the higher bitrate preserves more information related to movement).

Yeah, I understand all that. I'll put it this way:

When I first saw The Thin Red Line on blu-ray, after having seen it only on DVD, I thought: "Oh wow, this looks amazing, and this movie is actually pretty great." I didn't love Malick as a filmmaker until blu-ray was invented, as his biggest strength (cinematography) did not translate all that well to DVD and VHS.

If I ever see this 4K restoration of Breathless, however, I imagine I'll think something like: "Oh wow, the contrast is better."

I'm open to being proven wrong. Maybe it will deepen my appreciation for Breathless. I'm not complaining. I guess it's an aggregate good that the home viewing experience is getting closer and closer to an authentic theater experience. And I don't own Breathless in any format, so I may pick it up.

I think it's a question that lies between heavily visual films and improved reproduction of a movie : even if a movie might not be a constant feast for the eye, it will still gain from a better more faithful reproduction through a better more faithful restoration and a more advanced format. Do only "eye-candy" movies ostensibly gain from this more faithful reproduction ? I don't think so.
And, after all, even Breathless probably didn't look so good on home video in the past, and its history on home video might not be that different from TTRL.

Hopefully they make an effort not to repeat Studio Canal's mistakes

they must've heard all our complaints about The Rules of the Game and especially The Seventh Seal - nice to see HDR/DV on a big catalog title. I avoided the canal edition but if Criterion can "right the ship" here like they did for Le Cercle Rouge I'll definitely pick this up, but it'll for sure be a "wait for the reviews" one.

this was a DVD to Bluray upgrade, a Bluray to dual format "upgrade", and now a Bluray to UHD upgrade. I think this is the only title so far where this is the case, something only The 400 Blows can (and will, since we know a boxset upgrade is eventually coming) top

therewillbeblus wrote: Fri Apr 14, 2023 4:23 pm Hopefully they make an effort not to repeat Studio Canal's mistakes

Can you remind me what they were? I think I missed that!

Rayon Vert wrote: Sun Apr 23, 2023 11:29 pm

therewillbeblus wrote: Fri Apr 14, 2023 4:23 pm Hopefully they make an effort not to repeat Studio Canal's mistakes

Can you remind me what they were? I think I missed that!

I'm really not the right person to comment on UHD stuff, since I don't understand most of the lingo or rationales on quality, but I believe it was very poorly encoded and seems to be frequently cited as a model example of how one can fuck up a B&W transfer on the format

Oh you're talking about the UHD! I was thinking about the blu-ray. There's so many releases of this (and I have several of them) that I'm utterly confused right now. I'm gathering the new release with also have a blu-ray that also uses a new 4K restoration that supersedes the previous Criterion blu-ray? I'm wondering if it's supposed to be superior to the blu-ray released as part of the 2017 Studio Canal Godard boxset.

Rayon Vert wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2023 3:01 amI'm gathering the new release with also have a blu-ray that also uses a new 4K restoration that supersedes the previous Criterion blu-ray?

Doubtfully - it seems most of Criterion's dual format UHD upgrades are coming with the old transfer on blu-ray (i.e. Blow Out, Three Colors, etc.)

therewillbeblus wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2023 3:32 am

Rayon Vert wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2023 3:01 amI'm gathering the new release with also have a blu-ray that also uses a new 4K restoration that supersedes the previous Criterion blu-ray?

Doubtfully - it seems most of Criterion's dual format UHD upgrades are coming with the old transfer on blu-ray (i.e. Blow Out, Three Colors, etc.)

Not most. All, per the email they sent me when I inquired.

Le cercle rouge's Blu-ray uses the new restoration. That's the only one I'm aware of to do so.

And the original Blu-ray is OOP, so that's why