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Breathless



There was before Breathless, and there was after Breathless. With its lack of polish, surplus of attitude, crackling personalities of rising stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, and anything-goes crime narrative, Jean-Luc Godard's debut fashioned a simultaneous homage to and critique of the American film genres that influenced and rocked him as a film writer for Cahiers du cinema. Jazzy, free-form, and sexy, Breathless (A bout de souffle) helped launch the French new wave and ensured cinema would never be the same.

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES

-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

Available on DVD and Blu-ray

DVD:
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[EDIT: The following comments about the disc being out-of-print refer to the crappy Fox Lorber/Wellspring release, not the Criterion. Contemporary discussion of the Criterion release begins here. -- Jeff]

I tried to buy this DVD used and it was going for $80 on amazon. Is it out of print? With a film of this caliber shouldn't someone be remastering it and pushing out a new double-disc DVD? Seems pretty barebones.

I was not aware this had gone out of print. At any rate, you can do a lot better on eBay or half.com.

If it's OOP though maybe this means a Criterion release is coming? It would be nice, anyway. Then again Pierrot le Fou has been OOP for a while and nothing there.

Oedipax wrote:Then again Pierrot le Fou has been OOP for a while and nothing there.

The Criterion disc is on its way. Patience.

Please don't spend 80 bucks on the Winstar (Fox Lorber) Breathless (unless you'd like to buy mine, of course). I watched it over the weekend, and the transfer is really dreadful. The David Sterritt commentary is serviceable, but is certainly not worth $80.

Amazon Marketplace sellers appear to be clinically insane. $80? You could buy a multi-region player and import the Optimum UK disc for less than that.

It makes even less sense when there are other marketplace sellers on Amazon offering the same disc new for only $20. Wild.

FilmFanSea wrote:I watched it over the weekend, and the transfer is really dreadful.

What are you talking about?? Doesn't everyone like fuzzy, shitty, green tinged transfers of black and white films?

I hope for a Criterion release. The Fox Lorber DVD is one of the worst DVDs I own. I haven't even listened to the commentary yet because I couldn't stand looking at the picture again. Worst $15 I ever spent. Will gladly sell for $50, though.

Rialto notified me about 12-18 months ago that Janus/Criterion currently hold the rights, not to mention the information included in our own Forthcoming Criterion List.

What happened with this? I don't see it on the Forthcoming List anymore.

I.) CERTAINTIES: [Titles that have been officially indicated under way for DVD issue by Criterion through their website, blog, newsletters, or emails]

BREATHLESS (1960, Jean-Luc Godard) - Criterion's email: "We do in fact hold the rights to release Breathless. While the film is not on our current release schedule, we hope to have a finished product available some time next year (2007)". UPDATE: Confirmed in Criterion's May newsletter.

From DVDBeaver:

August Criterion's announced: David Mamet's House of Games, Carlos Saura's Cria cuervos..., Luis Bunuel's The Milky Way and Godard's Breathless

Not sure why/how Gary thinks Breathless is confirmed... maybe he knows something we don't.

cgray wrote:Not sure whyhow Gary thinks Breathless is confirmed... maybe he knows something we don't.

Chances are he's mistaken. He's mixing the Breathless teaser with August's announcements. Though maybe they are waiting until the August Eclipse set is ready, if Breathless is August.

ellipsis7 wrote:...in fact Seberg led a fraught and tragically short life despite such early promise... Miscarriages, alcoholism, drug addiction, mental health problems and several abusive marriages led to her early death in August 1979 in Paris from an overdose of barbiturates and alcohol when she was aged just 40...

True, but don't forget one of the most important parts of the story: the FBI's COINTELPRO operation intended to "cheapen her image with the general public" but likely more than just that (as J. Edgar Hoover himself wrote that she "should be neutralized.") Knowing that she emotionally unstable and in psychiatic care, the agency leaked a made-up story to an L.A. Times gossip columnist that her pregnancy was not from her husband but from a Black Panther. As a famous white woman, her support for the Panthers was the reason the FBI undertook this operation, as Seberg herself was aware. Immediately after the column appeared she attempted suicide, which caused the premature birth of her fetus, which subsequently died. After that, Seberg routinely attempted suicide on or near the anniversary of the death of her unborn baby, until she finally succeeded in 1979.

(I thought I would post this in the appropriate thread rather than in the Criterion Newsletter one.)

justeleblanc wrote:Just point me where it says Breathless is coming in August.

If i'm not mistaken - didn't DvdBeaver mention that Breathless was scheduled for an August release (although I think this is a mistake on their part but who knows)?

Here's what they said:

August Criterion's announced: David Mamet's House of Games, Carlos Saura's Cria cuervos..., Luis Bunuel's The Milky Way and Godard's Breathless...

I'm just awaiting confirmation so I can set my Fox Lorber DVD on fire.

Probably spine #400 but it got delayed for some reason. Maybe they found an extra to add.

Still, I'm not sure DVDBeaver has any more information than we do.

Oh, and burn your Fox Lorber already. Film it. And put it on YouTube.

Send the ashes back to Fox Lorber.

I know you guys are joking, but the old Breathless disc is worth holding onto for the Sterritt commentary.

domino harvey wrote:I know you guys are joking, but the old Breathless disc is worth holding onto for the Sterritt commentary.

I've always found him boring....maybe it's just his voice, but I couldn't get through 10 minutes of that commentary.

tavernier wrote:

domino harvey wrote:I know you guys are joking, but the old Breathless disc is worth holding onto for the Sterritt commentary.

I've always found him boring....maybe it's just his voice, but I couldn't get through 10 minutes of that commentary.

Okay, rip the commentary to your computer. Then....

Also, I'm not sure if this was already posted, but Breathless will be at BAMin June.

If it's okay with the internet, I'm going to go ahead and not burn my disc. Please don't ban me from the forum.

domino harvey wrote:If it's okay with the internet, I'm going to go ahead and not burn my disc. Please don't ban me from the forum.

I'll burn mine as soon as criterion has it on their site.

OK, if we're really going to do this, wait for me -- I will buy the Fox Lorber release, then add it to our bonfire; then buy the Criterion disc.

so should we make this a group youtube thing?
one profile with multiple videos of burning breathless discs?

glad i skipped the 'Breathless' DVD then... i'm sure you all like the FAR superior Richard Gere version more...