Breathless- Godard

I found Breathless to be a film that I enjoyed more and more as I thought about the New Wave aspects and how cleverly they were used to give the viewer a certain feeling.  Breathless is Godards first full length film and it is easy to see how it had an effect on the New Wave era of movie making.  Godard took a typical gangster genera and made it into much more, often toying with typical gangster actions and making them unfamiliar or strange.  

Very loud off beat jazz music is often accompanied by extremely choppy scenes and jump cuts. These sound effects are almost distracting and uncomfortable at times as the audio can be abnormally loud for an action that usually would seem to be somewhat quiet.  Godard used this to keep the viewers always on their toes.  This tactic was clever in that it could take a boring cut of a conversation or many conversations and give the scene some spark.  This action by Godard adds suspense as well as distracts, puzzles, and intrigues the viewer as they are overwhelmed with emotion.  I believe this to be Godards goal as it had a large effect on myself during the film.

The animation of the character in the last scene is very notable.  Godard toys with the typical gangster scene (gangster gets shot, stumbles about and dies) as Michel stumbles down the street for what seems like eternity until he finally falls.  His final words are misinterpreted by the police which also seems to be a strange occurrence that Godard adds to make the scene different from what would be typical.