Breathless (1983)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This movie brought me back to my 80's L.A. I loved the sights, sounds, colors, the neon, the crummy neighborhoods and especially the soundtrack. The soundtrack (which I have tried desperately to find) and cinematic shots of Los Angeles alone make this film worth a watch. Despite its aforementioned drawbacks, it possesses a lush decadence that's quite entertaining. A most bizarre and exciting love story with a bitter twist that will break your heart. Gere is at his best with his character, and the way in which he understand his comic hero the silver surfer is almost uncanny, and the love he has is one in which we all desire with his co-star a beautiful french girl. Valerie Kaprisky operates at much the same level: she too looks good naked.. She's beautiful, but has next to no acting talent. It is not a polarising moment in cinema history but, if you can forget the film's origins and hope only for an entertaining movie, it will not let you down. Overall rating: 6 out of 10.

****SPOILERS*** Re-make of the 1959 French Film Nior classic "A Bout De Soufflé" the US version "Breathless" has actor Richard Gere as the on the run "Checkered Pants Man", it's the only pair he has in the film, Jesse Lujack who's on the run from the police after accidentally killing a cop who stopped him for speeding on a Las Vegas highway. Jesse ends up hooking, no pun intended, up with this cute French chick Monica Poiccard, Valerie Kaprisky, while being on the lamb. It's Monica that he had a one night strand with the night before after meeting her in a Veges casino. Jesse, a master car thief, now plans to steal a hopped up car and drive with Monica to Mexico where, that's what he thinks, the long arm of the law can't get to him. Did the guy ever hear of extradition treaties between countries?Monica a French exchange student at UCLA has no idea that her new found boyfriend is wanted by the police for murder and goes along with him just for the sheer thrill of it. By the time that she does find out what it's or Jesse is all about she's torn between turning him, who by then she's madly in love with, into the police or joining him as a fugitive from justice on his mad dash towards the Mexcan/US border. It's a terrible decision on Monica's part but it's Jesse who ends up making it for her at the end of the film.French actress Valerie Kaprisky was toted to be the next Bridget Bardot and this was to be her breakout movie but you can see that she was way over her head in here. Not in the acting department but in being paired with her co-star Richard Gere. Gere didn't seem to have a script to work with in the film and most of his dialog seemed to be ad libbed. This had Gere doing what seemed like, in his unintelligent mumbling,a Marlon Brando imitation which was hard to figure out what he was saying throughout most of the movie.Miss. Kaprisky, as Monica, who did speak with a sexy French accent in understandable sentences seemed to have trouble interacting with Gere not quite knowing what he was talking about. But as for the sex scenes between the two they were both first class as well as X-rated! It took almost forever for Monica to find out what her boyfriend did, killed a cop, and when she did she started to have second thoughts in her checking out of the country with him. Even though she was made pregnant by Jesse in what had the be the fastest human pregnancy, about 24 hours, in all of recorded medical history! It turned out that "Breathless" not only bombed out at the box office but turned out to be the both first and last movie that Valerie Kaprisky ever starred in going back to her native France and continuing her film career there. And as it turned out no amount of money or, in co-staring in films with her, top Hollywood leading men would make her ever change her mind.

At the time "Breathless" was released in 1983, a critic claimed that Richard Gere's deliberate overacting supported the stylised fantasy elements of the movie. Really? I suspect that he was simply surprised by the self-indulgence of the performance, especially when compared with films such as "Days of Heaven", "An Officer and a Gentleman" and even "American Gigolo" – all made before "Breathless"."Breathless" was a remake of Jean Luc Godard's "A Bout De Soufflé" The success of that movie had a lot to do with timing, and forces that were working through society at the beginning of the 1960's. Godard's movie launched French Cinema's influential new wave, which also had an impact on Hollywood.The remake came 20 years later, and unlike Godard's version was no longer timely nor an antidote to the predictability of contemporary film.Richard Gere's character, Jesse Lujack, a petty hustler and car thief, accidentally kills a policeman and goes on the run with his French girlfriend Monica, played by Valérie Kaprisky. Unaware of Jesse's criminal activity, she is attracted to his wildness and the aura of danger he projects.Jesse Lujack as rendered by Gere is arrogant, self-centred, stupid and narcissistic; he has few redeeming traits. Whether it's gyrating to Jerry Lee Lewis while he drives yet another hot-wired automobile or practicing his quick draw with the remote while changing TV channels, extra bits of business are thrown into just about every scene.Although the film has strong production values, there are lapses in logic that are so silly they would probably get laughs if they had been in "The Naked Gun". Near the end, Jesse runs through the streets with his shirt unbuttoned to the navel, clearly revealing the distinctive tattoo on his breast that is the key feature of the police description that has just been broadcast. His checked pants don't help him melt into the crowd all that well either.In "White Heat", James Cagney created a memorable finale, surrounded by police on top of a burning fuel tank. In "Breathless", Richard Gere goes him one better when he disco dances – in those checked pants no less – as police close in from all sides. It is so over-the-top that it almost defies description.Valérie Kaprisky had to work hard to be noticed in this movie. That she does is because of the contrast between her low-key delivery and Gere's attention seeking hyperactivity.It appears that Richard Gere's performance in "Breathless" was a one off. From then on, if there was a trait that typified a Richard Gere performance, surely it was restraint. Look at him in films as diverse as, "Pretty Woman", "Internal Affairs", and "Shall We Dance?" Not only is he controlled but he also underplays to great effect. Maybe with "Breathless" he just needed to get something out of his system.

I watched this film many years ago but had pretty much forgotten about it until film critic Mark Kermode; who usually dislikes English language remakes of foreign films, selected it to launch his on line film club and stated that he thought it improved on the original. I have yet to see the original but on the strength of the recommendation I decided to watch this again.The story follows Jesse Lujack from the time he steals a Porsche in Las Vegas with the intention of driving to Los Angeles. Things start to go wrong for him when he finds a gun in the car's glove compartment then crashes after being pulled over by the police. He picks up the gun and accidentally fires leaving the cop mortally wounded. Somehow he gets to LA and goes to see a contact to get his money; he is only given a cheque though; he will have to hang around in LA for a couple of days to get cash. He then meets up with Monica, a French student, who he had a brief fling with when she visited Vegas. The rest of the film is spent with him trying to get his hands on some money, trying to persuade Monica to come with him to Mexico and avoiding getting arrested for the killing of the Highway Patrol officer.Richard Gere does a fine job as Jesse; a small time criminal with a passion for the comic book character The Silver Surfer and the music of Jerry Lee Lewis; both of which feature heavily in the film. The character is essentially immature and self-centred but Gere manages to make him likable which is needed if we are to believe that Monica would consider giving up a potentially successful career as an architect to go to Mexico with Jesse. Valérie Kaprisky is charming as Monica although at times I was uncertain whether she was being a bit wooden or doing a good job playing a character who was conversing in her second language; either way she looked lovely; I can see why Jesse wanted her to come with him when he fled to Mexico.Director Jim McBride did a great job bringing the story to the screen; I loved the slightly unreal comic book look to the colours in some scenes and the obvious back projection in many of the driving scenes. The story was fun to watch with some tense moments as well as a couple of genuinely hilarious scenes... the moment where Jesse interrupted Monica's exam was priceless as was the time the door fell of the shower as the two of them had sex inside.I was surprised to find that this film had been reclassified '15' by the BBFC; and even more surprised to learn that it is now uncut whereas the original '18' certificate had almost half a minute trimmed from it! If you have the '18' version you are only missing out on seeing Jesse hotwire a car and breaking into Monica's apartment.Now I just have to watch 'A Bout de Soufflé' to find out which is really the better film!