Breathless (A Bout de Souffle)
1959
This French movie is a great triumph of style over content. It starts with a lowly criminal murdering a cop, and thus being forced in to a life dodginh the cops. Constantly with a cigarette in his mouth, he has slepped with more dozens of women, yet now he finds himself depseretely attatched to an american. Ok. The first part has some great techniwues, with fast cutting, and a quick pace. However, after about ten minutes the technique starts to wear thin, the acting gets dull, and you begin to realize that this plot is awfully boring. The movie has a very American feel to it. Aside from the many lines of spoken English, it has a jazzy 'dectective' soundtrack, and an action type plot. In its time it was an innovative film. However, today, you can catch much better films that employ similar techniques.