Excerpt: Jean Luc Godard, Breathless (1960)

“In History of Film,” Professor Robert Gerst writes, “students can learn by doing. They can undertake film making exercises I provide on the website accompanying my film history book, Make Film History. In the exercises, students re-experience moments when choices made by film making giants of the past created the cinema of today.

About Jean Luc Godard’s visual style, Elizabeth Pattyn writes:

One of the most defining films of the French New Wave, Godard’s Breathless changed the rules for what is acceptable in filmmaking. The film is most commonly known for showcasing Godard’s unique style of editing, which made the jump cut popular and acceptable. Although films at this time were expected to follow a smooth digression of editing, with every cut following a very logical pattern, Godard completely did away with this generic formula for storytelling, and instead relied on unexpected, quick jumps in editing.

Only minutes into the film do we see the first jump cuts. In the first scene, we witness Michel steal a car from the streets of Paris, and conspicuously rush through the narrow country road at top speed. Godard makes use of the jump cut as Michel passes numerous cars on the road. We’re given a POV shot from Michel’s view on the street, quickly passing car after car. Here Godard is showing the same action over and over again, without fluidity or polish. The mastery of Godard’s precise cutting is not only thrilling to the audience, but it also clarifies the character of Michel. He isn’t the mastermind he thinks he is. He isn’t smooth or cautious. He’s reckless and will undoubtedly be arrested before he can reach the heights of crime.

Working thru a Make Film History jump-cut exercise, Elizabeth Pattyn recreates Godard’s Breathless jump-cuts above in her 2016 version below.”