Friday, November 19, 2004
- THE US AS A CULTURAL PRESENCE IN EUROPE
Lecturer: R. Kroes
(These are my comments on A Bout de Souffle and Breathless.)
. A Different Kind of Audience. As a critic said, A bout de souffle is a movie mostly for "cine-snobs" like Jean-Luc Godard himself. The movie is full of "film bluff" references. Godard does not care at all for a mass audience. This was, by the way, the impression of a young Rob Kroes as we watched it for the first time in the 1960s! (1). Indeed, as another critic has pointed out, "Godard has essentially tried to please only himself, and hang what anybody else thinks." (2)
On the other hand, McBride's target in Breathless is clearly the mass audience. Richard Gere in 1982 is at the peak of his popularity, having acted in American Gigolo two years before. This stands in sharp contrast with Belmondo, who was still a relatively unknown figure in 1960 -- but also with Jean Seberg, whose carrier was in trouble:
Seberg burst on the movie scene in 1957, when, at the age of 17, she beat out 3000 contenders for the title role in Otto Preminger's epic biopic, Joan of Arc. The movie was, to put it mildly, a disappointment, due in large part to Seberg's horrible miscasting. Her career was almost over at the beginning, but Preminger used her in his next film, Bonjour Tristesse, an examination of a daughter's obsessive love for her father (David Niven). Few people saw the movie, but among those who did was Jean Luc Godard, who instantly wanted Seberg for 1959's Breathless. Suddenly, she was a celebrated actress. (3)
So, while both Belmondo and Seberg's careers took off after A bout de souffle, Richard Gere was already a well-known figure. From the beginning, McBride's target was the mass audience.
Note also that much of the 1960 film's vigor comes from collisions between popular and high culture: Godard shows us pinups and portraits of women by Picasso and Renoir, and the soundtrack includes both Mozart's clarinet concerto and snippets of French pop radio. There are no ambitions of this sort in Breathless, which, according to a critic is
… neither straight remake nor looser homage to Godard's A Bout de Souffle; better by far to just enjoy it on its own terms when it turns out at least three parts better than anyone predicted. Breathless is not good enough to cut it as a worthy US version of the original but, seen as a film it it's own right, it makes a lot more sense and it is entertaining to watch. 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. (2)
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(1) Comment by Rob Kroes in class, November 2004.
(2) These references are mostly taken from reviews of A bout de souffle and Breathless that I have gathered from searches on Google.
(3) From the Journals of Jean Seberg (A Review by James Bernardinelli).
Lecturer: R. Kroes
(These are my comments on A Bout de Souffle and Breathless.)
. A Different Kind of Audience. As a critic said, A bout de souffle is a movie mostly for "cine-snobs" like Jean-Luc Godard himself. The movie is full of "film bluff" references. Godard does not care at all for a mass audience. This was, by the way, the impression of a young Rob Kroes as we watched it for the first time in the 1960s! (1). Indeed, as another critic has pointed out, "Godard has essentially tried to please only himself, and hang what anybody else thinks." (2)
On the other hand, McBride's target in Breathless is clearly the mass audience. Richard Gere in 1982 is at the peak of his popularity, having acted in American Gigolo two years before. This stands in sharp contrast with Belmondo, who was still a relatively unknown figure in 1960 -- but also with Jean Seberg, whose carrier was in trouble:
Seberg burst on the movie scene in 1957, when, at the age of 17, she beat out 3000 contenders for the title role in Otto Preminger's epic biopic, Joan of Arc. The movie was, to put it mildly, a disappointment, due in large part to Seberg's horrible miscasting. Her career was almost over at the beginning, but Preminger used her in his next film, Bonjour Tristesse, an examination of a daughter's obsessive love for her father (David Niven). Few people saw the movie, but among those who did was Jean Luc Godard, who instantly wanted Seberg for 1959's Breathless. Suddenly, she was a celebrated actress. (3)
So, while both Belmondo and Seberg's careers took off after A bout de souffle, Richard Gere was already a well-known figure. From the beginning, McBride's target was the mass audience.
Note also that much of the 1960 film's vigor comes from collisions between popular and high culture: Godard shows us pinups and portraits of women by Picasso and Renoir, and the soundtrack includes both Mozart's clarinet concerto and snippets of French pop radio. There are no ambitions of this sort in Breathless, which, according to a critic is
… neither straight remake nor looser homage to Godard's A Bout de Souffle; better by far to just enjoy it on its own terms when it turns out at least three parts better than anyone predicted. Breathless is not good enough to cut it as a worthy US version of the original but, seen as a film it it's own right, it makes a lot more sense and it is entertaining to watch. 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. (2)
_________________
(1) Comment by Rob Kroes in class, November 2004.
(2) These references are mostly taken from reviews of A bout de souffle and Breathless that I have gathered from searches on Google.
(3) From the Journals of Jean Seberg (A Review by James Bernardinelli).
# posted by Agustin @ 5:36 PM 
