Breathless

Summary

“You coming or not?”

I had avoided Jim McBride’s Breathless for years. Middling reviews and my lasting appreciation for the original French film had dissuaded me from entertaining the thought of viewing the film. I did an about face when I saw that Fun City Editions was releasing the film with a new 2K scan from the original 35mm print. Jonathan has done an excellent job of curating FCE’s film portfolio, and if he was excited about the film, then I could be too. I blind ordered my copy as soon as it was announced.

As the film begins, Jesse Lujack (Richard Gere,) wearing a red tuxedo, steals a Porsche in Las Vegas and makes his way to Los Angeles to convince Monica (Valerie Kaprisky) to come with him to Mexico. He has only spent a few days with Monica, but he feels he can convince her to come with him. Jesse discovers that the car has a gun in it. He accidentally raises the attention of a policeman while driving in the dessert. After a brief chase, the Porsche gets stuck. The policeman draws a weapon on Jesse and warns him to step away from the vehicle. Jesse shoots the policeman and, after putting his sports coat underneath the head of the officer, he flees the scene of the crime. Arriving in Los Angeles, Jesse breaks into Monica’s apartment and showers off. He comes to her college and interrupts her exams. He stops by to see a friend at a former job. After Jesse leaves, the cops stop by, hot on his trail. As they continue to narrow in on him, Jesse continues to try to convince Monica to go with him to Mexico.

The original Breathless was one of the defining films of the French New Wave and announced the arrival of Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Luc Godard, and Francois Truffaut (who wrote the screenplay.) Obviously, any remake is not going to have the impact of that film. Any pretensions that this film could measure up would be holding the film to a standard too lofty and unachievable. In this case, it is better to think of the film as a reimagining than as a remake.

Jim McBride did not set out to make the same film that Godard made, in style or in substance. The film borrows the basic storyline of the prior film to make something new. In his reimagining, Jesse is a Silver Surfer comic book reading, Jerry Lee Lewis obsessed, wild man with strong sexual appetites and little keeping him from toppling over the edge into the abyss. The actual plot is given more attention in some ways than in the Godard version, but like its predecessor the film is more about style and energy than about anything of substance. Jim McBride aimed to make an extremely colorful picture. The film is well shot by cinematographer Richard H. Kline. Kline and McBride play with color a lot in the film with heavy reds and other primary colors popping off the screen. I think the colorful storytelling in the film is what sets it apart from other films of the era and in many ways justifies the film’s existence. The location scouting in the film is excellent and Kline takes great advantage of the Angelino locales. I don’t think there can be any valid criticisms made to the the way the film was shot. It looks great.

The screenplay by L.M. Kit Carson calls for a lot of nudity and sex in the film, so the film definitely has an edgy quality. I credit both of the lead actors for being so willing to let themselves be seen so frequently in a state of undress. Carson would go on to work on the screenplay for Paris, Texas and later would co-write The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, so his career was pretty colorful. The film’s narrative is more fleshed out than in the original picture, but that makes some of the random pontificating in the film seem out of place. It is interesting to see how many of the things translate well in the adaptation and how many things hold up poorly. The whole film is a case of give and take for me, and I think opinions will vary on what works and what does not.

The film features an energetic and hyped up performance by Gere that has a lot of the charm of the performance by Belmondo, even if it can’t quite match up. There are moments where Gere and the soundtrack backfire for me personally (the Jerry Lee Lewis scenes don’t hit for me at all,) and there are a lot of moments where Gere and the soundtrack work really well (especially any scene that features a Link Wray song.) The film is a hodgepodge. There are scenes that are really wonderful that basically make up for the moments that don’t gel. Many of the chief criticisms of the film that I have seen were directed at actress Valerie Kaprisky. She is undoubtedly a beautiful actress, but she is a little wooden at times in the role. It’s possible that she was just not quite experienced enough to handle the role (especially with French being her primary language and the role calls for her to act in English.) I didn’t have any issue with the casting, but can see why critics, already primed for a fight, had a field day. Despite some moments where she fails to convince, she does have solid chemistry with Richard Gere. The supporting cast is filled to the brim with interesting personalities and character actors. William Tepper plays a competing lover vying for Monica’s attention. John P. Ryan plays one of the cops tasked with tracking down Jesse. Bruce Vilanch and James Hong have notable cameos. It is fun to see who will pop up next when watching the film.

Overall, I enjoyed Breathless as a stylistic exercise. It is certainly not perfect, but it is unique and a pretty fun time at the movies.

Video

Fun City Editions have provided Breathless with a 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded image in 1.85:1 from a new 2K scan created specifically for this release. Shout! Factory had previously released the film on Blu-ray in 2015, but I have not viewed that release for comparison. Breathless is an extremely colorful film. Cinematographer Richard H. Kline does a great job of bringing the very best out of the film’s Los Angeles locales, while leaving realism behind to add additional color in scenes (such as when Jesse steals the Porsche and is draped in red lighting.) I really enjoy color in films, so I was pleased from beginning to end with the way that Kline and director Jim McBride approached the material. The new 2K scan looked really good to my eyes. There are some limitations inherent to the source itself, but I didn’t notice anything too crazy. Another review mentioned some “chunky grain,” and that does show up in times in the film. While the grain could be slightly distracting at times, I thought the film looked pretty great while viewing it on my Epson 4K projector screen. Fans should be happy with how everything looks. 

Audio

Like many of the LPCM 2.0 tracks from Fun City Editions, the LPCM 2.0 track for Breathless sounded good to my ears. The film has a pretty active soundtrack with songs from Link Wray and Jerry Lee Lewis taking center stage. Dialogue is rendered clearly. Depth of field is limited by the source, but the track sounds good overall.

Supplements:

• Isolated Music Track is provided.
• Commentary features critic Glenn Kenny.
• Into to the film by co-writer/director Jim McBride
• “Making Breathless” – co-writer/director Jim McBride, who seems ecstatic to be discussing Breathless for its rerelease, discusses his career and numerous memories from the production of the film along with the differences that they settled on to make the film stand out from the French film. The story of how he landed Richard Gere by playing him Jerry Lee Lewis stands out. This is a really nice interview.
• Two Deleted Scenes – These are missing sound elements but can be viewed with optional commentary from co-writer/director Jim McBride.
• Alternate Ending – this alternate ending is definitely worth watching to see just how melodramatic it could have been. There is an optional commentary from co-writer/director Jim McBride and an isolated music track.
• Image Gallery
• Theatrical Trailer

Overall Scores:

Video – 4/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 3.75/5

Overall – 4/5

Breathless has always been overshadowed by the French New Wave film upon which it was based, but if you can allow yourself to drop the comparisons to the original picture, there is a lot to enjoy about Jim McBride’s reimagining. The film is a blast of color and fugitive energy. The film’s sexual freedom makes it feel edgy. Breathless has a lot of elements that don’t quite work for me, but it has numerous perfect moments that counterbalance any apprehensions I have. Richard Gere turns in a fearless performance that occasionally backfires, but works most of the time. The chief reason why the film never falls apart is the excellent cinematography by Richard H. Kline that takes great advantage of the Los Angeles locations. The movie has a great look. Fun City Editions has brought the film to Blu-ray with some good special features exclusive to their release. Reactions to the film will be divisive, especially if the opinion of the film is tainted by memories of Godard’s classic, but I am happy to have the film in my collection.