Film critic on Breathless
One of the interesting semi-narrated films is Breathless by Jean Luc Godard in 1960. Under the influence of the American movie making, Godard adopted the attitude of spontaneity and experimentation. In this movie, he had casually use either voice over or sound throughout the movie.
Narration was essential in the whole movie because the plot is not sequential. One of the paradox of this movie is that some of the critic corroborate this movie as a documentary since it does not have a centralized plot as opposed to his contemporary while making a movie. It could be this fact that have made narration more essential if not necessary.
Narration was one of the technique of the auteur to exactly express what he intend. One the possible reason he choose to use narration is because he constantly insert quotes of politicians and philosopher. Some of the Godard critic articulated that Godard is more of a politician moviemaker than an artistic moviemaker. So if this posit is correct, then he have convincingly using a more powerful form of communication to convey his political ideals, philosophy or literary to his audience. Some of the instance of the quote that he had used before are “We are dead men on leave." Lenin in Pierrout Le Fou. Also in this particular movie Breathless, there is one quote that says "It’s sad to fall asleep. It separates people. Even when you’re sleeping together, you’re all alone."
posted on 2005-03-03 13:22:06
