Editing Jean-Luc Godard (section)

=== ''Breathless'' ===
Godard's [[Breathless (1960 film)| ''Breathless'']] (''À bout de souffle'', 1960), starring [[Jean-Paul Belmondo]] and [[Jean Seberg]], distinctly expressed the [[French New Wave]]'s style, and incorporated quotations from several elements of popular culture—specifically American [[film noir]]. It was based on a story suggested by [[François Truffaut]].<ref name=NYTObit/> The film employed various techniques such as the innovative use of [[jump cuts]] (which were traditionally considered amateurish), [[aside| character asides]] and breaking the [[eyeline match]] in [[continuity editing]].{{sfn|Brody|2008|p=59}}{{sfn|Brody|2008|p=69}} Another unique aspect of ''Breathless'' was the spontaneous writing of the script on the day of shooting—a technique that the actors found unsettling—which contributed to the spontaneous, documentary-like ambiance of the film.<ref name=BBC>{{Cite news |date=13 September 2022 |title=Jean-Luc Godard: Nine things about the man who remade cinema |language=en-GB |work=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-46709681 |access-date=14 September 2022 |archive-date=14 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914015146/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-46709681 |url-status=live }}</ref>

From the beginning of his career, Godard included more film references in his movies than any of his New Wave colleagues. In ''Breathless'', his citations include a movie poster showing [[Humphrey Bogart]] (from his last film, ''[[The Harder They Fall (1956 film)|The Harder They Fall]]''),{{sfn|Brody|2008|p=70}} whose expression Belmondo tries reverently to imitate—visual quotations from the films of [[Ingmar Bergman]], [[Samuel Fuller]], [[Fritz Lang]] and others; and an onscreen dedication to [[Monogram Pictures]], an American [[B-movie]] studio.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2013/07/02/jean-luc-godards-breathless/|title=MoMA &#124; Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless|website=moma.org|access-date=13 September 2022|archive-date=7 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200407110746/https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2013/07/02/jean-luc-godards-breathless/|url-status=live}}</ref> Quotations from, and references to, literature include [[William Faulkner]], [[Dylan Thomas]], [[Louis Aragon]], [[Rainer Maria Rilke]], [[Françoise Sagan]] and [[Maurice Sachs]]. The film also contains citations to composers ([[Johann Sebastian Bach |J. S. Bach]], [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart |Mozart]]) and painters ([[Pablo Picasso|Picasso]], [[Paul Klee]] and [[Auguste Renoir]]).{{sfn|Brody|2008|p=71}}

Godard wanted to hire Seberg, who was living in Paris with her husband François Moreuil, a lawyer, to play the American woman. Seberg had become famous in 1956 when [[Otto Preminger]] had chosen her to play [[Joan of Arc]] in his ''[[Saint Joan (1957 film)|Saint Joan]]'', and had then cast her in his 1958 adaptation of ''[[Bonjour Tristesse (1958 film)|Bonjour Tristesse]]''.{{sfn|Brody|2008|p=54}} Her performance in this film had not been generally regarded as a success—''[[The New York Times]]''{{'}}s critic called her a "misplaced amateur"—but Truffaut and Godard disagreed. In the role of Michel Poiccard, Godard cast Belmondo, an actor he had already called, in ''Arts'' in 1958, "the [[Michel Simon]] and the [[Jules Berry]] of tomorrow."<ref>''Godard on Godard'', p. 150.</ref> The cameraman was [[Raoul Coutard]], choice of the producer Beauregard. Godard wanted ''Breathless'' to be shot like a documentary, with a lightweight handheld camera and a minimum of added lighting; Coutard had experience as a documentary cameraman while working for the French army's information service during the [[French-Indochina War]]. Tracking shots were filmed by Coutard from a wheelchair pushed by Godard. Though Godard had prepared a traditional screenplay, he dispensed with it and wrote the dialogue day by day as the production went ahead.{{sfn|Brody|2008|p=62}} The film's importance was recognized immediately, and in January 1960 Godard won the [[Prix Jean Vigo|Jean Vigo Prize]], awarded "to encourage an [[auteur theory| auteur]] of the future". One reviewer mentioned [[Alexandre Astruc]]'s prophecy of the age of the ''caméra-stylo'', the camera that a new generation would use with the efficacy with which a writer uses his pen—"here is in fact the first work authentically written with a ''caméra-stylo''{{-"}}.{{sfn|Brody|2008|pp=72–73}} [[Richard Brody]] writes: "After ''Breathless'', anything artistic appeared possible in the cinema. The film moved at the speed of the mind and seemed, unlike anything that preceded it, a live recording of one person thinking in real time."<ref name=NYTObit/> [[Phillip Lopate]] wrote that "It seemed a new kind of storytelling, with its saucy jump cuts, digressions, quotes, in jokes and addresses to the viewer."<ref name=NYTObit/>

[[File:Aankomst Franse filmster Anna Karina op Schiphol, Bestanddeelnr 921-0594.jpg|thumb|[[Anna Karina]], having rejected a role in ''Breathless'', appeared in the next film shot by Godard, ''[[Le petit soldat]]'' (''The Little Soldier''), which concerned France's war in Algeria.]]