Breathless

written in 1997

the use of parody and subversive devices in A BOUT DE SOUFFLE (1960)

Aside from being a seemingly aimless yet entertaining film that works quite well on its own, Godard's A Bout de Souffle also functions as a subversive metatext in relation to other films, mainly those produced in Hollywood. The main character, Michel Poiccard is, as he himself puts it, is a crook by profession who is convinced that he is in love with Patricia Franchini, a young American working at New York Herald Tribune. We are first introduced to Michel as he asserts "It must be", while trying to stare menacingly from under his hat, a caricature of Humphrey Bogart whom he so admires (one must also note, however, that he refuses the Chesterfield cigarettes Patricia offers him although that is the brand that Bogart smokes constantly). This ironic use of the non-heroic protagonist is to be echoed later in the film, as Michel accuses Patricia, or rather all Americans in general, of liking the most inappropiate French, like Lafayette, or Maurice Chevalier. The mere memory of seeing Michel gaze admiringly at Bogart, as well as the odd juxtaposition of the names of a general and a film star is enough to make the viewer smile.

The story works through several themes while appearing, on the surface, to be an odd mixture of dialogue and assembled images. There is the theme of telling stories, the theme of roleplaying, and the theme of what is known as love. There is also the aural theme provided by the use of music, and poetic use of the camera foregrounding the use of filmic techniques.

Telling stories appears time and again in the film. We see Michel buying papers at almost every street corner, yet the papers never quite serve their purpose of being read. He wipes his shoes with one, conceals his face with another. He scans one to see the story of the murder he has committed, and he returns the Herald Tribune on the basis that it has no horoscope section, and thus cannot tell him of his future. While Michel looks to the papers to read his future from stories he has no control over, Patricia writes for a newspaper, claiming her independence and writing her own story, as emphasized by the inclusion of her book.

There is another aspect of the storytelling theme, that is, the concept of multiple paths of life, not unlike Borges's Garden of Forking Paths. Again the multiple levels and branching of the narrative undermines what we would normally expect from a conventional Holllywood film. First of all, having two identities gives Michel Poiccard/Lazslo Kovacs two modes of existence. This fact is further implemented by the fact that his shady dealings are practically unknown by Patricia who knows him as a well-dressed man who changes cars often.

Michel tries to construct a common future for Patricia and himself by telling a story as if it had happened, but of course, it never has, and we sense uneasily, that things will not be resolved quite as easily as they would in another film:

A bus conductor stole five million, passing as a rich man to impress a girl. They spent the money in three days on the Riviera. Not fazed a bit, he said: "It was stolen money. I'm a crook, but I love you." The great thing is, she didn't drop him; she said she loved him, too. They returned to Paris and were caught burgling houses in Passy.

This looping of the projected future as a thing of the past is also used by the editor who has lunch with Patricia. After telling Patricia that they should sleep together, he tells the tale of a woman whom he forgot to ask the same question. Then, supposedly he sends he a telegram to which she replies: "What an extraordinary coincidence--I had the same idea!" Again we see the reference to traditional film that goes the same direction with the viewer's expectations, and realize that A Bout de Souffle will not do so, if not just by the mere fact that by not frogetting to mention they should sleep together to Patricia, the editor has betrayed his own tale that requires a sudden dawning.

Then there is Patricia's story: she is in the process of writing it, and as things happen, she incorporates them into her book, while trying to catch up with, or even surpass her lifea vain effort, as Tristam Shandy would put it. She quotes the last sentence of Faulkner's Wild Palms, and takes "grief instead of nothing". Indeed, it is precisely at that scene we see the incompatibility of Michel and Patricia quite clearly. He says he will take nothing, since although it is no better, grief is a compromise, and he is an "all or nothing" kind of person.

The roles people choose to play are also revealed in the film. Michel tells Patricia he wants to sleep with her because she's beautiful, and when she says she's not, he says, just as easily, "because you're ugly, then." She shrugs: "Same thing". The tendency to tell people what they would like to hear whether it is sincere or not, is exposed, while it is implied that words are not necessarily what they seem to be, and can easily be replaced by others. Just as Michel defends himself ("Lying would be stupid, it's like poker: tell the truth and the others think you're lying and you will win") the camera leaves him to show the picture hanging right above his head: a young man taking off a mask of an older, bearded face. His characteristic action of wiping his mouth is mimicked at the end of the film by Patricia, just as he communicates sour apples by making the three weird faces at her, telling her she is a scumbag.

Another theme is that of falling, or slipping. The first film he sees is Ten Seconds to Hell. Right after, he walks by a car accident, reading about himself in the newspaper. In a following scene, he walks, reading his paper, and finds himself in front of a Humphrey Bogart film, named The Harder They Fall. Following Tolmatcheff's call informing him that the police are on the lookout, he slips, and starts talking about "the condemned man" who slips at the scaffold and says "Not my day." From another perspective, one can also say that one of the reasons, if any, for Patricia telling on Michel is that she does not want to fall in love with him. This results in Michel getting shot, staggering, and finally falling in an exaggerated manner, while still holding a cigarette in his mouth.

A Bout de Souffle uses very significant film techniques, sometimes referencing, sometimes parodying other films, revealing the love-hate relationship that lies at the heart of parody. For example, there is the use of the stuttering camera which clearly ignores the 30 degree rule. This is used for more emphasis and a disorienting effect similar to Brecht's. As Michel shoots the policeman, we see his face, then down his sho ulder, his forearm, the gun, and the falling policeman. This technique reappears as Michel praises Patricia in the car:
"I love a girl with a lovely neck
Lovely breasts
and a lovely voice
lovely wrists
and a lovely brow
and lovely knees" and then shatters the poetic effect by pausing, and adding "but who is chicken." The stuttering camera is present at the meal with the editor as he tells Patricia they should sleep together.

Other grammatical devices include the circular fadeout, similar to Chaplin films, to start new scenes showing Michel meeting up with Patricia, and alienation caused by actors directly adressing the camera, reminding the viewer of the artifice of the film. In addition to these, there is the swirling camera: we get a frontal view of Patricia and the editor, then their backs as they leave, Michel coming out of hiding, making an arc, turning his back to the camera, and following them.

The film's idea of aesthetics is quite different from conventional films. There are jump-cuts, views of the same scene from both sides right after each other. There are also shots of Patricia and Michel kissing that invoke old film posters with passion, like Romeo and Juliet as Patricia so desperately wants them to be like. There are shots leaving out parts of scenes that would otherwise be included in another film. And there is the burlesque idea of beauty: Michel finding the sun beautiful, and shooting at it. Michel not picking up the hitchhikers because "Hell, they're too ugly." Michel telling the viewer to get stuffed if "you don't like the sea, if you don't like the mountains, if you don't like the city..." Even the usual bird's eye view shots of Paris and the countryside are mocked with phrases that seem to have been taken straight out of a touristic brochure: "Nice countryside. J'aime beaucoup la France."

The use of visual cliches is supported by verbal cliches and generalizations throughout the film. There are remarks made about men, women, the French, Americans, and Romeo and Juliet. They function quite similarly to the phrase "You've seen once, you've seen them all" in Singin' in the Rain, and expose the mental laziness people often employ without a second thought.

Overall, the film does not specifically parody one genre or one text but instead focuses on multiple elements. With these elements it maintains a strange relationship of fascination and repulsion, appropiate to the definition of parody of being near and opposite. The scene that sums up the film, is and is not, a part of the film, the irony being that it is a quotation form Westbound that Michel and Patricia see together:

--Have a care, Jessica; in the crossways of kisses the years pass too quickly. Beware, beware, beware of shattered memories! --You're wrong, Sheriff, our story is as nobly tragic as a tyrant's face. No heroic drama, no slightest detail but confirms our love in grace...

© 1997 Melis Alemdar. Comments? Email me.

/End Breathless review