Cozying up in front of "Breathless"

Blue sky, crispy air, squirrels hopping around and birds chirping - no obvious signs of a disastrous storm just the day before. Looking more closely, there are trees lying around with root balls dangling over gaping holes; many households - over 40,000 - are still without power. We got lucky: survived the storm with uninterrupted power and gas supply; our roof also endured the storm without leaking on us, although dozens of shingles got blown off.

Late Saturday morning, we were aware of our fortune of having power and heat on a winter day. Michael made crepes; and along with crepes, we cozied up and watched a French film, Breathless, by Jean-Luc Godard. It was shot in 1960, and later became one of the most influential movies made during the French New Wave period. Since modern movies have absorbed many of the new editing techniques (e.g. jump cuts) and theories (e.g. "auteur theory") that the New Wave movies championed, as a modern viewer, I can't quite fully comprehend the revolutionary impact that this movie had on movies and directors of his time.

Like many other movies, this one deals with human existence, death, love and betrayal - subject matters of movies of all times. The plot is fairly simple: Jean-Paul Belmondo, a heartthrob French actor, played a thief who fell in love with an American girl who sold newspapers in Paris. The thief, Michel, killed a cop. From then on, he was on the run from the police. When betrayed by his American girlfriend, he didn't choose to flee from the police. The last scene was a protracted scene of him running away from the policemen who shot him, but it seems to me that he was trying to run away from his imminent death, or his love (maybe) not worthy of dying for. That was left ambiguous.

Actually, one thing that does strike me as something special is the way the movie portrayed the main character. The movie didn't portray, Michel, a thief as an evil person; instead, the movie presented an amoral picture of his being, his emotions and his philosophy of life. That seems to be a new exploratory concept rising out of the given historical period - reconstruction and rebuild after WWII. The director grew up during war times when the Axis armies were fight against the Allied Forces, the evil vs. the good. As a challenge to the black-and-white way of view of the world, an amoral portrayal of a real human being strikes a different cord blurring the moral lines.

On a different, yet related note, comments about American and French cultural differences in different scenes and conversations were an interesting reflection of the interactions that these two nations experienced during the after-war rebuild period. It appears to me America was a symbol of strength and independence, a word used a few times at different scenes in this movie.

There was a sweet sense of humor and naughtiness that added to our cozy ride throughout the movie. Even the seemingly painful ending was endearing. Admittedly, with 21th century viewers' lenses, I wasn't awed by the plot or the highly-praised revolutionary editing techniques used in this movie.