Stolen Cars and Stolen Kisses in Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless"

By 1960, Americans were so accustomed to owning cars that they associated different periods In their lives with the different cars they drove.  In Jean-Luc Godard's "A Bout de Souffle" ("Breathless" in the US), released in that year, the male protagonist, Michel, goes through enough cars in a handful of days to last the average American a quarter century.  Fitting into Michel's idea of himself as a tough guy, and into Godard's exploration of freedom shading into anarchy, all the cars are stolen.

Michel needs to get get out of Marseilles.  When a female accomplice in the harbor parking points out two Americans leaving their '56 Oldsmobile, Michel hot-wires the car, bids adieu to his friend, and hits the road.  He provides a running commentary on the scenery, and Godard reminds us we're watching a film by having Jean Paul Belmondo speak directly into the camera while driving.

Soon enough a motorcycle policeman appears and trails the Olds down a side road.  Michel yields to panic and shoots the cop dead... 

General Motors had a different role in mind for that Olds than Michel, and different ideas about the meaning of cars than director Godard.  In the ad below, the same '56 model fits into the postwar dream of endlessly expanding prosperity, with Dad fiddling with exterior lights on the Case Study style rectilinear steel house, Mom polishing the new chariot, and the kids giving the possibly reluctant pup a bath, all under a cloudless blue sky with barely a shadow in sight...

When Michel gets to Paris, he connects with American journalism student Patricia, played by Jean Seberg.  Michel stops to ponder a movie poster of Humphrey Bogart, and after scenes that show the two talking past each other, gives Patricia a ride in another car that is not his own. It's a Facel-bodied Simca Weekend convertible, and this model will appear twice in this film and again in Godard's "Bande a Part". As Godard will eventually make a film called "Weekend', perhaps he likes the name. In general, directors like convertibles because they allow more options in filming the characters, as in this overhead shot...

The film suspends quiet interludes designed to explore the alienation of his characters with bursts of action Michel hopes will advance his goal of scamming enough money to allow him to escape with Patricia to Italy.  In the scene above, he explains he needs to get his car "from the garage" to get Patricia to her work assignment.  In the scene below, he checks out a Triumph TR-2, but the owner shows up at an inconvenient time...

After tailing the owner of this '55 Thunderbird into an apartment building to make sure he gets off at a safely distant floor, Michel steals the car. 

It seems that Michel, a minor-league hood modelling himself on more successful ones in American movies, was attracted to American cars.  And for Godard, they were a connection to the American films noir of the Forties and Fifties, and perhaps a symbol of the brashness and excitement sometimes associated with Americans, as was the film's jazzy score by Martial Solal.

Here Patricia watis at the cafe for her ride.  You may wonder by this point whether Patricia suspects Michel of being an unsuccessful used-car salesman, or something more sinister...

In the scene below, Michel delivers Patricia to a reporting assignment focused on interviewing a famous writer.  The newspaper salesman on the left is significant, as the edition of France Soir he sells Michel features a story about the pollice search for him.  

In the scene below, the fates of our protagonists diverge.  As Patricia reflects on the encounter with the writer and other journalists, Michel drives the stolen Ford to a shady wrecking yard where he will try to collect a payment for it.  Patricia's face is superimposed over the speeding car at this inflection point in the story...

The effort to fence the car collapses into more violence, and  the urgency of MIchel's plight tightens.  

Raoul Coutard's gritty black and white cinematography avoids supplemental light, and the night scenes are especially murky, even for film noir.  It seems merciful that Godard had no inclination (and no budget) for filming in color, because the cheery pastel shades of Fifties American cars like the aqua Thunderbird below would've subtracted from the mood... 

The couple escapes to a movie theater, and night falls.  By now Patricia has been approached by the police at her workplace, and knows what's going on.

Still, when Michel acquires a Peugeot 403, she goes with him.  At the Peugeot dealer / service depot they take the sedan upstairs to a parking garage where they intend to "trade" the car.

They leave the Peugeot and Patricia notices a Cadillac, which Michel identifies as an Eldorado.  It's actually a 1954 Series 62, and it's a convertible...

Patricia takes the wheel, and the couple drive off to a meeting with Michel's friend Antonio and some other mobsters at La Pergola, a night spot...

Everything now hinges on collecting some cash quickly enough for the escape to Italy. The car speeds through darkened streets with only the parking lights for illumination.  That may have been the cinematographer's choice...

Antonio makes some promises about delivering cash, but the couple leaves La Pergola empty-handed.  As they are now well aware that Michel's face is plastered on the front pages of the newspapers, the elect to hide out at a photographers studio.  The photo below shows a Cadillac Eldorado from 1954; there are only minor trim differences; both Caddies share similarly powerful V8s, great for escaping the black Citroens of the gendarmerie.

The couple parks the Cadillac at the photography studio and waits.  Eventually Patricia tells Michel that she has Informed the police of his whereabouts.  

Michel rushes down to the street when his friend arrives with the bag of cash. He chases the car down the street.  It's a Facel-bodied Simca Weekend like the one he and Patricia shared earlier in the story.

He gets the cash, but not the girl, and stays on the run.

Francois Truffaut, who authored the script with the uncredited Claude Chabrol, said the original ending had the MIchel character running down the street under the stares of recognition by all the bystanders.  With capture by the police certain, the movie was to end there.  But Godard preferred the violent climax that was filmed.  Michel would not be stealing any more cars...

The Simca Weekend prototype above, Number 001, was built by Facel Metallon In 1954 and then gified to Brigitte Bardot, who drove the car for seven years.  Facel would also supply a convertible for use in Godard's 1967 film, "Weekend", but it was not a Weekend.

After the inevitable and fatal dashing of Michel's scheme to escape, you may find youself wishing he'd just hitchhiked from Marseilles to Paris instead of hot-wiring that Oldsmobile, and taken cabs with Patricia once there. Sitting in the comfy Simca Versailles taxi, they could've ignored Paris traffic and concentrated on each other, and maybe imagined a sweeter future for themselves than the one that came crashing down.  But that would've been a far different movie than the quirky classic that Godard delivered...

*Footnote:  A photo essay on cars featured in American and French film noir productions appeared in these posts on March 21, 2020, entitled "Speeding Into Darkness: The Cars of Film Noir."

Color Photo Credits: 

1956 Oldsmobile Ad:  Oldsmobile Division of General Motors

1955 Thunderbird:  Wikimedia

1954 Cadillac Eldorado:  Barrett Jackson Auctions

1954 Simca Weekend prototype:  Lane Motor Museum

Monochrome Photo Credits:  

With the single exception of the monochrome photo of the 1956 Simca Weekend cabriolet, from simcafacel.levillage.org, all monochrome images are from Jean-Luc Godard's "A Bout de Souffle", released in English-speaking countries as "Breathless" by Sociéte Nouvelle de Cinématographie.