A Bout de Souffle

One of the most charismatic feature films of the New Wave, A Bout de souffle (1960) has retained its appeal not only as the emphatic statement of a generational break with tradition, but also as Godard's earliest rendition of a set of thematic and stylistic motifs that would become his trademark. A Bout de souffle is now a cult film, propelled in part by the memorable coupling of its leading actors, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, whose story on screen seemed to portray the troubled love affair between French cinema and Hollywood. In this original guide to the film, Ramona Fotiade analyses in depth its production and reception, as well as its mise-en-scene and editing. She situates A Bout de souffle in relation to Godard's filmography and critical writings up to 1960, focusing on a narrative and visual discourse that is now identified with a distinctive strand in postmodern French cinema. She also explores the impact of Godard's early counter-narrative and visual strategies on the independent American filmmakers and the French Cinema du Look during the 1980s and 1990s.

"Ginette Vincendeau has assembled an elite corps of film scholars to address a marvellous array of modern and classic French films with the close-up scrutiny they deserve." - Dudley Andrew

Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Glasgow, Ramona Fotiade is the Director of the Lev Shestov Studies Society and the editor of the Shestov Journal, which brought out the previously unpublished correspondence between Martin Buber and Shestov (issue nr. 4-5/ 2005). Her book, Conceptions of the Absurd (From Surrealism to the Existential Thought of Shestov and Fondane), was published in 2001.

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