Above: Champs-Élysées from the Arc de Triomphe, Paris. July 24, 2009
Josh Hallet image. |
Up the boulevard from this block 60 years earlier, Raoul Coutard shot Breathless using a silent Caméflex Éclair 35mm camera that Godard concealed in postman's delivery cart. In the klaxons and cafés of Paris, Godard sought whatever said "fast, fresh and real." |
“Wednesday, we shot in full sun with Geva 36. Everyone thinks it stinks. I find it extraordinary. It’s the first time that we asked the film to give its all, making it do what it’s not made for. It’s as if the film itself is suffering from being used to the extreme limits of its possibilities. Even the film, you see, is getting breathless.”
Jean Luc Godard, letter to Pierre Braunberger describing his progress on Breathless, August 23, 1959 |
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| August 1-8, 1959—the "red days" of August in Paris when Deux Cheveaux Citroëns and Peugot sedans trundle in lines for the beaches. (The New Yorker of August 1, 1959 is on sale above Belmondo's shoulder.) Everyone who could deserted the city. With the tourists taking over the cafés, Godard shot Breathless on the streets of Paris. |
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