Breathless Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Breathless Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 7, 2015

Heaven knows the annals of film history are stuffed to the gills with needless remakes (Psycho, anyone?), but certainly at or at least near the top of that list has to be the 1983 reboot of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 masterpiece Breathless, one of the most important films of all time and one still proffered as a paradigm of nouvelle vague (the French New Wave). While nowhere near as slavishly devoted to the original as, say, Gus Van Sant's redo of Hitchcock's immortal masterpiece was, and in fact almost cheekily contrarian at times with regard to both plot and style, Jim McBride's 1983 film is probably not as horrible as some might have expected (or in fact claimed in the wake of its theatrical exhibition), but while audacious and at times energetic, it simply repeatedly begs the question "why?", especially when Godard's film is so iconic.

This particular Breathless reverses the nationalities of the two focal characters. In this iteration it’s an American no-goodnik named Jesse Lujack (Richard Gere) who hooks up with a pretty French co-ed named Monica Poiccard (an at times extremely awkward Valérie Kaprisky) after he supposedly accidentally shoots a cop, making him a most wanted man. Interestingly, this version is probably more narratively traditional than Godard’s opus, though it’s stuffed to the gills with twee elements like Jesse’s love of rockabilly and (most peculiarly) the Silver Surfer from Marvel Comics. Bright, colorful and occasionally a bit on the annoying side, Breathless doesn’t struggle for oxygen as much as it tries to reinvent a wheel that was perfectly round and functional to begin with.

Breathless Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Breathless is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This somewhat modest but generally solid looking high definition presentation overcomes slight age related issues of the elements to deliver a nicely vivid palette for the most part. Colors may have faded ever so slightly, leading to a minimally anemic look at times, but the film's bold use of bright primaries comes through rather well overall. Some of the darker scenes suffer from inadequate contrast and crush, as well as relative softness (see screenshot 2). Grain is intact and resolves naturally throughout the presentation. Not breathtaking in any major way, this is still a solid offering that features good to very good levels of detail and fine detail.

Breathless Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Breathless's eclectic soundtrack is offered here via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix, and it's in the film's use of source cues where the soundtrack really comes alive and offers a boisterous listening experience. Dialogue and sound effects are both presented very cleanly, with no problematic distortion or drop outs. Fidelity is fine and dynamic range is relatively wide, especially considering a couple of quasi-action sequences.

Breathless Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080i; 2:26). It's interesting that this trailer indulges in a proto-Godardian montage quick edit strategy, something the film itself does not.

Breathless Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Gere completists may well want to check this out, though his intentionally mannered work here only partially compensates for his co-star's inadequacies. Perhaps surprisingly, the film is not the out and out train wreck many probably predicted or, after it was released, insisted it was. It's an interesting misfire that really didn't need to be made, but turned out somewhat better than it had any right to be. Technical merits are generally very good to excellent for those considering a purchase.