Breathless

1983

Action / Drama / Romance / Thriller

16
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 49% · 18 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 49% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.0/10 10 11731 11.7K

mexico police eroticism quickie suspicion of murder motel

Plot summary

Jesse, a small-time criminal, high-tails it to Los Angeles to rendezvous with a French exchange student. Stealing a car and accidentally killing a highway patrolman, he becomes the most wanted fugitive in L.A.

Director

Jim McBride Photo
Jim McBride

Top cast

David Carson Photo
David Carson as Mr. Andre
Henry G. Sanders Photo
Henry G. Sanders as Man with Pipe
William Tepper Photo
William Tepper as Paul
John P. Ryan Photo
John P. Ryan as Lt. Parmental
1080p.BluRay
1.44 GB
1920*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 40 min
Seeds 16

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by mrncat 7 / 10

Not so bad in retrospect (holds up better than what one would think...)

I remember when this film was first released. There was much hype since it was an American remake of a fairly renown French film from the 60s. At that point in Richard Gere's career he had portrayed several youthful virile characters (I guess you can say "studs" -- in "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" and "American Gigolo" and "An Officer and a Gentleman"). I think the critics and much of the public at the time saw this film as just another stud role of his. Maybe this is why the film was panned. I myself don't fondly remember it from the first time I saw it -- somehow it seemed empty and vacuous.I've just now seen this again after many years and Gere's off and on channeling of Jerry Lee Lewis is not something I saw the first time. I agree with another commenter here that Gere actually plays this role of a small time devil-may-care hood to the hilt. He captures the James Dean & Marlon Brando rebel swagger, however minus their brooding or introspection. One endearing aspect of his character here is he's also something of a romantic and I think this is why the young French college student becomes enamored him. I rated this film a "7" and I think it's worth watching. It is also fairly provocative sexually (hot) and this aspect is tastefully depicted.After watching this I thought of the song from the late 1970s "Point of No Return," and Gere's character is heading down a very risky path. I don't think anyone affiliated with the making of this film was necessarily searching for a moral to the story -- I guess from the perspective of being older and seeing this now this is what was brought to mind.
Reviewed by roland-scialom 6 / 10

An impossible transplant

A Bout De Soufflé is closely related to the portrait of a generation shaped by Beatnik and Existencialist philosophies. Kerouak and Salinger in USA, Sartres and Camus in France, were among the intellectuals who inspired this generation.A generation whose "malaise" is embedded in Paris atmosphere. Paris which was the very center of occidental culture by that time.The American version of this story, Breathless, directed by Jim McBride, missed the point because the portrait of a generation of the sixties in Paris, cannot be transplanted to a context of the eighties in California.
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