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Title: Breaking of the new wave
Review: Breathless - in it's lean, pared down, gritty realism - is a seminal movie. Michel Poiccard (Jean Paul Belmondo) is a disaffected youth, a sort of French James Dean, who steals a car, shoots a policeman, then goes on the run. Whilst trying to track down money he is owed so he can escape to Italy, he pursues his affair with the beautiful, bird like Patricia by breaking into her hotel room. In a memorable, drawn out scene, the two lovers flirt and fight amongst the pillows, discussing the deeply philosophical and the trite and trivial. The dialogue sequence in this scene is a superb piece of cinematic realism. The detail of Breathless - Michel's white shirt and Bogart style cigarette and hat combo, Patricia's striped dresses, he city of Paris, a sharp jazz score, the doomed forebodings of noir - raise this film up to its position as Flicks magazine puts it: the yardstick of celluloid cool.
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