Textual Analysis 2 (Beathless) (Car Sequence)

For my second textual analysis I will look at one of the car scenes from the film Breathless (1960, Jean-Luc Godard). I wanted to look at the this scene as I wanted to look mainly at the use of jump-cuts from the era of French New Wave as it is one of the main stylistics of editing I want to try and incorporate into my own project. In the sequence we as an audience are in the car with Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and Patrica (Jean Seberg) as they are making their way to Italy in the convertible. The scene mainly focuses on the character of Patrica as she in central to the main use of the jump-cut in this scene. I will look at how the scene is created with the use of main stylistics; Cinematography, Sound, Mise-en-scene and Editing. I will also look at how I can apply main of the feature within the scene to my own creative project.

The first aspect I will look at is the use of Mise-en-scene within the scene and how it is used to create the sequence. The first feature of Mise-en-scene I will look at is the use color, as we can see the main aspect of color comes from the monochrome colors of black and white, this is due to the lack of color viewing in the era the film was shot in, however we can also see this as a way of reflection of the times the film was created, giving it a feel of French life within the 1960’s. Furthermore we get this feeling with the use of the cars, people and the general look of the setting of the scene. However there is a reason why we get a real feel for the setting this is due to Godard’s use of voyeurism within the scene, the only people who knew they were being filmed were the actors and the crew members, the general public and the general environment, were natural as they were not informed of the filming allowing use as a audience to get a real sense of French life in the 60’s due to the aspect of voyeurism. The costume of the characters is also important in the scene for example, the costume of Michel is typically an icon for the criminal, hat, sunglasses and a long coat.

The cinematography in the scene is quite basic, as the scene only has one main focus camera style which is a tilted angled, over the shoulder close up of Patrica in the passenger seat of the car. This shot is used as it becomes more apparent that there is the presence of jump-cut as we can see the setting behind her change. Furthermore as the shot is locked in a fixed position we can also get a sense on movement from the change in setting behind her. On the other hand we also have the use of a high angle medium shot of Michel in the driver’s seat; this is to give a sense of who Patrica is talking to in the scene.

The final two areas are the use of Sound and the use of Editing in the scene, firstly we have the use of sound, usually this is made up of the use of dialogue (diegetic sound) however alongside this we also have the use of the non diegetic sound of the sound track as the two are having a conversation. Furthermore the type of the music fits in to the narrative well as it is a jazz band playing in the background, relevant as jazz music was big in the 1960’s, this again adds to the image of the film and the portray of the era. The final stylistic is the element of editing; the main use of editing in the scene is the use of the jump cuts. There are various reasons that the jump-cut is used in the scene, for example on of the main elements of French New Wave cinema was to make the audience realize that it was just a film, taking them away from the idea of diegsis (the filmic world) and bringing the back into reality. Further more the jump cuts are also there because of a trademark of Jean-Luc Godard, who used the jump cuts to break down a lengthy sequence of the car journey. I will use the effect of jump cuts to create a sense of realism within my creative project this alongside the use of the handheld camera will give a verisimilitude effect for the audience.