Film Noir, A Bout de Souffle

I watched Jean-Luc Goddard's A Bout de Souffle (Breathless) in 6th Form when I was studying french, but I didn't really get it. I watched it again the other day to see what I would make of it a second time around.

The film is very cool, american-french with a sexy jazz soundtrack. It is typical of the french nouvelle vague (new wave) and has clear ties with Film Noir.This spurred me on to watch The Rules of Film Noir (find it on BBC iPlayer until 2:24am Thursday 10th September 2009) a documentary all about this dark genre of film.

I would like to sum up the genre using some words and phrases I picked up from watching the programme:

Shadows, carved up faces, guns, paranoia, sex, leading the viewer's eyes, voice overs, hard boiled, pulp fiction, suspence, touch guy, to the point, everyone for themselves, lonely, gloomy, pessimistic, fog, cigarettes, WW2, make it any colour as long as it's black, german expressionism, dream sequences...