Breathless [DVD]

Breathless, Jim McBride's 1983 remake of Au Bout de Souffle rewrites Godard's existential hipster as a vain, style-obsessed hood and in the process loses some of the point. Godard's hero was a translation and productive misunderstanding of a quintessentially American sort of delinquent; because it is a retranslation, Gere's intelligent, nervy performance as Jesse Lujack suffers by comparison, however admirable it is taken in itself. McBride's direction strokes Gere's face and body lovingly--his every foxy smile, or glance at himself in a mirror, is played for passionate significance. This is also a good-looking film: the back alleys of LA and sunset over the Mojave desert have rarely looked as good. Valerie Kaprisky's Monica is inevitably given secondary importance; the decision to make the woman who goes along with Jesse's wild final ride on a whim an exchange student makes her at once more and less like her equivalent in the Godard--she has a touching exoticism that is at the same time somehow beside the point. The DVD includes the original theatrical trailer. --Roz Kaveney

4:3
1.85 Wide Screen
DVD 9
French\German\Italian\Spanish
English\German
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital Mono English French German Italian Spanish
Dolby Digital Mono
Interactive Menu Screens And Chapter Selection
Original Theatrical Trailer
Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\French\German\Italian\Norwegian\Spanish\Swedish

Jesse Lujack is a small time car theif who loves livin', Jerry Lee Lewis and his Silver Surfer comic books. But most of all Jesse loves Monica, the sexy French architecture student he just met in Vegas. Determined to provide her with a good life, Jesse uses all his rockabilly charm to convince the resistant Monica to drop everything and join him on a trip to sunny Mexico. In a fire-red Caddy with the top down and the woman he loves finally at his side, Jesse feels on top of the world. But no matter how much rubber he burns there's just something that Jesse can't outrun.