Breathless / A Woman Is a Woman

BREATHLESS (A BOUT DE SOUFLE), 1960, New Yorker Films, 90 min. Lip-stroking pug Jean-Paul Belmondo on the run, shooting cops and stealing cars – and cash from the handbag of Herald Tribune-hawking girlfriend Jean Seberg; with the couple engaging in boudoir philosophy, staring contests, sous-blanket tussles and plenty of smoking. The start of Godard’s decade of supreme hipness and seemingly compulsive, often outrageous innovation.

A WOMAN IS A WOMAN (UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME), 1961, Rialto, 85 min. Anna Karina, an afternoon stripper in the crummy Zodiac Club, yearns for motherhood, but live-in boyfriend Jean-Claude Brialy “isn’t ready yet,” while hanger-on Jean-Paul Belmondo is more than happy to oblige. Godard’s first in color and ‘Scope, and his nearest approximation of a musical, with cinematic in-jokes, and anarchic humor galore. Winner of the Berlin Silver Bear for its “originality, youth, audacity and impertinence,” with Karina named Best Actress.