Monday, March 10 2025, 6 - 8pm 101 LeConte Hall The Criterion Collection puts it best, "There was before Breathless, and there was after Breathless." This monument of the French New Wave cinema captures a moment of postwar anxiety. Effortlessly light and breezy, simultaneously subversive, Godard launches this film through the beautiful glass panes of French formalism to present a frenetic, lively--some might say jazzy--portrait of adolescence and amorality in postwar Paris. The film's protagonist, Michel, embodies France's new moment under cultural subjugation and the new youth movements on the rise. A scoundrel on the run, he seeks to escape Paris, enlisting the help of an old fling, Patricia, who must decide on her own course of action. Dr. Richard Neupert will present a brief introduction to the film and its themes before the screening. Neupert is the Charles H. Wheatley Professor of the Arts emeritus at UGA, where he taught courses in film history and theory, French cinema, narrative theory, and animation. Free and open to the public. We'll have snacks!
