What is your greatest ambition in life? To become immortal... and then die.

On Saturday night, Mr. Mark & I drove to San Marcos to do some record shopping, we hit-up Sundance Music, Hastings & Half-Priced Books. One of the things I purchased from Hastings was a DVD copy of Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 French New Wave film, "Breathless," for $10. I had never seen it before, but I had been harboring an interest in it ever since the Alamo Drafthouse played it back in May or June. I remember that when they screened it, the gimmick they offered was that the purchase of your ticket afforded you the right to smoke in the theater during the film. This "luxury" was obviously due the excessive amount of smoking that occurs in the film.

If I had any doubt about making my purchase Saturday, it was wiped away by the girl (Jean Seberg) on the cover of the DVD who, lets just say, is right up my alley.



In all honesty though, after watching the film for the first time tonight, the entire thing is pretty much up my alley. It's a slow moving train, but it's short & beautifully filmed. There's a ton of long interesting tracking-shots & what seems like an endless amount of playfully charming dialogue. There's an air of high-brow artistic existentialism here and there, but the majority of the film plays it straight, and manages to capture the whimsy of new & uncertain love. The editing is a little choppy for my taste.

The plot as outlined on IMDB:

"Michel Poiccard, an irresponsible sociopath and small-time thief, steals a car and impulsively murders the motorcycle policeman who pursues him. Now wanted by the authorities, he renews his relationship with Patricia Franchini, a hip American girl studying journalism at the Sorbonne, whom he had met in Nice a few weeks earlier. Before leaving Paris, he plans to collect a debt from an underworld acquaintance and expects her to accompany him on his planned getaway to Italy. Even with his face in the local papers and media, Poiccard seems oblivious to the dragnet that is slowly closing around him as he recklessly pursues his love of American movies and libidinous interest in the beautiful American."

Back in September, when I attended the Fantastic Fest at the Alamo, I saw a wonderful 1967 Japanese thriller called "Velvet Hustler."

That film oozed cool in a way that's hard to replicate, but the funny thing is that after watching the end of "Breathless" tonight, it's pretty clear to see the influence it had on "Velvet Hustler."

"Velvet Hustler" is a lot more difficult to locate, but I recommend trying to seek both of these films out, perhaps even view as a double feature.

They have a coolness that's just fuckin' timeless.