Still BREATHLESS After 50 Years

This summer celebrates 50 years of the French New Wave classic by the single most influential auteur of the movement himself Jean-Luc Godard and it's an anniversary that couldn't be more deserved.

It's often said movies are divided into the two categories:  before-Breathless and after-Breathless.  I mean, where would independent cinema be without this piece of innovative celluloid?  Charmingly raw with it's use of shaky hand held cameras, jump cuts, freeze frames, use of non-professional actors, jumbled narrative, improvised naturalistic dialogue, shooting on-location with everyday lighting, film reference upon film reference upon film reference, breaking-the-fourth-wall and self-reflexiveness, Godard's Breathless influenced, well... EVERYTHING.  Fin.

The "Happy 50th Birthday, Breathless" Trailer

More about Godard's latest film after the jump...

The 50th anniversary of Godard's first feature film coincides with the release of his 75th, Film Socialisme, which premiered at this year's Cannes Film Festival.  His style has evolved since the '60s, becoming a little less playful, a whole lot political, but we saw that coming a mile away on a little 8 minute tracking shot down an apocalyptic French highway called Weekend.