But most of all, Breathless is a hip, even Beat, essay on the logic of film — and life. The producer, Georges Beauregard, told Godard he'd have to trim the movie from 135 to 90 minutes, but instead of cutting scenes, Godard squeezed out the syntax, reveling in his jump cuts, his long takes, his (deliberate?) discontinuities, and his wicked sense of humor (when Michel refuses to buy a copy of Cahiers du cinéma from a street vendor, a man played by Jacques Rivette promptly gets killed in a traffic accident, and later, the man who first tips Michel off to the cops is played by Godard himself). It's not just a film, it's a poem. And 50 years later, it's still a breath of fresh air.
