by InTrieste
A restored version of the 1960 classic Breathless will return to the big screen in Trieste this week, offering audiences a chance to revisit one of the defining works of the French New Wave.
The film — À bout de souffle — directed by Jean-Luc Godard and starring Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo, will be screened on March 10 and March 13 at the Cinema Ariston as part of the “Il cinema ritrovato” series organized by the cultural association La Cappella Underground. The screenings will present the film in its original French with Italian subtitles.
Widely regarded as a landmark of the French New Wave, the film was shot in just four weeks in Paris and Marseille, both on location and in natural interiors. Godard, then a critic for Cahiers du Cinéma, developed the screenplay with fellow filmmaker François Truffaut. The result was a film that challenged established cinematic conventions with its handheld camerawork, jump cuts and improvisational style.
The story follows Michel Poiccard, played by Belmondo, a small-time car thief who kills a police officer and flees to Paris. There he reconnects with Patricia Franchini, an American journalism student portrayed by Seberg. As Michel tries to persuade her to run away with him to Italy, Patricia begins to question her loyalty and ultimately faces a difficult decision.
The Trieste screenings feature a 4K restoration completed by the laboratory L’Immagine Ritrovata of the Cineteca di Bologna. The event is organized in collaboration with Alliance Française Trieste.
More than six decades after its release, Breathless remains an enduring example of cinematic experimentation — a film that blended popular storytelling with a bold, author-driven approach and helped reshape the language of modern cinema.
