Breathless (1983)

This movie brought me back to my 80's L.A. I loved the sights, sounds, colors, the neon, the crummy neighborhoods and especially the soundtrack. The soundtrack (which I have tried desperately to find) and cinematic shots of Los Angeles alone make this film worth a watch. Despite its aforementioned drawbacks, it possesses a lush decadence that's quite entertaining. A most bizarre and exciting love story with a bitter twist that will break your heart. Gere is at his best with his character, and the way in which he understand his comic hero the silver surfer is almost uncanny, and the love he has is one in which we all desire with his co-star a beautiful french girl. Valerie Kaprisky operates at much the same level: she too looks good naked.. She's beautiful, but has next to no acting talent. It is not a polarising moment in cinema history but, if you can forget the film's origins and hope only for an entertaining movie, it will not let you down. Overall rating: 6 out of 10.

This is one of the most under-rated and cool films of the 1980's. Richard Gere is phenomenal as Jesse, a petty criminal living in fantasy land, a young man obsessed with the Silver Surfer and dreaming of Mexico- not to mention he's head-over-heels in love with a French beauty named Monica who's played by Valerie Kaprisky. Their love/hate relationship brings out the best and worst in them both, propelling the couple down unexpected paths with dramatic results. There seemed to be some off-screen chemistry going on too, because Richard and Valerie are magnetic on the screen. I'll leave the rest up to you. 10/10 Director Jim McBride and Cinematographer Richard H. Kline bring out an explosive aesthetic which will resonate and explode in the 1990's with films like True Romance and Pulp Fiction. A marker of what's to come, I recommend this film to those who love comic books, rockabilly, petty crime, eccentric characters, and romantic tragedies. Check it out!

I watched this film many years ago but had pretty much forgotten about it until film critic Mark Kermode; who usually dislikes English language remakes of foreign films, selected it to launch his on line film club and stated that he thought it improved on the original. I have yet to see the original but on the strength of the recommendation I decided to watch this again.The story follows Jesse Lujack from the time he steals a Porsche in Las Vegas with the intention of driving to Los Angeles. Things start to go wrong for him when he finds a gun in the car's glove compartment then crashes after being pulled over by the police. He picks up the gun and accidentally fires leaving the cop mortally wounded. Somehow he gets to LA and goes to see a contact to get his money; he is only given a cheque though; he will have to hang around in LA for a couple of days to get cash. He then meets up with Monica, a French student, who he had a brief fling with when she visited Vegas. The rest of the film is spent with him trying to get his hands on some money, trying to persuade Monica to come with him to Mexico and avoiding getting arrested for the killing of the Highway Patrol officer.Richard Gere does a fine job as Jesse; a small time criminal with a passion for the comic book character The Silver Surfer and the music of Jerry Lee Lewis; both of which feature heavily in the film. The character is essentially immature and self-centred but Gere manages to make him likable which is needed if we are to believe that Monica would consider giving up a potentially successful career as an architect to go to Mexico with Jesse. Valérie Kaprisky is charming as Monica although at times I was uncertain whether she was being a bit wooden or doing a good job playing a character who was conversing in her second language; either way she looked lovely; I can see why Jesse wanted her to come with him when he fled to Mexico.Director Jim McBride did a great job bringing the story to the screen; I loved the slightly unreal comic book look to the colours in some scenes and the obvious back projection in many of the driving scenes. The story was fun to watch with some tense moments as well as a couple of genuinely hilarious scenes... the moment where Jesse interrupted Monica's exam was priceless as was the time the door fell of the shower as the two of them had sex inside.I was surprised to find that this film had been reclassified '15' by the BBFC; and even more surprised to learn that it is now uncut whereas the original '18' certificate had almost half a minute trimmed from it! If you have the '18' version you are only missing out on seeing Jesse hotwire a car and breaking into Monica's apartment.Now I just have to watch 'A Bout de Soufflé' to find out which is really the better film!

I love the character Gere portrayed so flawlessly - Jesse's sheer intensity is a joy to behold. I really enjoyed the music throughout the film also, and the way it captures the varying moods so well. Kaprisky does a good job with her character as well - the exotic Frenchwoman Monica, torn between her plans for her life and her moth-to-the-flame attraction to the exuberant, unstoppable Jesse. This film has just had a run on EPIX on demand and I must have seen it six or seven times - it's one of my all-time favorites: those few, special films that, although I can almost speak the dialogue in unison with the characters, are still the ones I reach for and watch again and again.