Breathless **** (1983, Richard Gere, Valérie Kaprisky) – Classic Movie Review 1394

Director Jim McBride’s 1983 thriller stars the then young, sexy and underrated Richard Gere, who is on his top 80s form as Jesse Lujack, a preening, unprincipled petty hood on the run after he shoots a policeman.

A cocky, nihilistic drifter in Las Vegas, Jesse has a talent for stealing cars and obsessions with foreign student Monica Poiccard (Valérie Kaprisky), Marvel Silver Surfer comic books and the rock and roll music of Jerry Lee Lewis. especially Great Balls of Fire. Monica is a UCLA architecture undergraduate whom Jesse knows only from a weekend fling in Vegas.

It’s an important neo film noir of the 80s, transferring Jean-Luc Godard’s classic 1960 Paris thriller to a neon-lit pop art Los Angeles. Rather neatly, though the original film is about an American girl and a French criminal in Paris, the remake is about a French girl and an American criminal in Los Angeles.

It’s directed with an eye-catching mix of style, energy and atmosphere by McBride, who later made the excellent The Big Easy, but otherwise hasn’t enjoyed the glittering career that was expected of him.

There is much kit-off throughout, with full-frontal nudity and strong language, both of which are usually edited for British TV showing.

The film has minor cult status. Quentin Tarantino called it one of the coolest movies: ‘It indulges completely all my obsessions – comic books, rockabilly music and movies.’ The Silver Surfer poster in Freddy Newandyke’s apartment in Reservoir Dogs is a homage to Jesse’s Silver Surfer-obsession.

Kaprisky was a real-life French UCLA student with limited acting experience. The film grossed just under $20million in the United States.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1394

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