The Breathless Revolution
Godard's Breathless broke every rule of conventional filmmaking: jump cuts, handheld camera, direct address, improvised dialogue. It was not a film that happened to break rules — it was a film that argued rules should not exist.
The Legacy
Every filmmaker who shoots handheld, edits loosely, or treats cinema as personal expression is working in the shadow of the French New Wave. Its influence is so pervasive it has become invisible — the water every modern filmmaker swims in.