Breathless

Details

This special limited edition J-card MediaBook slipcase (designed by Sam Smith) is limited to 5,000 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them. (Note: this Limited Edition includes a 60 page booklet)

Taking its name from the Lumière Brothers invention of the same name, Cinématographe is a new sub-label from Vinegar Syndrome that seeks to fill gaps in the canon of American cinema. Offering a mix of auteur driven studio films produced during the New Hollywood era of the late 1960s and 70s all the way through the indie boom of the 1980s and 90s, Cinématographe will explore the wide breadth of American moviemaking, spanning numerous genres and scales of production. Curated and produced by Vinegar Syndrome's Justin LaLiberty, each limited edition release will be housed in a specially designed, cloth-bound, media book with embossed foil titles and custom molded disc trays accompanied by a slipcase featuring newly commissioned art and an individually numbered J-card.

Jesse (Richard Gere, American Gigolo), a restless and cocky common criminal with a penchant for fast cars, rock ‘n roll music and comic books, finds himself obsessed with Monica (Valérie Kaprisky, La Femme Publique), a French exchange student at UCLA. On the run for car theft and the accidental slaying of a highway patrolman, Jesse finds himself on the streets of Los Angeles, passing time in swimming pools, making love with Monica and dodging the law that is closing in on him. 

A controversial remake of Jean-Luc Godard’s iconic staple of the French New Wave, À bout de souffle (1960), BREATHLESS is a decidedly 80s updating of the tried-and-true merging of romance and crime, giving way to the sex and violence expected from its era. Directed by American iconoclast Jim McBride (David Holzman’s Diary, The Big Easy), who co-wrote the script with L.M. Kit Carson (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2; Paris, Texas), BREATHLESS is a potent blast of pop-culture idolation, eschewing the gritty monochrome of its source for a vibrant, colorful, Los Angeles, gorgeously captured by director of photography Richard H. Kline (Body Heat, The Fury). Cinématographe is proud to present Jim McBride’s illustrious neo-noir in its world UHD debut of a new 4K restoration from its original camera negative.

directed by: Jim McBride
starring: Richard Gere, Valérie Kaprisky, Art Metrano, John P. Ryan, William Tepper, James Hong
1983 / 100 min / 1.85:1 / English DTS-HD MA 2.0

Additional info:

• 2-Disc Set: 4K Ultra HD + Region A Blu-ray
• New audio commentary with director and co-writer Jim McBride, moderated by Cinématographe's Justin LaLiberty
• New audio commentary with film writer Travis Woods
  
• Rock N Roll As an Attitude - a new video interview with Jim McBride
• A Different Perspective - a new video interview with casting director Jane Jenkins
• To Ensnare is to Enshrine: The Ghostly Layers of Jim McBride's Breathless - a new video essay by film historian Daniel Kremer
• Deleted Scenes and Alternate Ending with audio commentary from Jim McBride
  
• Theatrical Trailer
• Booklet featuring text essays by Cinématographe's Justin LaLiberty, film programmer Justine Peres Smith and film critic Kristen Yoonsoo Kim as well as original production notes and lobby cards
• English SDH subtitles