Breathless (1983 film)

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Breathless
Theatrical release poster.
Directed by	Jim McBride
Produced by	Martin Erlichman
Written by	L.M. Kit Carson Jim McBride
Starring	Richard Gere Valérie Kaprisky
Music by	Jack Nitzsche
Cinematography	Richard H. Kline
Editing by	Robert Estrin Rachel Igel
Distributed by	Orion Pictures Corporation
Release date(s)	May 13, 1983 (New York City, New York)
Running time	97 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Breathless is a 1983 film starring Richard Gere and Valérie Kaprisky. It is a remake of the 1960 French film À bout de souffle (known as Breathless in English) and was released in France under the title A Bout de Souffle Made in USA. 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.

The film was directed by Jim McBride and written by McBride and L.M. Kit Carson.

1 Plot
2 Reception
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Jesse Lujack (Richard Gere) is a drifter in Las Vegas, obsessed with Marvel Silver Surfer comic books and the rock 'n' roll music of Jerry Lee Lewis. One day, Jesse steals a car, intending to drive to Los Angeles. As he drives and looks through the owner's possessions, he discovers a gun in the vehicle. Soon, as he has been speeding, a police car tails him and he pulls over. When he attempts to hide the gun, he accidentally shoots the officer. Fleeing to Los Angeles, he finds his picture soon splashed all over the newspaper and TV news.

On the run, Jesse moves in with Monica Poiccard (Valérie Kaprisky), a college girl whom he knows only from a weekend fling in Vegas. She is captivated by this reckless American and resumes her affair with him. However, she has plans for a job and Gere resents the implication that her potential employer may sneak her sexual favors away from him.

Soon the police trace Jesse's involvement to Monica and begin to question her. She is somewhat conflicted, aware of Jesse's instability but drawn to his sense of risk and danger. Thus, when he proposes to her that the two of them go off to Mexico she is tempted to throw her beckoning "normal" life away and pursue a prolonged romantic/sexual fantasy with this reckless man.

On the way to Mexico, Monica finds that her picture is on the front page of the national newspaper alongside Jesse's, and phones the police. They corner him in the street, and he sings Jerry Lee Lewis' "Breathless" to her before grabbing a gun from the ground at his feet. The film ends in a freeze-frame of Jesse turning to face the police with the gun.