Dig the shirt, Richard!
Jim McBride’s remake of Jean-Luc Godard‘s French new wave classic ”À bout de souffle” was universally panned on release in 1983 . This partly explains why I’ve only just gotten round to seeing it . It shows that you should never trust the critics.
It may not work as an art movie but as pulp cinema it is brilliant and, call me superficial, but I have to agree with Quentin Tarantino and say that it surpasses the original.
Ok, it hasn’t got any of Godard’s then revolutionary directorial touches but McBride is no slouch as a filmmaker and knows exactly what look and feel he is going for.
While Godard’s movie now looks horribly dated and pretentious, McBride’s is hilariously absurd and highly watchable. The casting of Richard Gere as flashy Jesse Lujack was the masterstroke. Gere’s over the top performance is compelling in its exaggeration. He’s a jerk with no fashion sense but he has the swagger to carry off the part of the ‘live fast die young’ rebel to perfection. Continue reading
