Jean-Luc Godard

Breathless cut out the frames Hollywood thought a scene needed, and Godard went on unpicking film grammar for sixty years. A small-time thief kills a motorcycle cop and hides out in Paris with his girlfriend, and the jump cuts make every scene restless. Vivre Sa Vie tells a Parisian woman's slide into prostitution in twelve episodes. In Band of Outsiders, two young men who imitate American movie tough guys talk a girl from their English class into a burglary.

Signature

• Jump cuts, direct address and title cards.
• Quotations from books, films and posters.
• Anna Karina in the leads of the 1960s films.
• Politics worked into the form itself (1 P.M.).