A fan of Jean-Luc Godard once told me that A Bout de Souffle was the worst Nouvelle Vague movie ever but still the one that starred the most glamorous couple in the history of cinema. Hyperboles aside, my friend had a point. Regrettably, I can’t remember what it was about.
Jean-Paul Belmondo (1933-2021) owes his fame not to Godard, nor to his acting skills, not even to the mysterious Jean Seberg, but to his face. His facial features were those of an ordinary man—an office clerk, a mason, a truck driver. Audiences felt inclined to imagine him as an average Jean thrown into a cinema set and forced to play himself.
The job may seem a simple one. However, being oneself in front of a camera and a whole crew is an ordeal as strenuous as pretending to be someone else, even for a trained actor, which he was.
Against all odds, he was up to the challenge, and thrived. GJ
GJ | Essays 