The efficient mode of production and distribution created by Hollywood is known as the studio system. Classic Hollywood film narratives displayed certain important traits found in most studio productions. The first is that the events on the screen must be clear to the viewer and they must never be in doubt about space or time. The second is unity, which means there must be direct cause and effect connections, the third is goal-oriented characters, and the fourth is closure. The other elements of the film, including mise-en-scène, editing, lighting, and sound, are made secondary to the narrative through the use of transparent techniques, which allow the viewer to pay more attention to the narrative and less attention to the less important elements of the trade. . Breathless (Jean-Luc Godarard, 1960) is part of what is called International Art Cinema.

This system does not emphasize the narrative in most cases. Hollywood movies were made with the primary goal of being commercially profitable, with uninteresting characters and a style that was virtually transparent to the viewer. International arthouse cinema departs from these conventions with characters that are not necessarily goal-oriented, plots in which not much action takes place on the screen for long periods of time. Godard’s Breathless is a perfect film for juxtaposing the classic Hollywood studio system. In Breathless, the staging, sound, and editing are determined by Godard’s attempt to duplicate and pay homage to the genre, specifically film noir, and classic Hollywood style.

Breathless is about a petty crook who shoots a motorcycle cop and needs to hide. He returns to Paris to persuade his American girlfriend to accompany him to Italy and collect money from someone who owes him. This is the basic Breathless story and differs from classic Hollywood in its execution. All aspects of the classic Hollywood style—clarity of events, cause-and-effect connections, goal-oriented characters, and closure—are brought under the microscope through clever use of staging, sound, editing, and lighting. .

The most notable editing option in Breathless is the use of jump cuts, which remove the middle section of a continuous shot. This not only distorts space and time, but also disorients the viewer and can make events seem unclear. Classic Hollywood cinema avoids the use of jump cuts by implementing the 30 degree rule or by using the shot/reverse shot technique. Early in the film, Michel drives his stolen car back to Paris; The montage of his car ride is shown through the jump cut edit. The entire audio track remains uncut. Time is cut off in video but remains complete in audio, so there is a dissonance between space and time in audio and video. This technique is also implemented in a scene involving Michel and another woman in his apartment. Apparently, both characters will change their positions because the middle part of a take was cut off while the audio track remains constant and uncut.