Raymond Cauchetier Part1

Godard directs a scene at Orly airport.


Raymond Cauchetier was the set photographer on many of the seminal films of the French New Wave between 1959 and 1968 including Godard’s À bout de souffle (Breathless)1960.
The film is centred around a love affair between anti-hero Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a French petty criminal on the run from the police, and his American girlfriend Patricia (Jean Seberg), a student who sells the New York Herald Tribune on the Champs-ées. Patricia unwittingly hides him in her apartment as he simultaneously tries to seduce her and plan his escape to Italy. She eventually learns Michel is on the run and contacts the police, resulting in him being shot dead by the police on the street. Godard's first feature-length film is among the inaugural films of the French New Wave. The film was released the year after FranTruffaut's Les quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows) and Alain Resnais's Hiroshima, Mon Amour. Together, the three films brought international attention and acclaim to the nouvelle vague, and bout de souffle (Breathless) was heralded for the bold monochrome visuals and its provocative, original style.




This is Seberg's first day of work on À bout de souffle (Breathless) with Jean-Paul Belmondo (left) and Godard at a café on the Champs-Élysées, August 24, 1959. Seberg was unused to Godard's unconventional methods of direction, having previously worked on large scale films surrounded by an army of technicians, assistants and cameras. Now she was virtually alone with Godard, with no script or prior direction.


In this image Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg walk down the Champs-Élysées in Jean Luc Godard's À bout de souffle (Breathless). Raymond Cauchetier's photograph has become the emblem of the nouvelle vague. For Cauchetier 'The photographer must be forgotten. It is a shadow.


Where is the camera?.


Left to right: director Jean-Luc Godard, cinematographer Raoul Coutard and Jean Seberg in Paris shooting of Breathless.



Jean Seberg kissing Jean-Paul Belmondo on the Champs-ées.


Jean-Paul Belmondo smoking on the Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris.


Jean Seberg filming bout de souffle on the Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris.


Jean Seberg on the set.


Jean Seberg, smoking a cigarette at the Hde Su during filming.


Jean-Luc Godard et Jean-Paul Belmondo filming.





Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg filming at the Hde Suin Paris.



Godard, reading from a script, pushes a wheelchair holding cameraman Raoul Coutard as Seberg and Belmondo look on.



In the movie, the street around the characters is quiet and un-peopled. However, in reality passersby and neighbourhood children crowded curiously around the camera. Here, Seberg is seen filming under the watchful eyes of the crowd and director Jean-Luc Godard.





Godard (center, with tie around neck) observes Belmondo on the street, as Coutard shoots with a handheld camera. Not much crowd control...