Great Character: Patricia Franchini (“Breathless”)
This month’s theme: Attractor characters. Today: Patricia Franchini from the 1960 movie Breathless, written by François Truffaut.
This French New Wave mission statement movie Breathless united several pioneer members of that director-as-author “auteur” style that sprang up from the galvanization of many independent French filmmakers’ initial roles as film critics for the prestigious movie magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. Director Jean-Luc Godard (Alphaville), François Truffaut (The 400 Blows), who has a story credit for the Breathless screenplay that Jean-Luc Godard is said to have crafted during the actual production of the movie, and technical adviser Claude Chabrol (The Good Girls), “The French Hitchcock” thriller genre moviemaker are among the production team.
Jean-Luc Godard once described the love interest attractor character Patricia Franchini in his 1960 debut feature film Breathless by saying:
“The character played by Jean Seberg (in “Breathless”) was a continuation of her role in “Bonjour Tristesse,” I could have taken the last shot of Preminger’s film and started after dissolving to a title: “Three years later.”
Breathless from IMDB:
A young car thief kills a policeman and tries to persuade a girl to hide in Italy with him.
While the wanted killer, car-snatcher and Humphrey Bogart-idolizer Michel Poiccard is weaving through the festive French boulevards of Paris to avoid a police manhunt, he is also involved in another hot pursuit — a love affair with an American student/journalist Patricia Franchini. The blonde beauty and blunt banter that Patricia possesses has Michel not just attracted, but also totally hypnotized. She is a foreign import that seems to be a breathtaking, or “Breathless,” new experience among his previous European dalliances with the fairer sex.
Patricia is not immediately aware that Michel’s craving to relocate to Italy is anything other than a romantic gesture. She will eventually find out that this indefinite vacation is primarily fueled by Michel’s dire criminal circumstances. Shooting a police officer and having Michel’s guilty face framed squarely on the front of the newspaper is definitely not a good reason to stick around the “The City of Love.” Patricia’s romanticized outlook on life become greatly influenced by Michel’s aggressive seduction efforts to get her away from her bedroom and into a distant Italian safe-haven.
PATRICIA FRANCHINI: It’s sad to fall asleep. It separates people. Even when you’re sleeping together, you’re all alone.
Although she may have a whimsical Romeo and Juliet side to her vibrant heart, she is no airhead idiot. Patricia may be mutually attracted to Michel, but the purity of his passion is under her critical investigation.
PATRICIA FRANCHINI: I don’t know if I’m unhappy because I’m not free, or if I’m not free because I’m unhappy.
Michel’s reaction to Patricia stating that he may be the father to her child is less than stellar to say the least. Becoming a poppa is not quite on his list of priorities, clueing Patricia into the possibility that his love may not be truthful.
Patricia is not just an American student studying in France, she is also an independent career-driven journalist. Therefore, Michel’s ambiguous lifestyle of car hopping and thrill-seeking instability causes Patricia to quietly question his maturity along with his love.
PATRICIA FRANCHINI: Are you afraid of getting old? I am.
Her education, inquisitive nature and creative interests seem to clash with his inability to become excited about anything other than sex.
PATRICIA FRANCHINI: Do you know William Faulkner?
MICHEL POICCARD: No. Who’s he? Have you slept with him?
To make matters worse, Patricia has become wrapped up in Michel’s criminal mischief by way of becoming a questioned associate, and potentially putting herself at risk for having passport problems. Lying to the investigators, becoming overwhelmed with Michel’s dependency on a pending loan and the suffocation Michel is putting on her personal life way down her free-spirited flexibility.
While Patricia thrives within the perks of her journalism career and gets into a closer proximity with the types of motivated men that she finds more suitable, Michel becomes more of a fleeting fling than a serious long-term companion.
PATRICIA FRANCHINI: What is your greatest ambition in life?
PARVULESCO: To become immortal…and then die.
For her romantic ruminations about life and love, her evolving journey towards personal happiness and her alluring demeanor in a striped Christian Dior dress — Patricia Franchini is a remarkably GREAT CHARACTER.
Attractor characters are those whose primary function is their connection to the emotional development of the Protagonist. In that regard, Patricia Franchini certainly qualifies.
Thank you, Jason, for this post. Please hit Reply and join us in comments to discuss the classic New Wave movie Breathless.
You may follow Jason on Twitter: @A2Jason.
Comment Archive