Godard used to say that Breathless was his version of Hawks' Scarface, "plus a little." Of course it was the plus a little--reflected in hand-held shooting, improvised acting, jagged jump-cutting--that so shocked viewers in 1959 and '60. Today these innovations have been so incorporated into the basic grammar of filmmaking that Breathless looks positively classical. Moreover, it seems not far removed, in narrative conception and existential content, from an American B-noir like Gun Crazy: what one notices now is Godard's flat surface cut through with action, the stunning depth he reaches in compositions and characters created out of intentionally superficial images.