22 Photos of a Young Jean Seberg on the Set of “Breathless” (1960)

On the set of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (À bout de souffle, filmed in August–September 1959 and released in 1960), 20-year-old Jean Seberg worked in a chaotic, improvisational, and guerrilla-style environment that was the complete opposite of her previous Hollywood studio experiences. Coming off rigidly controlled productions with Otto Preminger (Saint Joan and Bonjour Tristesse), Seberg initially struggled with Godard’s unconventional methods before embracing the creative freedom.

Godard worked from a loose outline rather than a finished script. He frequently wrote dialogue on the spot, often jotting lines down at a nearby café minutes before rolling, and fed Seberg and co-star Jean-Paul Belmondo their lines right before or even during takes. At times, Seberg reportedly wondered if the movie would ever be coherent or even released.

Because the film had a tiny $90,000 budget and no credited costume designer, Seberg styled herself and largely wore her own clothes. Her minimalist choices, including the iconic New York Herald Tribune T-shirt, cropped pants, and striped Breton tops, combined with her signature pixie cut, inadvertently turned her into a lasting fashion icon.

Much of the movie was filmed on the streets of Paris without permits using natural light and handheld cameras. To capture tracking shots of Seberg and Belmondo walking down the Champs-Élysées without drawing crowds, cinematographer Raoul Coutard famously hid inside a rolling postal cart or was pushed in a wheelchair while Godard directed from the sidelines.

Upon its initial release in France, the film attracted over two million viewers. It has since been considered one of the best films ever made, repeatedly appearing in Sight & Sound magazine’s decennial polls of filmmakers and critics on the subject. In May 2010, a fully restored version of the film was released in the United States to coincide with the film’s 50th anniversary. American film critic of the time, Pauline Kael, called it the most important New Wave film to reach the United States.