INSPIRATION: Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 Nouvelle Vague breakthrough À bout de souffle — screening July 3 at Cinematheque Ontario (www.cinemathequeontario.ca) as a part of its French New Wave program — is a crime-on-the-run flick hinged upon the director’s infamous “a girl and a gun” conceit. Cineastes riff on the film’s revolutionary jump-cut rhythm and Jean-Paul Belmondo’s anti-hero stance. The stylish, however, rewind Breathless for the blond pixie-cut Jean Seberg hawking New York Herald Tribunes along the Champs-Élysées. Even the Cahiers du cinéma crowd would give praise for the defining Left Bank cool of this American in Paris.
After being burnt at the stake in Otto Preminger’s 1957 flop Saint Joan, Seberg became a Godardian gamine in dark sunglasses, left to defend French high culture against a Bogie-obsessed car thief. Loree Rodkin by Sama “Lindsay” sunglasses, $560. Ilori (95A Bloor W., 416-928-9385, www.iloristyle.com).
“Whenever we talked, I talked about myself, and you talked about yourself,” Belmondo (in vertically lined bathrobe) confides to Seberg (in classic Breton) after they make love. “But you should have talked about me, and I about you.” Blame the crossed lines. Sunja Link dress, $173. Robber (863 Queen W., 647-351-0724, www.robberstore.com).
The New Wave’s legacy of youthful rebellion is being reassessed: critics blame the movement’s national cult status for undermining the future sets of enfants de la cinémathèque. Gund “Goober” Bear, $29.99. Treasure Island Toys (581 Danforth, 416-778-4913, www.treasureislandtoys.ca). Dagworthy (www.dagworthy.com) “Sailor” bow, $38. Silver Falls (15 Ossington, 416-588-3500).