Jean-Paul Belmondo

When the actor Jean-Paul Belmondo recently died, it served as a reminder of how much he meant to the French New Wave movement that made him an international star in director Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" (1960). In this podcast episode, HCC film professors Marie Westhaver and Mike Giuliano discuss how the anti-hero figure played by Belmondo in "Breathless" really established his screen image as a ruggedly handsome charmer. It's fitting that Belmondo once said that his personal favorite among his many movies was "That Man from Rio" (1964), because its James Bond-type protagonist brings a lot of comic spirit to the spy thriller plot. His other films include "Pierrot le Fou" (1965), "Is Paris Burning?" (1966) and "Mississippi Mermaid" (1969). Marie and Mike are both fans of French film, and so they really enjoy their discussion about Belmondo's important role in that film history