How closely involved was Godard in creating the look of the film? Did he check each shot through the viewfinder, for example?
The process of making the film 'Breathless' was like being a photo-journalist.  When I was moving the camera there were no instructions – Jean-Luc would just say, “You follow her,” or “You don’t follow her.” It wasn’t complicated. His approach was the opposite of the usual one. A director normally states what he or she wants in the shot or before shooting they would say what they want or how they want to capture a particualr scene or image, but Jean-Luc would say, ‘I don’t want to see the top of his hat or anything below the pocket.” Instead of saying, “I want this in the frame,” he’d just explain what he didn’t want to appear.
What are your impressions on watching Breathless 50 years later? What do you feel is its lasting influence?
It hasn’t dated. A lot of Jean-Luc’s films have that in common: often, when they first see them, people don’t like them at all, but then when they watch them a few years later they find them very good. His influence has been both good and bad. He changed the face of cinema and got people using different tools, different methods, to make films. At the same time, it has been damaging because for a while everyone thought you make a film about anything, with anyone and in any old way, forgetting that Jean-Luc was not only talented but a genius.  Breathless redefined how we view films by reinforcing the importance of the auteur and the power of editing, as well as introducing new narrative techniques that would influence every film made afterward. Its main character was the first of his kind- amoral, self obsessed, and detached. Godard, inspired by filmmakers such as Welles, Rossellini, Fuller, and Melville, essentially took everything he knew about film technique and history (tracking shots, crane & dolly shots, fade outs, etc.) shot in a documentary style and put everything together through his revolutionary jump-cut editing.

Why did you not tell any of the