By interspersing footage of Richard Gere, Cindy Crawford, and others, the filmmakers suggest a conspiracy by French filmmaker Jean Luc Godard and associates to surreptitiously affect the lives of the celebrity couple. It all revolves around the original “Breathless” by Godard and his dissatisfaction with the 1983 remake starring Gere. The link from Crawford to Godard is established via Radu, an exercise guru who worked with both of them. Finally they present the culmination of the conspiracy; an original Godard film starring Cindy that was supposedly taken away from him by the production company, edited and repackaged as an exercise video.
Franklin and Co. stumble out of the gate with a flurry of shots setting up the links between the players. It gets a little confusing and the rapid-fire narration doesn’t wait for stragglers. Nonetheless, most of the setup is cleverly supported by the footage, and we are drawn in to the film’s fanciful premise. In the end, it’s not as complicated as it sounds, and the end result is actually sort of funny. I applaud filmmakers who can make found footage into something interesting and can demonstrate the power of creative editing in the cause of storytelling.
While the final faux-Godard film does act as a somewhat clever extended punchline (fans of the French auteur at least should find it particularly amusing), it stands apart from the introductory montage. I actually appreciated the more technically challenging opening half “mockumentary” more than the parody. I wanted to see how far they could carry the illusion of interactive innuendo between Gere, Crawford and Godard and even to see it extended to other eccentric celebrities. Still, for a six-minute excursion into French New Wave fantasy, they do pack a lot in, and the end result is not unsatisfying.
