Richard Linklater has flirted with France before, but not as passionately as in this drama-comedy about the rise of the French New Wave, where we follow the chaotic making of its most famous landmark film, Breathless (1960).

Guillaume Marbeck is perfect as the brilliant, irreverent and infuriating Godard who refuses to follow rules, and Zoey Deutch matches him as the American actress who has no confidence in the project but still marches on and warms up to the camaraderie of the little group making the movie.

Done in the same style as classic New Wave films, Linklater’s work is ambitious and meticulous but still comes across as lighthearted and breezy.

2025-France-U.S. 106 min. B/W. Directed by Richard Linklater. Screenplay: Holly Gent, Vincent Palmo. Cast: Guillaume Marbeck (Jean-Luc Godard), Zoey Deutch (Jean Seberg), Aubry Dullin (Jean-Paul Belmondo), Bruno Dreyfürst, Benjamin Clery, Matthieu Penchinat. 

Last word: “I’m making, in my cinematic brain, a black-and-white subtitled movie, a French movie with English subtitles, the way all these films came to me when I was falling in love with cinema in my early twenties. This is what these films looked and sounded like. So I’m just replicating that. I’m like a musician who goes back into an old studio with old mics and old tube amps and gets an older sound.” (Linklater, Hammer to Nail)