The jerking, sometimes hard to follow visual style is interesting because it continues the abrupt, jarring editing style within the film. Since this represents Michel’s character, we can assume that he is not behaving rationally because the camera style is shaky and out of control, perhaps representing his wild and careless thoughts.

Monologues were not typically common at the time, during the year of release, there were many French drama and crime films produced which led to the need for diversity. Many films, such as ‘The Hole’ (1960, by Jacques Becker) utilise action and short shots to keep the audience on the edge of their seat. Whereas Breathless breaks this convention and uses long shots to ensure verisimilitude by keeping the audience fully engaged and ready for what will happen next. Although the sequences and shots seem sometimes unnecessarily long, they keep a chatty and unique element to the film which makes it so influential

Another innovative technique used by Godard is the lack of colour stock in favour for black and white. This creates a unique effect by setting Breathless apart from the other films which were typically in colour at the time. Although colour film was still very expensive in the 1950’s, more popular films were beginning to use it. This technique may seem intentional as Godard may just be using black and white to save money, but the lack of colour can represent the honesty of the film because it does not hold back.