In 1960, Jean-Luc Godard released his nouvelle vague masterpiece Breathless, launching Jean-Paul Belmondo on an unsuspecting world. Critics talk about contemporary film history as before Breathless and after Breathless, but fashionistas could take a cue. Jean-Paul was onto something.
Belmondo springs from that white tee, wiry bod school of Brando and Dean. The former boxer (that nose!) is raw, mumbled sex appeal, but stick him in a horizontally-striped French Navy boatman sweater and send the dresser home for the rest of the shoot. We’ve pictured his Breathless co-star Jean Seaberg working the look because we prefer Belmondo out of clothes.
But the nautical look continues to rock the French. Check out another Jean-Paul, the French designer Gaultier, and the “packaging” for his Le Male fragrance bottle. And if JP and Naomi look a little waxy, it’s not from partying at Les Bains Douches. This pic was snatched from Chez Tussauds.
When Belmondo’s not in his jaunty hat and trench, his look is pretty much boxers and cigarettes. I’m a non-smoker, but I’ve always allowed my partner to light up after, and, quite frankly, during sex. I find it erotic and obviously Mlle. Erotica does too. Who can forget Breathless Mahoney smoking on the MTV Awards? We’ve collected some of Madonna’s hotter le smoking looks at left.Finally, there are those boxers. In Breathless’ most famous scene, Belmondo romps around a hotel room in just a pair of tidy white ones. They’re impossibly geeky, and Belmondo wears them waistline well past navel, but it doesn’t matter because they’ll be doffed.
We’ve captured Richard Gere working the look in the dismal 1983 Breathless remake. And, of course, the camera has captured other memorable underoos moments. Yes, Tom Cruise sliding across the floor in his briefs and Ray-Bans and what about these white hot Calvin ads with the then "Marky" Mark grabbing his funky bunch? Exposed undergarments retain their fashionable pull on the public. You still see it today with middle-aged gay men dressed like public school students: high-rise boxers peeking from low-rise jeans.
But unlike Gere and Mr. Wahlberg, Belmondo continues to exert a profound effect on fashion. We’re ending with this triptych of Belmondo and Milk star James Franco. This pouty hottie rising has roots firmly in Jean-Paul Belmondo-ville. Just look at those lips. But enough about Franco. Back to gay Paris and that Jean-Luc Godard 1960 classic and one of the key films of the French New Wave. Imagine this: the Breathless star has just arrived in town. He steals a car. He kills a cop. He tries to get laid. Take a moment to inhale, he may leave you breathless.
