A small-time thief (Jean-Paul Belmondo) steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he reunites with a hip American journalism student (Jean Seberg, in a BAFTA-nominated performance) and attempts to persuade her to run away with him to Italy. Breathless was Jean-Luc Godard's innovative and hugely influential first film, what would become one of the seminal works of the French New Wave.