Richard Gere in Breathless (1983)

Vitals

Richard Gere as Jesse Lujack, swaggering drifter

Los Angeles, Summer 1982

Film: Breathless
Release Date: May 13, 1983
Director: Jim McBride
Costume Designer: J. Allen Highfill

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy 75th birthday to Richard Gere! To celebrate this prolific actor’s August 31, 1949, today’s post looks at one of my unexpectedly favorite performances from the prolific actor.

Jim McBride’s 1983 remake of Breathless flips the nationalities of the French crook and his American girlfriend in the 1960 French New Wave classic, starring Gere as the cocky ne’er-do-well Jesse Lujack who shacks up with Monica Poiccard (Valérie Kaprisky), a French UCLA student he had met once during a weekend trip to Las Vegas. Continue reading →