Extraordinary Cinema: 50 Years of 'Les Quatre Cents Coups' (The 400 Blows) and 'A Bout De Souffle' (Breathless)

Hiding out in Paris before making a new life for himself in Italy, Michel has returned to the French capital for his one true love, American student Patricia (Jean Seberg). Leaving the company of an associate when the money owed to him isn't paid, Michel heads for the Champs-Elysees. There, we see the luminous Patricia for the first time, a slender figure with cropped blonde hair, wandering in and out of traffic, selling newspapers. And then comes a cry, and we hear Patricia for the very first time:

This is not the beginning of 1960's Breathless, but it is the moment when one of cinema's most palpable romantic liaisons begins to unfold before our eyes. It is the single most iconic moment of the French New Wave (or 'Nouvelle Vague'), the cinema movement begun in the late '50s/early '60s by French film critics and cineastes whose passion for film knew no bounds. The sight of Jean Seberg strolling down Paris' most prestigious of streets, backed by strings so romantically soaring it sounds as though even the soundtrack is in love with her, is a transcendent moment in cinema. To wonder aloud just why this part of Jean-Luc Godard's debut is so awe-inspiring would probably rob it of its cool; just know that it is.

It's in this one scene that all the best things about Breathless are encapsulated: the smooth, jazz-influenced score, the non-traditional style and, of course, the acting. Jean Seberg, with her innocent elfin features, is mesmerising, while Jean-Paul Belmondo is so far beyond cool he doesn't even flinch when discovering he's just been reported for murder. Theirs is a romance that is unconventional and doomed from the start - he loves her, she's indifferent to him. But Breathless is far from a conventional romantic drama, anyway.

Instead, the picture is a way for Godard to indulge all his directorial fantasies at once. Godard - and the New Wave - was famously obsessed with American gangster movies; Breathless is about a petty French crook obsessed with Humphrey Bogart. The Nouvelle Vague aspired to achieve something real in cinema; Breathless is filmed almost documentary-style. And above all else, Godard wanted to smash the idea of conventional film form; here, the director toys with editing, relentlessly breaks down the fourth wall and generally plays around with his picture in a way that shook up filmmaking forever.

Still, there's no doubt about it: Breathless is flawed. The New Wave has been accused of pretentiousness, and A Bout De Souffle is more often than not guilty of it. But although a recent Guardian article by Francesca Steele pointed out the flimsy character development that Breathless could be accused of, the author's attack on the entire output of the Nouvelle Vague seems completely unjustified. For while Steele - managing to use just three New Wave films as repeated reference points and failing to recognise a scene from Breathless, so you know she's an expert - uses Godard's audience-divider as her primary example, she stays well away from outright criticising Francois Truffaut's 1959 debut The 400 Blows.

Of course she does. For while Breathless is often great, at other times maddening, The 400 Blows - one of the first films of the Nouvelle Vague - is a flat-out classic of French cinema.

Truffaut's tale of an emotionally starved child (Jean-Pierre Leaud) living in Paris is one of the most accurate observations of childhood in film. This is helped no end by the superbly naturalistic acting - with a 14 year-old Jean-Pierre Leaud entirely believable as the rebellious Antoine Doinel - and Truffaut's partially autobiographical screenplay based on his own troubled childhood. And, as with Breathless, the soundtrack is crucial, a haunting, fairytale-esque musical score up there with the very best of them.

Truffaut would return to the character of Antoine Doinel four more times, in Antoine and Colette (Antoine as an awkward teen; funny and accurate), Stolen Kisses (Antoine as a young man torn between two women; moving), Bed and Board (Antoine failing at married life; a bit dull, frankly) and Love on the Run (a part-movie, part-clips show of Antoine reminiscing on life and his failed marriage; poor) but The 400 Blows is a true original.

In 1959 and 1960, two films forever altered the course of film history. They brought about new film movements the world over and entirely re-shaped people's idea of filmmaking and the cinema. And, despite the years that have passed, The 400 Blows and Breathless still hold up today.

Breathless is more a vibrant experiment, a filmic letter bomb addressed to tired Western moviemaking that signalled in a huge change in world cinema; it's often clear that Godard made it just to shake things up. As a result, there are certain aspects of the film that would've made more sense and impact back in 1960 than they do now. The 400 Blows, on the other hand, feels more like a real movie, with a story and characters that audiences will always care about, no matter the decade, made flesh via Truffaut's simple and timeless directorial technique. If these two movies were people you knew, Breathless would be the roguish spontaneous one, but The 400 Blows would be the contemplative, trusted old friend you will always ultimately return to.