Theme: Trans-continental ultra-chic. Movie stars often help define what's cool for a generation, and Jean-Luc Godard's self-reflexive early masterpiece Breathless epitomized 60s chic for countless Parisians and helped catapult the New Wave of French cinema onto the international stage. Jean-Paul Belmondo's channeling of Humphrey Bogart's laconic drawl for the character of Michel hints at Godard's appropriation - and reinvention - of Hollywood's legacy of cool gangster thrillers. A petty crook on the run from the police, Michel's American girlfriend Patricia (the radiant Jean Serberg) enhances the playfulness with trans-Atlantic popular culture. Amidst the existential musings and nihilistic sense of moral ambivalence, the police slowly but surely close in. The inventive use of insistent handheld-camerawork coupled with the groundbreaking use of jump cuts in the editing is as purely innovative as any technical achievement to emerge from the vibrant movies of the French New Wave, and has secured Godard's legacy as a filmmaker of vitality and spontaneity, influencing directors such as Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. Over 30 years later, another fresh cinematic voice would emerge, halfway across the world, with a similarly invigorating trans-cultural style. From the sharp monochrome avenues, apartments and alleyways of Paris to the vibrant, colourful streets of Hong Kong with Wong Kar-Wai's story of lovelorn 20-somethings, we have Chungking Express. Two separate stories about cops: Cop 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro); infatuated with a strange woman in a blonde wig (Brigitte Lin) who just happens to be a drug smuggler. The other, Cop 633 (Tony Leung), struggling to cope with breaking up from his air hostess girlfriend, who fails to notice the huge crush Faye (the radiant Faye Wong) - the girl from his local snack bar - has on him. Unbeknownst to him she has the key to his apartment, breaking in while he's away to rearrange and change his possessions. Chungking Express's charm lies in its freewheeling approach to depicting the lives of its protagonists, taking in the moments when they talk to themselves or the things around them - like their soap - and evoking a daydream-like mood. The sense of drifting through lives in flux is enhanced considerably by Christopher Doyle's impressive cinematography, the constantly roaming hand-held camerawork smearing and blurring light and colour. This impressionistic style invited comparisons to the movies of the French New Wave at the time of its release (Roger Ebert described the film as "largely a cerebral experience") and it rewards repeated viewing, if only to take in all the subtle juxtapositions of imagery.
