‘Breathless’: the passions that drown in the depths

A type of production that tends to attract the public are films or series inspired by real events, especially those that tell part of the crime news of a country. The most prominent exponent is the famous ‘True Crime’, which elevated documentary production, bringing the narrative power of nonfiction to audiences on a massive scale. However, this is not the case ‘Breathless’, a feature film distributed by Netflix that starts from a terrible real tragedy to transform it into a fictional proposal whose creative freedom allows him to portray the more poisonous side of romantic relationships.

Debut in the French audiovisual industry of the American David M. Rosenthal, it can be said that ‘Breathless’ is the most notable work of the director, who in recent years had specialized in low cost and B series productions and who had already collaborated with Netflix with ‘The End of Everything’. Despite being designed to be released exclusively on the streaming platform, the splendid natural and marine scenarios offer a visual delight that invites you to let yourself be carried away by the underwater vocation of its protagonists.

Its aesthetic care helps to fully enter into history, Inspired by the French freediver and diver Audrey Mestre, who tragically passed away in 2002 at the age of 28, after drowning while trying to break the women’s freediving record by diving to a depth of 171 meters off the coast of the Dominican Republic. Since there were always doubts about the reason for the human error that led to his death, the film, with a screenplay by Rosenthal himself, take the opportunity to create a thriller in which the small details matter and that these can mask a murder in the form of an accident.

From this hypothesis, “Breathless” tells how a toxic relationship is forged, between the protagonist, a young university student who discovers her vocation for diving and her instructor, a celebrity in the sport and who sees his fame vanish for the benefit of his girlfriend, the new talent to be discovered, the diamond in rough . Here, Rosenthal had a golden opportunity to portray the profile of the violent manwho doesn’t show his cards until he’s secured the deck and how he enchants his victim like a snake charmer.

A thriller that works thanks to the alchemy of its protagonists

However, Rosenthal does not fully delve into the toxic nature of the relationship, which takes time to show, e sin to recreate it in the beautiful natural settings and in the quiet underwater scenes that another director would have used to tell how something so passionate can turn into hostile and dangerous territory. Add to that that introduces a series of sequences with strong erotic nuances that add nothing to the plot and negatively affect the final resultWell, they seem to have been discarded from the “365 Days” trilogy, Netflix’s infamous erotic gamble. In this sense Rosenthal makes the same mistakes as ‘The Ideal Man’, the one in which he has already narrated a thriller with a shady love triangle.

Nonetheless, ‘Breathless’ is a feature film with enough results to praise it. Its protagonists stand out in particular, a hypnotic love triangle, which fascinates both for its attractiveness and for its interpretative quality. Camille Rowe stands out as that young woman who finally decides to blaze her own path in life; even if she the one she surprises about her is Sofiane Zermani. The singer and actor had never dealt with a role so opposite to him and shows his power of dark beauty, with an interpretive style reminiscent of Pierre Niney in ‘The Perfect Man’ or that of Pascal Elbé in “The son of the other”. The third is the discord is César Domboy, who shines in his brief moments of appearance and it would not have been bad to give him a greater presence on the screen.

‘Breathless’ is a fair thriller. It is true that it would have given a lot more in other hands, but that doesn’t mean it’s efficient work, which allows Rosenthal to be seen more closely at his most independent works, recalling “Janie Jones” which has been his most praised proposal to date. A film that, yes, knows how to show the terrible tentacles that exist behind toxic relationships and sentimental manipulations.

Note: 6

The best: The chemistry of its protagonists. The interpretation of Sofiane Zermani.

Worse: She dabbles too much in her beautiful settings and has pointless explicit sex scenes that tarnish the end result.