Only known script of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless to be sold

The only known script for Jean-Luc Godard's À Bout de Souffle (Breathless) is to be auctioned after it came to light for the first time since the seminal film was released in 1960.

- Kim Willsher

The only known script for Jean-Luc Godard's À Bout de Souffle (Breathless) is to be auctioned after it came to light for the first time since the seminal film was released in 1960.

About 70 pages of the French director's notes and synopses for some of the most famous scenes, including the movie's dramatic opening, were found in the estate of the celebrated producer Georges de Beauregard.

Released in the UK in 1961, À Bout de Souffle follows the doomed affair between an American student in Paris, played by Jean Seberg, and her hoodlum boyfriend played by Jean-Paul Belmondo.

It was a keystone of France's New Wave movement and shook the cinema world, including Hollywood.

Godard's innovative method of working means that scripts of his films are rare. He shunned them in favour of writing dialogue the night before a shoot to encourage actors to behave naturally. He also had a penchant for destroying written records.