The 1983 film "Breathless" is an American film about a car thief and burglar who shoots and kills a policeman and flees from the law. He picks up his college student girlfriend who accompanies him. He first visits a Los Angeles coin store, the Superior Stamp and Coin Company, a real coin store at the time located at 9301 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The store moved to Beverly Hills in 1986 and closed in 1994. At the store an employee gives him a check for a stolen car and another employee tells the police. Later in the film the girlfriend drops her purse and two pennies (US cents) appear on the ground. The film is based on the 1960 French film "A Bout De Souffle" ("Breathless") by Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut.

Jesse Lujack, a car thief and burglar, steals a car in Las Vegas and drives to Los Angeles to sell the car. He is stopped by a policeman whom he shoots and kills. He arrives in Los Angeles and visits a store to collect some money for another stolen car.

This was a real-life coin store which allowed the film company to film some scenes in.

Jesse asks for an employee named Tolmatchoff and it is obvious that the salesgirl doesn't like either men.

He calls Jesse "Kemosabe", a name from "The Lone Ranger" television program.

The store also sold sports memorabilia and some are in a storage case. Jesse wants cash and is told to see another man in Venice, a town near Los Angeles. Two policemen enter the store and ask for Jesse.

Tolmatchoff tells the policemen, Sergeant Enright and Lieutenant Parmental, that Jesse used to work for the store but that he hasn't seen him for years. The salesgirl then tells the policemen that Jesse just left. Jesse picks his girlfriend, Monica Poiccard, a French architecture student.

Jesse drives Monica around Los Angeles in a succession of stolen cars while he tries to collect money. He asks Monica to live with him in Mexico which she isn't interested in doing. The policemen have been trailing Jesse and Monica.

They ask her where Jesse is but she refuses to tell them. She sees Jesse again and they hide in the back room of a movie theater.

The pair drive out to the country and stop while Jesse works on another car.

Monica drops her purse.

Two pennies (US Lincoln cents) fall out. Back in Los Angeles the police find Jesse.

Richard Gere as Jesse Lujack
Valerie Kaprisky as Monica Poiccard
Waldemar Kalinowski as Tolmatchoff (coin store employee)
Lisa Persky as Salesgirl (coin store employee)
John P. Ryan as police Lieutenant Parmental
Robert Dunn as police Sergeant Enright
Director: Jim McBride
Writers: L.M. Kit Carson, Jim McBride
Based on the 1960 French film "Breathless" by Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut