Jean-Pierre Melville(1917-1973)

According to Melville, Jean-Luc Godard asked him for consultation during the post-production stage of "Breathless" because the first edit was too long for distribution. Melville suggested Godard remove all scenes that slowed down the action (his own turn as the novelist Parvulesco included). However, instead of excluding entire scenes, Godard cut little bits from here and there. This led to the "jump cut" technique this movie introduced. Melville declared the result to be excellent.

I'm incapable of doing anything but rough drafts. Each time I see one of my films again, then and only then can I see what I should have done. But I only see things this clearly once the finished print is being shown on the screen everywhere and it's too late to do anything about it.