The French have long sustained a reputation for appreciating things American that the U.S. populace by and large chooses to overlook.
Jazz is one glaring example.
Only recently recognized in its native States as an art form, it's been revered and preserved in Europe for decades. Similarly, it is a uniquely French breed of filmmaker, known to film history as the New Wave, who is responsible for acknowledging and emulating the American film noir, preserving an American innovation at a time when Hollywood was turning to big budget, wide-screen, Technicolor blowouts for its salvation. The screenplay details Jean-Paul Belmondo's ongoing devotion to, and emulation of, Humphrey Bogart, a noir icon if ever there was one. In 1965, Godard combined the noir sensibilities that had long underpinned his career, with his love of yet another American art form, the comic strip. Lemmy Caution, world-weary private dick, had been the subject of at least two previous films.