Hi John,
I believe it all depends on your "cinema" culture.
In some ways if you are on this tribe you already are interested or are an aficionado of other culture's movies but I don't know, still you tried his Carmen...
The thing is, Breathless was part of a very very different cinema at the time, it was much more about the caracters and not so much about bringing an "efficient" cinema...
I think we have to be able cinema as is sometimes, in some ways it might not be about how good or bad the movie was but the good things in it no matter what, kinda what Henri Langlois's vision of cinema, it's all interesting if you see it through a positive way.
I personally like Godard for what he does rather than what I'd like him to do, for other types of cinema I watch someone else.
You won't expect the same from movie makers like Jim Jarmush and Quentin Tarantino and I think here it is the same...
Amelie is worth it, even though it's an easy seductive film, it's very well done.
I keep dream about watching it with Emily Watson set in London as it was suppoe to be, it was written for her (Emily/Amelie) and was set to be happening in London rather than Paris, imagine how different it would have been, interesting to think that JP Jeunet didn't set up a super French movie to beginning with...he had to change the story, his cast and the setting...
Gosh, i don't think I am really of any help here ;))))
Have you seen this amazing documentary about Henri Langlois??? you should!!!
I found it at my super tiny local video store, it's called Henri Langlois, phantom of the Cinematheque
www.imdb.com/title/tt0412703/
It's worth every pennies and will show you so much about the love of cinema, even if you know lots about it already.
Oh, I personally like the City of lost children and of course the amazing Delicatessen much better than Amelie for instance, but that was back when JP Jeunet was teeming up with Marc Caro...
Brilliant cinema.
Come back to us and share with us what you felt about Amelie!
Merci !
S.

Personally, I liked First Name: Carmen. If anything it was more accessible than some of his more well known films, such as Weekend, for instance, or even a more recent less known one like In Praise of Love. Godard has always intentionally eschewed common film conventions, so he's not one to look to if you're seeking Hollywood style plots and pacing. One man's monotony is another's fresh approach. Breathless is such an iconic film at this point with its then shocking innovations like jumpcuts now relatively common, it's difficult to view it with fresh eyes. I think though, of that early period of his work, I prefer Band of Outsiders.