I think you could mention Rossellini's Voyage to Italy, as an influence- not just the setting but the sea, statues, historical/classical heritage, and the great respect Godard and fellow Cahiers du Cinma critics turned director (e.g Rohmer) had for the film, which they championed as a new way of expressing emotion through environment/ surroundings. It was also a sort of fore-runner for another Italian coastal film, L'Avventura. Like L'Avventura, Godard makes telling use of architecture (the house on the cliffs). 

Also a certain hedonistic urge in Godard alongside his cool intellect; the primary colours, sensuality v the film's cynicism + contempt for crass commercialism- he neatly turns the required Bardot nudity to his advantage, in more ways than one (and didn't he say film was a great way of getting beautiful women to take off their clothes? or similar). It strikes me as a more controlled, less joyfully free, film than say Pierrot le Fou.