The French New Wave

The French new wave started in the late 50's. The french new wave films go against the normality of usual films, they're roughly made and mainly filmed with a hand held camera.

The French New Wave - why does it matter?

An artistic movement whose influence on film has been as profound and enduring as that of surrealism or cubism on painting. The new french wave was also the birth of the 'auter' and the rise of the 'camera stylo'. The french new wave is also an explosion of young vibrant film makers who in their films were capturing the zeitgeist of the times - a cultural revolution.
The film makers of the French New Wave are unique and distinctive enough to stand out on their own but they collectively compromised one of the most influential movements in cinema history. Some of the films have aged better than others, even though they weren't aiming for mainstream success, many of these films became popular and critically acclaimed worldwide, the subject of much debate, and, ultimately, the inspiration of film makers everywhere.

A technical practice - An Aesthetic

The auteur director of French New Wave films is also the scriptwriter for the film. The director does not follow a strict pre - established shooting script, as well as this the director also privileges shooting in natural locations. A small crew is also used in the making of the film. The director opts for 'direct sound', also, the director does not depend on additional lighting. Non - professional actors are also chosen by the director. By using this approach to create a film it allows flexibility and creativity as you are able to erase the boundaries of an ordinary film. Another advantage from using this approach is that it allows a low budget within the film. This approach also allows an exploration of the contemporary. The techniques of filming used in The French new wave were alternative framing and also making mistakes. Collaboration with cinematographers was also used. Natural lighting and liberation from the camera to the tripod was also a technique used of the French New Wave film making.

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/the-french-new-wave-revolutionising-cinema/

French New Wave, which is also known as French Nouvelle Vague, can be considered as one of the most influential film movements that took place in the history of cinema. The ripples created by this cinematic movement can even be felt today. A group of critics, who wrote for a French film journal called Cahiers du Cinema, created the film movement.

It began as a movement against the traditional path that French Cinema followed, which was more like literature. The French New Wave had the potential to bring a radical change to French cinema.

The manifesto of Alexandre Astuc, The Birth of a New Avant-Garde: The Camera-Stylo can be considered as the starting point of the French New Wave movement. This event took place in 1948. This manifesto outlined several ideas that were explained by Cahiers du cinema and François Truffaut at a later stage.

They argued that the French cinema was similar to the literature, which expresses the same ideas that are depicted in novels and paintings. In other words, the artists at that time used movies to voice their thoughts. Some of the leading film producers, whose names are mentioned above, wanted to change it and this is the birth of the radical movement in the history of French cinema.

Morris Engel, who was an American film director, also contributed a lot towards the French New Wave. He produced a movie called Little Fugitive back in 1953 as he was impressed with the concept of French New Wave. This film clearly shows how the cinema industry in France got International support to carry forward the much-needed move. The French movie producers still appreciate the contribution of Morris Engel.

Therefore, the directors took necessary measures to add a personal signature to the film. The directors who lived in France at that time praised the films produced by Jean Vigo and Jean Renoir because they were pioneer figures who fought against this theory.

They were able to create few memorable films with the help of talented script writers. The participation of script writers helped them to stay away from adding their personal opinions and views into the movies that they created.

One of the most important foundations of the French New Wave was an interest in and respect for realism; few sets were constructed for these films, and most of them were made on location. This enabled the filmmakers to work with relatively small expenses. The famed Left Bank of the movement, whose practitioners included Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda, and Chris Marker, took this idea even further, building some films almost entirely out of photographs and other factual, research-based materials. 

The French New Wave pioneers pushed the limits of cinema technique. In Godard's special use of the jump cut—where time passes with each successive cut—the space between the cuts suggests a wealth of information. This technique has influenced directors for decades. The long take was also a favorite of the New Wavers, given that it could allow the viewer to immerse himself or herself in a location, the mise-en-scene, or a character's face.

The French New Wave is one of the most significant film movements in the history of the cinema. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the New Wave rejuvenated France's already prestigious cinema and energized the international art cinema as well as film criticism and theory, reminding many contemporary observers of Italian neorealism's impact right after World War II. The New Wave dramatically changed filmmaking inside and outside France by encouraging new styles, themes, and modes of production throughout the world. Suddenly, there were scores of new, young twenty- and thirty-something directors, such as Louis Malle, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and Claude Chabrol, delivering film after film while launching a new generation of stars, including Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Claude Brialy, and Jean-Paul Belmondo.

 the characteristics of French New Wave can be identified through setting, lighting, staging and sound in terms of mise-en-scène. The setting of this film movement usually shoot on real or natural locations, therefore the films usually had a casual and natural look due to the choice of location filming in and around Paris. Eventually, the mise-en-scène of Parisian streets (Figure 2.0) and coffee bars became favorite shooting spots of the films. For example, “Breathless” is shot on location in the urban setting of Paris. Shots of famous historic monuments, such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, were placed in the film. Moreover, the action of this film centered on locations such as the cafe scene where Patricia meets journalist Van Doude, the scene of Michel and Patricia take off for St-Germain in a stolen car at the street of Place de la Concorde, Boulevard Montparnasse, Paris and so on. The use of on location shooting eventually became a trademark of French New Wave films that refused the constraints of the studio.

Figure 2.0 Champs Elysées, Paris, the street where Patricia sells newspaper

French New Wave Films

Breathless 1960 

Jean-Luc Godard - Born in Paris, France, on December 3, 1930, Jean-Luc Godard is one of the central filmmakers of the French New Wave movement of the 1960s.

Breathless (French: À bout de souffle; "out of breath") is a 1960 French film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard about a wandering criminal (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and his American girlfriend (Jean Seberg). It was Godard's first feature-length work and represented Belmondo's breakthrough as an actor.

Breathless was one of the earliest, most influential examples of French New Wave (nouvelle vague) cinema. Together with François Truffaut's The 400 Blows and Alain Resnais's Hiroshima, Mon Amour, both released a year earlier, it brought international acclaim to this new style of French filmmaking. At the time, the film attracted much attention for its bold visual style, which included unconventional use of jump cuts.  

Although some people may not be as impressed with Breathless's structure as it was set in 1960, it remains a terrific, breathtaking film experience and has aged wonderfully. Such masterpieces live up to the hype and time, even though they're not as technically impressive as they were 40 years ago, and they're still powerful thanks to what great films consist of: passion. As another user rightfully stated, we have to look at "Breathless" from a historical point: it's different from any other previous film. Godard was truly a visionary and an incredibly talented, passionate "auteur".

About Godard

Like his New Wave contemporaries, Godard criticized mainstream French cinema's "Tradition of Quality", which "emphasized craft over innovation, privileged established directors over new directors, and preferred the great works of the past to experimentation." As a result of such argument, he and like-minded critics started to make their own films. Many of Godard's films challenge the conventions of traditional Hollywood in addition to French cinema. In 1964, Godard described his and his colleagues' impact: "We barged into the cinema like cavemen into the Versailles of Louis XV." He is often considered the most radical French filmmaker of the 1960s and 1970s; his approach in film conventions, politics and philosophies made him arguably the most influential director of the French New Wave. Along with showing knowledge of film history through homages and references, several of his films expressed his political views; he was an avid reader of existential and marxist philosophy.

In a remarkable burst of creativity, Godard made 15 full-length features between 1959 and 1967. He followed Breathless with The Little Soldier, a political thriller that introduced the actress Anna Karina. Other films of this period are Pierrot le Fou, starring Karina and Belmondo as young lovers on a crime spree; Band of Outsiders, a stylish crime drama; Alphaville, which combined science fiction and film noir; Contempt, with Brigitte Bardot and American actor Jack Palance; and the darkly humorous road-movie Weekend.

Above is a review from The guardian Newspaper online praising the film on its 50th year anniversary release naming the film 'fresh'.


The 400 Blows

Francois Truffaut -  6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984 was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic, as well as one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry, having worked on over 25 films. Truffaut's film The 400 Blows came to be a defining film of the French New Wave movement.


Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" (1959) is one of the most intensely touching stories ever made about a young adolescent. Inspired by Truffaut's own early life, it shows a resourceful boy growing up in Paris and apparently dashing headlong into a life of crime. Adults see him as a troublemaker. We are allowed to share some of his private moments, as when he lights a candle before a little shrine to Balzac in his bedroom. The film's famous final shot, a zoom in to a freeze frame, shows him looking directly into the camera. He has just run away from a house of detention, and is on the beach, caught between land and water, between past and future. It is the first time he has seen the sea. 

François Truffaut’s first feature is also his most personal. Told from the point of view of Truffaut’s cinematic counterpart, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), The 400 Blows (Les quatre cents coups) sensitively re-creates the trials of Truffaut’s own childhood, unsentimentally portraying aloof parents, oppressive teachers, and petty crime. The film marked Truffaut’s passage from leading critic to trailblazing auteur of the French New Wave. 

The 400 Blows earned François Truffaut the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival -- doubly impressive when you consider that a) it was his first movie, and b) the award came only a year after Trauffaut's mercilessness as a film critic had gotten him booted from Cannes' invite list altogether. That's like being thrown out of a comedy club for heckling one weekend, then winning the open-mic competition the next. Upon its release in the United States a few months later, the New York Times' Bosley Crowther said it "brilliantly and strikingly reveals the explosion of a fresh creative talent in the directorial field" and called it "a small masterpiece." 

We wrote about François Truffaut and the French New Wave in our treatment of Truffaut's Jules and Jim, which came three years after The 400 Blows. We probably should have used 400 Blows as our intro to New Wave, not Jules and Jim, but oh well. We cannot change the past. Actually, Jules and Jim is a better representation of many of the New Wave's stylistic touches: freeze-frames, zooms, jump cuts, breaking the fourth wall, and so forth. The 400 Blows doesn't have much of that. What makes it New Wave-y is that it's so deeply personal. 

Jules and Jim

Jules and jim is a 1962 French romantic dramafilm, directed, produced and written by François Truffaut. Set around the time of World War I.

François Truffaut's "Jules and Jim" opens with carousel music and a breathless narration that tells of two young men -- one French, one Austrian -- who meet in Paris in 1912 and become lifelong friends: "They taught each other their languages; they translated poetry."

The movie was released in 1962, at the time of the creative explosion of Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, Resnais, Malle and the other New Wave directors, and it was Truffaut's third feature (after "The 400 Blows" in 1959 and "Shoot the Piano Player" in 1960). Although a case can be made for Godard's "Breathless" (1960) (based on a story by Truffaut), "Jules and Jim" was perhaps the most influential and arguably the best of those first astonishing films that broke with the past. There is joy in the filmmaking that feels fresh today and felt audacious at the time. In the energy pulsing from the screen you can see the style and sensibility that inspired "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967), a film Truffaut was once going to direct, and which jolted American films out of their torpor. And you can see the '60s being born; Jules and Jim and their great love Catherine were flower children -- for a time. The 1960s ended sadly, as did "Bonnie and Clyde," as did "Jules and Jim," as did "Thelma and Louise," a film they influenced; the movement from comedy to tragedy was all the more powerful for audiences who expected one or the other.


When François Truffaut's Jules et Jim was released in 1962, it was an instant hit with girls like me, francophile, penniless and non-monogamous. In those days, when contraception was available if you were sufficiently guileful, there were a fair few sex adventuresses about, though nowhere near as many as there are now. Enough of us took Jeanne Moreau's Catherine as a role model to establish a fashion for heavy black eye-liner, pale lips, sloppy jumpers and flappy skirts. Some even went so far as to try the Jackie Coogan cap worn by Catherine when she is masquerading as Thomas. We could all whistle "Le Tourbillon de la Vie". Catherine seemed a woman after our own hearts, who followed her desires rather than the rules.

Those of us who spoke the language of the Cahiers du Cinéma rejoiced in the film's innovation, its daring introduction of still photography, the occasional fleeting freeze-frame, pans, dolly shots, wipes and masking. In retrospect, it is obvious that some of these innovations, such as using newsreel of the first world war instead of shooting new footage, were made necessary by a shortage of funds following the box-office failure of the preceding production from Les Films du Carrosse, Tirez sur le Pianiste

Cinematography has followed in the path carved out by Truffaut. The sequence in which Moreau comes freewheeling towards us on a bike, faithfully followed by her lovers, was shot by a lightweight camera mounted on a bicycle that Moreau and the men had been directed to follow, so we feel airborne along with the action. 

Truffaut called his film Jules and Jim after a novel he had fallen in love with which followed the volatile friendship of the men over the course of two decades, but I entered it through the portal of Catherine, who was its dangerous spark.