The directors associated with the Nouvelle Vague, including Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Louis Malle, Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda and Jacques Demy have made, between them, films numbering in the many hundreds.
It has now been more than half a century since the directors of the New Wave (in French, "Nouvelle Vague") electrified the international film scene with their revolutionary new way of telling stories on film. The New Wave itself may no longer be "new", but the directors and their films are still important. They are the progenitors of what we have come to think of as alternative cinema today, and they had, and continue to have, a profound influence on cinema and popular culture throughout the world. Without the Nouvelle Vague there may not have been any Scorsese, Soderbergh, or Tarantino (or Wenders, or Oshima, or Bertolucci), and music, fashion and advertising would be without a major point of reference.
The directors of the Nouvelle Vague, and those of their like-minded contemporaries in other countries, created a new cinematic style, using breakthrough techniques and a fresh approach to storytelling that could express complex ideas while still being both direct and emotionally engaging. Crucially, these filmmakers also proved that they didn't need the mainstream studios to produce successful films on their own terms. By emphasizing the personal and artistic vision of film over its worth as a commercial product, the Nouvelle Vague set an example that inspired others across the world. In every sense they were the true founders of modern independent film and to watch them for the first time is to rediscover cinema.
The ideas of the new wave had been festering for sometime in the minds of the critics and editors of Cahiers, as well as writings of film critic Alexandre Astruc, particularly on his concept of camera-stylo (Cook 441). However, it is said that the New Wave movement exploded in 1959 with the release of three films – Truffaut’s Les Quatre des Coups (The 400 Blows), Alain Renais’ Hiroshima, Mon Amour and Godard’s A bout de Souffle (Breathless) (Lanzoni 213). Although Renais was of an older generation of directors, his style and influence on the New Wave was apparent enough in Hiroshima, which also won the International Critics Award at Cannes Film Festival in 1959 (Lanzoni 213). Resnais wasn’t the only one to walk away with an award at the ’59 Cannes Festival; Truffaut was awarded Best Director for Les Quatre des Coups (Lanzoni 213).
What audiences saw in these three films was a departure of what Truffaut referred to as “cinema du papa,” or grandad’s cinema (Roberts and Wallis 95). More commonly referred to as the “tradition of quality,” Truffaut was speaking of the post-war French cinema that was buried in literature as well as elaborate dialogue and plots (Cook 442). The French new wave was essentially the opposite of this, stressing the importance of mise-en-scene and “la politique des auteur,” or the policy of the author. It was an idea that sprung out of Astruc’s ideas on camera-stylo, which saw the director using film as means to convey a message or vision, basically “the author ‘writing’ with a camera” (Lanzoni 206).
A History of the French New Wave Cinema
By Richard Neuper , Univ of Wisconsin Press, 20 Apr 2007 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OIp7bDHNDs8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=french+new+wave&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAWoVChMI76-KldmRyAIVoiDbCh0vHgMT#v=onepage&q=french%20new%20wave&f=false
The French New Wave: A New Look, Naomi Green, Wallflower press, 2007
French New Wave, Chris Wiegand, 2012
For my study on the French New Wave I shall be looking in detail at the two directors, Godard and Truffaut. I will be creating a video essay in which I will study their films and make point out not only the differences between them, but also how they contributed to the French New Wave and the effect that they would cause for the film industry and how strong that effect is in today's film industry.
The two Godard films I will be studying are:
-Breathless (1960) ("À bout de souffle" original title) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053472/
-Vivre Sa Vie (1962) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056663/
The two Truffaut films I will be studying are:
-Jules Et Jim (1962) http://www.newwavefilm.com/french-new-wave-encyclopedia/jules-and-jim.shtml
-Shoot the piano player - TIREZ SUR LE PIANISTE (1960) http://www.newwavefilm.com/french-new-wave-encyclopedia/shoot-the-piano-player.shtml
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