The French New Wave: A Daring and Dazzling New Form
- Michael Daly
- Oct 7, 2019
- 4 min read
Hello Readers. This week I will be blogging about one of the most major and influential movements not only in post war European cinema, but in film history, The French New Wave. This movement originated in the late 1950's and early 1960's. New Wave filmmakers rejected traditional linear conventions of storytelling and created a new language of film. The movement was a complete rejection of a formalist style. The major players of this movement experimented with a free editing style, loose narrative structure and social-political commentary of it's time period. It was fresh, groovy and completely distinctive. François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard were two filmmakers that were the prime figures of this movement. It's important to note that Truffaut, Godard, and others started out working as film critics before they transitioned into directing films. Film was an important part of the culture in post war France and most of the New Wave filmmakers spent a great amount of time watching films and writing about them. A lot of the New Wave filmmakers also believed in the auteur theory, especially Truffaut, and encouraged that directors should have the creative power and artistic expression, much as great works of literature of the author. Other major figures part of this movement were Agnes Varda, Alain Resnais, Jaques Demy, Éric Rohmer, and Claude Chabrol. I will discussing two films that I feel are pivotal to this movement.
The 400 Blows (1959) Directed by François Truffaut
Let's begin where it started it all. The 400 Blows is an autobiographical film of Truffaut's own childhood experiences growing up in Paris. It is about a young boy's strict home-life, his troubled and confrontational behavior at school and his conflicts with the law. The 400 Blows and other French New Wave titles is an example of Caméra-stylo, the use of the camera as a means of personal expression. It is the idea that the camera is used as a pen, or a paintbrush and the picture should be a conversation between the audience and the filmmaker. Truffaut does this by employing clever fades, jump cuts, match cuts, freeze frames and tracking shots. It is a film that is authentic and beautifully composed. It created it's own distinctive style and established a sense of realism with it's mise en scene which was rare during that time.
My Personal Experience with The 400 Blows This is one of the later French New Wave films I had watched. Probably because it is constantly labeled as the essential French New Wave picture and I wanted to pick the right time to watch it. After I saw it for the first time, I watched it two more times because I loved it so much. It's a movie I will continue to return to because the more I watched it, the more of it's brilliance is revealed to me. The movie has an episodic structure where it captures the day to day activities of this young child's life. Antoine is aways finding himself in trouble, even when he is doing the right thing. He knows he's misunderstood by everyone around him where he needs to find his escape. Of course, you can't talk about this film without mentioning the final sequence where Antione escapes and runs away to a secluded beach where he is all alone. It ends with a freeze frame of him and zooms into his face where he is looking directly at the camera. This is such a bold and ambiguous ending and I love movies that do that. Is Antione now free? If so, he can now leave his troubled past behind him and start a new chapter of his life. I still think about this enigmatic and poignant ending to a wonderful movie.
Breathless (1960) Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Breathless was released a year later after The 400 Blows. Breathless is more influential for it's technical innovation than The 400 Blows. Before Breathless, most films had a smooth, cut and dry editing style to advance the story. Godard went against these rules by employing jump cuts, creating a discontinuity structure. Godard wants the viewer to be completely aware that you are watching a movie. Characters in his pictures break the fourth wall. One of the first scenes in Breathless is a jump cut shot to Michael speaking to the camera as he is driving off. What was also new with Breathless is that it referenced other artists. Characters discuss jazz artists, or other films. Cultural references and homages were not really typical during that time.
My Personal Experience with Breathless Breathless was one of the first foreign films I ever saw. I fact, it might of been my introduction to 1960's European art-house cinema. It's not a movie I ever bothered to return to because I have a complicated relationship with Godard. After re-watching it for this entry I was curious how I would respond to it. I still dig it's cool, detached improvisational style. I love how energetic it is. The fact that Godard picked up a camera, shot a movie on the streets of Paris with his friends, and then went in the editing room and cut a film in a way you weren't supposed to is incredible and inspiring. I mean, this may sound kind of vague and superficial, but the movie just oozes with coolness. Charterers wearing cool sunglasses, cool jazz score, cool detachment juxtaposed with nihilism, cool way of smoking cigarettes (smoking is bad). Screw it, Breathless is the coolest movie ever.
So, there it is readers. A little taste of French New Wave cinema. Other films I encourage you to check out:
Hiroshima my Love (1959) Resnais
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962) - Varda
Jules and Jim (1962) Truffaut
Band of Outsiders (1964) - Godard
I will take a week off next week before we return back to America to discuss the films of Samuel Fuller.
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