French Cinema - New Wave

FRENCH CINEMA

The New-Wave Movement


This was influential particularly in France, mainly Paris - centre of new wave

Names of filmmakers from the time:
Jean-Luc Goddard
Francois Truffaut
Claude Chabrol
Jacques Rivette

La Pointe Courte (Agnes Varda, 1954) beginning of new wave, which took hold in the 1960’s.

For example, Jean-Luc Goddard’s Breathless
Goddard and Francois Truffaut
Fellini, Antoioni in Italie, Bergman

Cahiers du Cinema was influence by an American film.
Filmmaking skills are as important as the story.

Features of New Wave Cinema include:
Shot on location
Hand-held cameras
Lightweight equipment
Experiment and improvised
Casual appearance
Makes use of real lighting and sound where possible
Uses the French landscape as a theme
Innovation

Existentialism, Jean Paul Satre (1905-1980)
- human life is absurd due to the absence of rational understanding of the universe

Act authentically, use free will.

Cinema du Papa was a reaction against the French cinema in the 1940’s, for example La Belle et La Bete by Jean Cocteau, 1946

Cocteau hated conventions such as:
Films being shot in studios
Films set in the past
Overdramatics
Special Effects
Films of poor standard

Goddard’s Breathless was based on an American gangster film.
The French New Wave editing style for films were unique, discontinuous, had extra material included, and had cut footage.
The protagonists in these films are stylish and silly but with an alternative cowardly/negative persona.
The films flirt with various themes such as love, romance and boredom.
They also involve some form of death or betrayal.

Influences of Goddard include:
Einstein’s ‘Montage’ technique
Independence of sound and image
Reality and elasticity of time

Cleo 5 to 7 Varda, 1963, was funded by Beauregard and Ponti
the film invented the concept of the invisible male in the city

More examples of New Wave films include:
Francois Truffaut - 400 Blows
Alain Resnais – Hiroshima Mon Amour
Jean-Luc Goddard – Breathless
Francois Truffaut – Shoot the Piano Player
Jaques Rivette – Paris Nous Appartient
Jean-Luc Goddard – A Woman is a Woman
Alain Resnais – Last Year at Marienbad

Futher European examples include films by Ingar Bergman (Persona, 1966) and Luis Bunuel (Viridana, 1961, and Belle de Jour, 1967)