By Simon Hitchman
1. What is the French New Wave, anyway?
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The Nouvelle Vague: A Beginner's Guide
Getting to grips with the New Wave might understandably therefore seem a daunting prospect for somebody wanting to explore the movement for the first time. With that in mind, this introduction will provide some general context and a brief overview of some of the characteristics associated with the French New Wave. It will also offer some suggestions about where to start your investigations, as well as an overview of the seminal "must see" films which best define the movement. If you’ve already seen many of the best known New Wave films, or are looking for a more specific approach, you might try our Top 10 New Wave Film Lists, which drill down by director, sub-genre, performance and various other categories.
Fifty years on: Why the New Wave Still Matters
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 (orWenders, 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.
A Radical New Type of Filmmaking
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Although they admired many of the studio films being made at the time, they also felt that most mainsteam cinema, especially in France, was not expressing human life, thought, and emotion in a genuine way. Many of the popular movies of the era, they argued, were dry, recycled, inexpressive and out of touch with the daily lives of post-war French youth.
While the Nouvelle Vague may never have been a formally organized movement, its filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of the "cinéma de qualité" ("cinema of quality"), the studio-bound, script-centered cinema that dominated the French filmscape at the time. Besides being made to impress rather than express, these films generally afforded their directors very little freedom or creative control, instead catering to the commercial whims of producers and the influence of screenwriters. Those New Wave directors who started as critics, mainly writing for the French journal called Cahiers du Cinema, regularly praised the films they loved and tore apart those films they hated in print. Through the process of judging the art of cinema, they began to think about what it was that might make the medium special. More importantly they were gradually inspired to begin making films themselves. While each director had a slightly different agenda, Truffaut could be said to encapsulate the group's mission when he said, "The film of tomorrow will not be directed by civil servants of the camera, but by artists for whom shooting a film constitutes a wonderful and thrilling adventure."
Broadly speaking, the New Wave rejected the idea of a traditional story in the "Old Hollywood" sense of stories based on narrative styles and structures lifted from earlier media, namely books and theatre. The New Wave directors did not want to hold your hand through each scene, directing you emotion by emotion, through a fixed narrative. There was a feeling that this sort of storytelling interfered with the viewer's ability to perceive and react to film just as they would perceive and react to life. These directors wanted to break up the filmic experience, to make it fresh and exciting, and to jolt the moviegoer out of complacent viewing - to make the viewer think and feel, not only about what they were watching, but about their own lives, thoughts and emotions as well. Dialogue was to be as realistic and spontaneous as possible, or philosophical in a way that made one think beyond the film. Expressing the truth was of the utmost importance. The object was not simply to entertain, it was to sincerely communicate.
The scripts (or lack thereof) of these new directors were often revolutionary, but the films' modest budgets often forced them to become technically inventive as well. As a result, the movies of the Nouvelle Vague have became known for certain stylistic innovations such as: jump cuts (a non-naturalistic edit), rapid editing, shooting outdoors and on location, natural lighting, improvised dialogue and plotting, direct sound recording (as opposed to the dubbing that was popular at the time), mobile cameras, and long takes. In addition, their films often engaged, although sometimes indirectly, with the social and political upheavals of their times. You can read a more in-depth history of the French New Wave in our history article.
New Wave International
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Meanwhile, elsewhere in Europe, the French and British New Waves inspired groups of like-minded young directors in Communist-controlled Czechoslovakia (Milos Forman, Vera Chytilova , Ivan Passer) and Poland (Roman Polanski, Jerzy Skolimowski). Shooting on location, often using non-professional actors, they sought to capture life as it was really lived in their societies. In Italy too, young directors making their first films such as Bernardo Bertolucci and Marco Bellocchio were directly inspired by the Nouvelle Vague. The same was true of a new generation of German directors, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog, who emerged at the end of the 1960s and came to be known as the New German Cinema.
Revolutionary film movements also arose in Japan and Brazil where directors like Nagisa Oshima and Glauber Rocha made films devoted to questioning, analyzing, critiquing and upsetting social conventions. Indeed, in countries around the world, young filmmakers armed with hand-held cameras and ideas inspired by the Nouvelle Vague were making films on their own terms. All had their own particular flavour, but in each case, came into being as a reaction against what had come before and arose out of the feeling that such breaks in tradition were necessary to the positive evolution of cinema in their country.
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The Nouvelle Vague would also be acknowledged as a major inspiration on theNew Hollywood generation of directors such as Arthur Penn, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese. This influence has continued to the present day with many of the major figures in contemporary independent American cinema, including Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, and Wes Anderson, professing admiration for the movement and employing many of its techniques. As Scorsese himself put it: "the French New Wave has influenced all filmmakers who have worked since, whether they saw the films or not. It submerged cinema like a tidal wave".
2. What are the best films for beginners?
The Cahiers du Cinema Directors
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The Left Bank Group
Although the Cahiers du Cinema directors became the most celebrated members of the Nouvelle Vague, another loose contingent of brilliant and highly original filmmakers were also associated with the movement. This was the Rive Gauche or Left Bank Movement whose core members included Chris Marker, Alain Resnais and Agnes Varda. These filmmakers had backgrounds in documentary and literature, an interest in experimental storytelling, and an identification with the political left. (Although it is worth noting that the label "Left Bank" was constructed by journalists years after the fact. At the time the friends did not consider themselves part of any group). Other associates of the movement included Alain Robbe-Grillet, Marguerite Duras, Henri Colpi, and, by virtue of his marriage to Agnes Varda, Jacques Demy. The following is a selection of films to watch by this group made during the New Wave era. For more suggestions visit our Top 10 Lists and theFrench New Wave Encyclopedia.
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Before the phrase was ever invented, there was in fact already a "new wave" of directors in France breaking with the traditional modes of production and setting an example that others would follow. Although vastly different in both content and style, the films of directors such as Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean Rouch, Louis Malle and Alexandre Astruc were visionary and innovative. Later these directors became associated with the Nouvelle Vague movement, although some of them, such as Jean-Pierre Melville, rejected the label.
After the New Wave became a success, a whole new generation of filmmakers in France were inspired to follow their example. Over 20 directors released their first films in 1959 and this number doubled in the following year. In 1962, a special edition of Cahiers du Cinemawas released in which 162 new French Filmmakers were listed. Inevitably many have not stood the test of time, however the best of them went on to have long and enduring careers.
What follows are some key films by these directors leading up to, during, and immediately after the Nouvelle Vague period.
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http://www.newwavefilm.com/new-wave-cinema-guide/nouvelle-vague-where-to-start.shtml
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