(1959 – c. 1970)

COM 320: History of the Moving Image

French New Wave:Origins

“Romantic image of the young director fighting to make personal films that defy the conventional industry” Rebelling against what came before in France…although they did admire the works of four Jeans! Jean Vigo (e.g., Zero for Conduct, 1933) Jean Renoir (e.g., Grand Illusion, 1937; Rules of the

Game, 1939) Jean Cocteau (e.g., Beauty and the Beast, 1946) Jean-Pierre Melville (e.g., Bob le Flameur, 1956) (All together, a mixture of poetic realism &

surrealism)

French New Wave:Origins

Young, mostly male film fans self-educated at French Cinematheque in Paris (founded by Henri Langlois—see documentary Henri Langlois: Phantom of the Cinematheque)

French New Wave:Origins

A very coherent group, many wrote for the journal Cahiers du Cinema in their 20’sCahiers co-founded and edited by Andre Bazin (1918-

1958)The Main Players:

François Truffaut Jean-Luc Godard Alain Resnais Claude Chabrol Eric Rohmer Jacques Rivette

French New Wave:Origins (cont’d)

The Cahiers group set in place many of the important film theories:GenreAuteurRealism

The New Wave also included the “Left Bank Group” (Alain Resnais)Chris MarkerLouis Malle Jacques DemyAgnès Varda

All the FNWers knew each other and sometimes worked together, shared talent (e.g., actors, composers); e.g., Godard, wife Anna Karina, and composer Michel Legrand appear in Varda’s Cleo from 5 to 7

French New Wave:Origins (cont’d)

The FNW group all loved genre and auteur films, and the Soviet Montage

All put their ideas about filmmaking into practice around ’60 due to “prime de la qualite” (subsidy for quality)–begun by Centre National du Cinema in ’53, with an added script-proposal process in ’59

Substance“Film of the camera, not of the pen” A wide variety of genres and approaches, almost always

treated in a “revisionist” way—e.g., film noir, gangster cinema turned on its side for a film like Godard’s Breathless, Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player, or Melville’s Le Samouraï

Urban scenes “captured with the immediacy of Direct Cinema”

French New Wave:Form

Totally eclectic – whatever (that almost becomes the style); some call it “eccentric”

Emphasis on the mise-en-scèneLow budget, fast and light-weight (e.g., handheld camera);

benefitted from technical advances in documentary shooting; style a lot like “indie” style today

Impacts on Films to FollowFilm School Generation (e.g., Spielberg, Scorsese)American indie movement; So many influences

French New Wave Directors:Claude Chabrol June 24, 1930 – September 12, 2010Writer-Director-Producer-ActorDirected 71 films and TV shows since 1958Served as a writer on 54 films and a Producer on 10

films since 1956Performed in 51 films and TV shows since 1956 Important works:

Le Beau Serge (1958) – Chabrol won Best Director at the Locarno International Film Festival for this.

Les Cousins (1959) – Won Chabrol the Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival

Le Boucher (1970) – Winner of the Bodil Award for Best European Film

Considered a master of the mystery genre, and credited with starting the “nouvelle vague” movement.

French New Wave Directors:Jean-Luc Godard December 3, 1930 – present Directed 92 films and videos since 1954 Served as a writer on 76 films and videos and an editor

on 40 Acted in 35 productions since 1950 Important works:

Breathless (1960) – Godard won the 1960 Prix Jean Vigo, the 1960 Silver Berlin Bear, and the 1961 Critics Award from the French Syndicate of Film Critics

Contempt (1963) Alphaville (1965) – Godard won the Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin

International Film Festival Week End (1967) – Godard was nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear

Famous quotes: “In order to criticize a movie, you have to make another movie.” “All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun.”

French New Wave Directors:Alain Resnais June 3, 1922 – presentDirected 48 films since 1936Served as a writer on 3 films, cinematographer on 4,

and an editor on 19 Important works:

Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959) – Won the Critic’s Award from the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics, and the NYFCC Award from the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, both in 1960

Last Year in Marienbad (1961) – Won the Golden Lion at the 1961 Venice Film Festival

Won a Silver Berlin Bear from the Berlin International Film Festival in 1998, “for his lifetime contribution to the art of cinema.” Also won the Joseph Plateau Life Achievement Award the same year.

Nicknamed “The Sphinx”

French New Wave Directors:Jacques RivetteMarch 1, 1928 – presentDirected 33 films since 1949Served as a writer on 24 films, and acted in 6 Important works:

Paris nous appartient (1960) – Won the Sutherland Trophy from the 1962 British Film Institute Awards

La religieuse (1966) – Rivette’s biggest commercial success, nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1966

L’amour fou (1969) – Won the Sutherland Trophy from the 1969 British Film Institute Awards

Probably the least well-known of the French New Wave directors, Truffaut has written that the New Wave began “thanks to Rivette” and his films were strongly influential on better-known directors’ works.

French New Wave Directors:Eric RohmerBirth name: Jean-Marie Maurice Schérer April 4, 1920 – January 11, 2010Directed 51 films since 1950Served as a writer on 35 films and has acted in 9 Important works:

La Collectionneuse (1967) – Nominated for the Golden Berlin Bear, winner of the Silver Berlin Bear and the Youth Film Award in 1967

My Night at Maud’s (1969) – Winner of numerous awards, and received an Oscar nomination

Wrote the novel Elizabeth in 1946, under the pen name Gilbert Cordier.

Known for his slow-paced, dialogue-heavy stories.

French New Wave Directors:François TruffautFebruary 6, 1932 – October 21, 1984Directed 27 films between 1955 and 1983Served as a writer on 35 productions, two of them

posthumous creditsProduced 19 films and acted in 14 Important works:

The 400 Blows (1959) – Nominated for the Palme d’Or and won the OCIC Award and Best Director at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival.

Shoot the Piano Player ( 1960) Jules and Jim (1962) – Won Best Director at the 1962 Mar del

Plata Film Festival. Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

“Some day I’ll make a film that critics will like. When I have money to waste.”

French New Wave Directors:Jacques Demy June 5, 1931 – October 27, 1990Directed 21 films between 1955 and 1988Served as a writer on 18 films between 1955 and 1991Composer/lyricist for six films.Best-known work:

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) – Nominated for 5 Oscars, winner of the 1964 Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Married to Agnes Varda from 1962 to his death.“I Will Wait For You,” a song he wrote for The Umbrellas of

Cherbourg, was nominated for Best Original Song for the 38th Annual Academy Awards, and performed during the ceremony’s broadcast in 1966.

French New Wave Directors:Louis Malle October 30, 1932 – November 23, 1995 Directed 33 films between 1953 and 1994 Served as a writer on 16 films and produced 8 Best-known works came after the French New Wave

movement: Pretty Baby (1978) My Dinner With Andre (1981) Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987) Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)

His 1958 film, Les Amants, earned the Heights Art Theater in Cleveland Heights an obscenity conviction; the Supreme Court reversed that in 1968. (Resulted in Justice Potter Stewart’s famous “I know it when I see it” quote regarding pornography.)

Often excluded from lists of French New Wave / Nouvelle Vague auteurs partly because he also worked in Hollywood.

French New Wave Directors:Chris MarkerReal Name: Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve July 29, 1921 – July 29, 2012 (died on his 91st birthday)Directed 45 films and TV shows since 1952; produced 5Served as a writer on 39 films, editor on 16, and

cinematographer on 15 Important works:

Description D’un Combat (1960) – Won the Golden Berlin Bear and Youth Film Award at the 1961 Berlin International Film Festival

La Jetee (1962) – Won the 1962 Prix Jean Vigo, inspiration for Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys

Le Joli Mai (1963) – Won the Golden Lion and “Best First Work” awards at the 1963 Venice Film Festival

Studied with philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre

French New Wave Directors:Agnès Varda

May 30, 1928 - Present Directed 46 films since 1955 Served as a writer on 39 films; has also served as

producer, editor, cinematographer, and actress. Important works:

Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962) – Nominated for the 1962 Palme d’Or, winner of the 1963 Critics Award from the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics

Le Bonheur (aka Happiness) (1965) – Winner of the 1964 Prix Louis Delluc and the 1965 Silver Berlin Bear

Jacquot de Nantes (1993) – Lyrical biographical documentary of her dying husband, Jacques Demy

The Beaches of Agnes (2008) – Autobiographical documentary—but highly expressionistic (not realistic in style)

Born Arlette Varda; legally changed her name at 18 Was married to Jacques Demy Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005 Nicknamed “the ancestor of the New Wave” when she was 30!

Pre-French New Wave Influences:Rules of the Game French Title: La règle du jeu Produced in 1939 Directed by Jean Renoir Written by Jean Renoir and Carl Koch Premiered in France July 8, 1939 Set at the onset of World War II, the film explores the

relationships and foibles of a group of wealthy bourgeoisee and their servants, as they gather for a hunting party where everyone has ulterior motives.

Banned by the French government for being too demoralizing, and then banned by the invading Nazi party for being too subversive. Between them, most prints were destroyed, and Allied bombers accidentally destroyed the original negatives. Renoir and friends were able to reconstitute the film; he claimed that only one minor scene was missing from the original cut!

The son of impressionist painter Auguste Renoir is considered the master of French Poetic Realism, with his grounded examinations of social issues.

In this film, the parallel social orders of the landed gentry and their servants are explored.

Pre-French New Wave Influences:Beauty and the BeastFrench Title: La belle et la bêteProduced in 1946Directed by Jean CocteauWritten by Jean Cocteau and

Jeanne-Marie Leprince de BeaumontPremiered at the Cannes Film Festival

in September 1946Based on novelist Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s

18th century fairy tale.Winner of the 1946 Prix Louis DellucHaving moved from surrealism to fantasy, Cocteau

provides an “icy perfection” in this beautifully photographed fairy tale.

French New Wave – Key Works:Le Beau Serge Produced in 1958 Directed by Claude Chabrol Written by Claude Chabrol Premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in

Switzerland in 1958 When a man returns to his home village after a decade

away, he finds himself struggling to help his old friend Serge, who has become the town drunk during his absence.

Winner of the 1959 Prix Jean Vigo award, and the 1958 Silver Sail award from the Locarno International Film Festival.

Story set in small rural community; examines the nature of friendship

Very early French New Wave – note the long takes, roughness to the footage, sense of realism (a “bridge” between Italian Neorealism and mainstream FNW)

French New Wave – Key Works:The 400 Blows French Title: Les quatre cents coups Produced in 1959 Directed by François Truffaut Written by François Truffaut and Marcel Moussy Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival,

May 4, 1959 Semi-autobiographical story of young boy who turns

to life of petty crime Antoine, a neglected adolescent boy, finds himself

trapped in a life of petty crime and harsh punishments where all of his attempts to escape only make things even worse.

While it might seem that the “400 blows” in the title only refers to the number of times Antoine is beaten, the French idiom “faire les quatre cents coups” also means “to raise hell.”

Note the famous ending–long tracking shot followed by freeze frame.

French New Wave – Key Works:Jules and Jim French Title: Jules et Jim Produced in 1962 Directed by François Truffaut Written by François Truffaut and Jean Gruault Based on the novel by Henri-Pierre Roché Premiered in France January 23, 1962 When two close friends both fall in love with the same

woman, the impulsive and possibly unstable Catherine, a strange love triangle results and unspools over the course of several decades.

Starring Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre Love triangle gone wrong Note how we meet Catherine–with multi-angle shots and jump

cuts; the footrace sequence is characteristic of the loose, “anything goes” forms that FNW can take–very selective audio (e.g., we hear them breathing), very jumpy handheld camera

French New Wave – Key Works:BreathlessFrench Title: À bout de souffleProduced in 1959Directed by Jean-Luc GodardWritten by Jean-Luc Godard and François TruffautPremiered in France March 16, 1960Romanticized gangster-hero takes up with an

American girl and goes on the lam.Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean SebergNote the overall violation of “classic” editing techniques–

jump cuts, violation of 180-degree rule, sudden time jumps (elliptical cutting in the extreme), actor looks at camera; also, handheld

French New Wave – Key Works:AlphavilleFrench Title: Alphaville, une étrange aventure de

Lemmy CautionProduced in 1965Directed by Jean-Luc GodardWritten by Jean-Luc Godard and Paul ÉluardPremiered in France May 5, 1965Revisionist science fiction examines society run

by an “electronic brain”. . . Yeah.Starring Eddie Constantine, reprising his popular Lemmy

Caution character from French detective films of the 1950's.Note the pseudo-freeze frames (a la My Own Private Idaho

much later) that seem to capture the “essence” of the scene; sudden switch to negative footage; the strange, surreal, almost comical “car chase.”

French New Wave – Key Works:Last Year at MarienbadFrench Title: L'année dernière à MarienbadProduced in 1961Directed by Alain ResnaisWritten by Alain Robbe-GrilletPremiered in France June 25, 1961A non-linear narrative about a man and woman

who may (or may not) have met “last year at Marienbad,” and their divergent memories of the event (or non-event)–got that?

Note the shifting rhythm of the editing back and forth into the flashback; look for repeated footage, repeated events with different footage; Resnais’ ultimate experiment with time, geometry, memory, and reality.

French New Wave – Key Works:The Umbrellas of Cherbourg French Title: Les parapluies de Cherbourg Produced in 1964 Directed by Jacques Demy Written by Jacques Demy Premiered in France February 19, 1964 Starring Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo Operatic musical about young lovers separated by

war Music by Michel Legrand, a favorite among New

Wavers Note the use of primary colors–audacious throughout (in parts

not seen here, the characters’ clothes even match the wallpaper).

Note the use of a dolly to make the characters glide rather than walk (a la Spike Lee later).

French New Wave – Key Works:Cleo from 5 to 7 French Title: Cléo de 5 à 7 Produced in 1962 Directed by Agnès Varda Written by Agnès Varda Premiered in France April 11, 1962 While waiting for – and dreading – the results of a

biopsy, a singer decides to break out of her usual routine and sample parts of life unfamiliar to her, culminating in an encounter with a soldier facing his own probable death as he prepares to ship out to Algeria.

Nearly “real time” (film is 90 minutes) Mostly shot in B&W. . . With one important exception (beginning) Watch for uncredited appearances by Jean-Luc Godard, Anna Karina, and Jean-

Claude Brialy in a silent film Cleo watches. And Michel Legrand as one of the musicians in Cleo’s apartment

French New Wave – Key Works:Hiroshima Mon AmourProduced in 1959Directed by Alain ResnaisWritten by Marguerite DurasPremiered in France June 10, 1959A French woman shooting a documentary in

Hiroshima has an intense one-night stand with a Japanese man and their affair reminds her of her first love, a German soldier during WWII.

Made pioneering use of jump cuts and flashbacks, particularly the use of a very brief flashback to suggest a powerful, intrusive memory.

Originally was a documentary on Hiroshima until Resnais decided to add fictional elements.

French New Wave – Key Works:Shoot the Piano PlayerFrench Title: Tirez sur le pianisteProduced in 1960Directed by François TruffautWritten by François Truffaut and Marcel MoussyBased on the novel Down There by David GoodisPremiered at the London Film Festival

October 21, 1960A bar pianist with a tragic past finds it returning to haunt him

when his estranged brother shows up, with gangsters in hot pursuit.

With no budget, Truffaut and his crew shot the film on the fly, improvising the plot and ending based on which actors were available.

A hit with the critics but bombed at the box office.

French New Wave – Key Works:Fahrenheit 451Produced in 1966Directed by François TruffautWritten by François Truffaut and Jean-Louis

Richard, with additional dialogue by David Rudkin and Helen Scott

Based on the novel by Ray BradburyPremiered in Paris September 15, 1966 In a not-too-distant dystopia where reading and books are

forbidden, one of the men in charge of destroying books is seduced by the printed page and finds himself questioning authority for the first time.

Truffaut’s first film in color and only film in English. Because he had not yet mastered the English language, other writers were brought in to “improve” the dialogue; Truffaut was never happy with the result and considered the English version far inferior to the French dialogue.

French New Wave – Key Works:ContemptFrench Title: Le méprisProduced in 1963Directed by Jean-Luc GodardAdapted by Jean-Luc Godard from the novel

Il Disprezzo by Alberto MoraviaPremiered in Italy October 29, 1963A script doctor working on his biggest project yet,

which may make or break him, inadvertently destroys his marriage when he accidentally makes his wife believe he wants her to sleep with his producer.

Fritz Lang plays himself, as the director of the film that Michel Piccoli’s character has been hired to make more commercially viable.

French New Wave – Key Works:WeekendFrench Title: Le week-endProduced in 1967Directed by Jean-Luc GodardWritten by Jean-Luc GodardPremiered in France December 29, 1967An embattled couple attempts to have an idyllic

weekend in the country to repair their marriage.Instead, the weekend becomes a nightmare of accidents, civil war, murder, and mayhem as society disintegrates around them.

Dark surrealist comedy with a strong political bent.

French New Wave – Key Works:My Night at Maud’sFrench Title: Ma nuit chez MaudProduced in 1969Directed by Eric RohmerWritten by Eric RohmerPremiered in Sweden October 12, 1969A devout Catholic on a quest to marry a young

woman from his church has his beliefs put to the test when he spends the night at the apartment of free-thinking atheist Maud.

This is the film that many point to when they say that art house films are all about people talking incessantly!

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