(1959 – c. 1970)
COM 320: History of Film
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 (all pre-FNW)!
 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 selfeducated 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’s
 Cahiers co-founded and edited by Andre Bazin (1918-1958)
 The Cahiers group:






François Truffaut
Jean-Luc Godard
Alain Resnais
Claude Chabrol
Eric Rohmer
Jacques Rivette
French New Wave:
Origins
 The Cahiers group set in place many of the important film theories:
 Genre
 Auteur
 Realism
 The New Wave also included the “Left Bank Group”
 (Alain Resnais)
 Chris Marker
 Louis Malle
 Jacques Demy
 Agnès 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 Agnes Varda’s Cleo from 5 to 7
French New Wave:
Origins
 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
French New Wave:
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:
Impacts on Films to Follow
 Film School Generation (e.g., Spielberg, Scorsese)
 American indie movement; So many influences
French New Wave:
Form
 Totally eclectic – whatever (that almost becomes the style); some call it
“eccentric”
 Emphasis on the mise-en-scène
 Low budget, fast and light-weight (e.g., handheld camera); benefitted
from technical advances in documentary shooting; style a lot like
“indie” style today
French New Wave Directors:
Claude Chabrol




June 24, 1930 – September 12, 2010
Writer-Director-Producer-Actor
Directed 71 films and TV shows since 1958
Served as a writer on 54 films and a Producer on 10
films since 1956
 Performed 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 – March 1, 2014
 Directed 48 films since 1936
 Served 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 Rivette
 March 1, 1928 – present
 Directed 33 films since 1949
 Served 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 Rohmer
 Birth name: Jean-Marie Maurice Schérer
 April 4, 1920 – January 11, 2010
 Directed 51 films since 1950
 Served 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 Truffaut
 February 6, 1932 – October 21, 1984
 Directed 27 films between 1955 and 1983
 Served as a writer on 35 productions, two of them
posthumous credits
 Produced 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, 1990
 Directed 21 films between 1955 and 1988
 Served as a writer on 18 films between 1955 and 1991
 Composer/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 Marker
 Real 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 5
 Served 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 Beast
 French Title: La belle et la bête
 Produced in 1946
 Directed by Jean Cocteau
 Written by Jean Cocteau and




Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont
Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival
in September 1946
Based on novelist Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s 18th century
fairy tale.
Winner of the 1946 Prix Louis Delluc
Having 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:
Breathless
 French Title: À bout de souffle
 Produced in 1959
 Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
 Written by Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut
 Premiered in France March 16, 1960
 Romanticized gangster-hero takes up with an
American girl and goes on the lam.
 Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg
 Note 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:
Alphaville
 French Title: Alphaville, une étrange aventure de







Lemmy Caution
Produced in 1965
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Written by Jean-Luc Godard and Paul Éluard
Premiered in France May 5, 1965
Revisionist 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 Marienbad






French Title: L'année dernière à Marienbad
Produced in 1961
Directed by Alain Resnais
Written by Alain Robbe-Grillet
Premiered in France June 25, 1961
A 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 possible death as he prepares to ship out to the war in 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 Amour
 Produced in 1959
 Directed by Alain Resnais
 Written by Marguerite Duras
 Premiered in France June 10, 1959
 A 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 Player
 French Title: Tirez sur le pianiste
 Produced in 1960
 Directed by François Truffaut
 Written by François Truffaut and Marcel Moussy
 Based on the novel Down There by David Goodis
 Premiered at the London Film Festival
October 21, 1960
 A 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 451
 Produced in 1966
 Directed by François Truffaut
 Written by François Truffaut and Jean-Louis




Richard, with additional dialogue by David Rudkin
and Helen Scott
Based on the novel by Ray Bradbury
Premiered 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:
Contempt
 French Title: Le mépris
 Produced in 1963
 Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
 Adapted by Jean-Luc Godard from the novel
Il Disprezzo by Alberto Moravia
 Premiered in Italy October 29, 1963
 A 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:
Week End
 French Title: Le week-end
 Produced in 1967
 Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
 Written by Jean-Luc Godard
 Premiered in France December 29, 1967
 An 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’s
 French Title: Ma nuit chez Maud
 Produced in 1969
 Directed by Eric Rohmer
 Written by Eric Rohmer
 Premiered in Sweden October 12, 1969
 A 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!
 end