All About the
French New Wave
(compiled from the work of Simon Hitchman)
1940 - 1944: The Occupation
Paris during the Second World War was a dark city. The blackout imposed by the
occupying German forces meant that lights had to be turned off, a shortage of
gasoline kept cars off the road, and a curfew kept most people off the streets at
night. During the day, the occupying German forces enacted numerous
regulations, censorship and propaganda. In short, Parisians found life rather
unbearable under the thumb of the oppressor.
One of the few distractions available to the French citizens was the cinema, but
the choice of what to see was limited. American films were banned, and aside from German productions which
consisted mainly of imitations of Hollywood musical comedies and melodramatic propaganda movies, they had
access only to the 200 odd French films that were produced during this four-year period. These films, which
had to be approved by the German censor, were essentially pale imitations of the great French cinema of Marcel
Carne, Rene Clair, Marcel Pagnol, and Jean Renoir—who had dominated the
French cinema prior to WWII.
To a generation of cinephiles (film lovers) like Andre Bazin, Alain Resnais and
Eric Rohmer, who had grown up in the rich cinematic culture of the 1920’s and
30’s, this lack of choice added to the sense of loss they already felt as a
consequence of the war. And it wasn’t just French films they missed; they could
also no longer see the American genre films they loved: westerns, comedies and
adventure films by directors such as Howard Hawks, Josef von Sternberg, Leo
Le Corbeau (The Raven) [1943]
McCarey, and Ernst Lubitsch. This experience of loss led them to prize freedom
of expression and truth of representation above all else—values which would become central to their later work.
For a younger generation born around 1930, who would later make up most of the directors of the New Wave,
the cinema became the center of their universe and a refuge from the harsh reality of the world outside. They
were too young to know much about the films that had come before the war. Neither had they any reviews or
criticism to guide them, but they instinctively cherished a handful of films made during the occupation like
Lumiere d’ete (1943) by Jean Gremillon, Les Visiteurs du Soir (1943) by Carne and Prevert, Le Destin
Fabuleux de Disiree Clary (1941) by Sacha Guitry, Goupi Mains Rouges (1943) by Jacques Becker, and above
all, Le Corbeau (1943) by Henri-Georges Clouzot.
France After The War
In 1944 France was liberated from German occupation by the Allied forces. In the years that followed the
Liberation, cinema became more popular than ever before. French films such as Marcel Carne’s Les Enfants du
paradise (1945) and Rene Clement’s La Bataille du Rail (1946) were a great success. Italian and British
imports were also popular. But most popular of all were the stockpile of films now streaming in from
Hollywood.
During the occupation the Nazis had banned the import of American films. As a result, after the war, when the
ban was lifted by the 1946 Blum-Byrnes Agreement, nearly a decade’s worth of missing films arrived in French
cinemas in the space of a single year. It was a time of exciting discoveries for film enthusiasts eager to catch up
with what had been happening in the rest of the world.
Reviews and Journals
The Liberation brought with it a great desire for self-expression, open
communication and understanding. The discussion of film, inevitably,
became part of the discourse. Journals, such as L’Ecran Francais,
became a platform for writers like Andre Bazin to develop their theories
and convey their enthusiasm for film. Bazin saw cinema as an art form,
and one that deserved serious analysis. His interest was in the language
of film – favoring the discussion of form over content. Such an attitude
tended to bring him into conflict with the predominantly left-wing
writers at the paper, who were more concerned with the political
standpoint of a film.
Andre Bazin
Another writer at the magazine who shared Bazin’s sense of aesthetics was Alexandre Astruc. In 1948 he wrote
an article titled “Birth of a New Avant-Garde: The Camera as Pen,” in which he argued for cinema (a
counterpart to literature) to become a more personal form, in which the camera literally became a pen in the
hands of a director. The article would become something of a manifesto for the New Wave generation and a
first step in the development of “auteur theory.”
Another magazine that was quite popular with this new generation of cinephiles was Le Revue du Cinema. This
was a publication devoted to the arts and, therefore, much less concerned with politics and issues of social
commitment. American cinema was discussed as much as European cinema, and there were in-depth studies of
directors like D.W. Griffith, John Ford, Fritz Lang, and Orson Welles. Andre Bazin contributed some important
articles to the magazine on cinema technique, as did the young Eric Rohmer, whose piece, “Cinema, the Art of
Space” would have a lasting influence on the directors of the New Wave.
Film Clubs
The same enthusiasts who avidly read the film journals now began setting up film clubs,
not just in Paris, but all over France. The most famous of these was Henri Langlois’
Cinematheque Française, which first opened its doors in 1948. The cinema, which he
co-founded with Georges Franju, was small; in fact, it accommodated only 50 seats, but
the program of films shown was both comprehensive and eclectic, and it soon became a
quite popular among serious film enthusiasts.
Langlois believed the Cinematheque was a place for learning, not just watching, and he
truly wanted his audience to understand what they were seeing. It became his practice to
screen in a single evening several films that were different in style, genre, and country
of origin. Sometimes he would show foreign films without translation or silent films
without musical accompaniment. This approach, he hoped, would focus the audience’s
Henri Langlois
attention on the techniques behind what they were watching. He hoped to bring to light
the links connecting films that might otherwise appear very different.
It was here, at the Cinematheque, that many of the important figures of the New Wave first met. Francois
Truffaut, only sixteen, was already an accomplished film student. From a young age, the cinemas of Paris had
been his refuge from an unhappy home life. He had even set up his own cine-club, Le Cercle Cinemane,
although it only lasted for one session. Jean-Luc Godard was another who immersed himself in the cine-clubs.
He was studying ethnology at the Sorbonne when he first started going to the Cinematheque. For him too,
cinema became something of a refuge. He later wrote that the cinema screen was “the wall we had to scale to
escape from our lives.”
Alain Resnais, Jacques Rivette, Claude Chabrol, Roger Vadim, Pierre Kast, and several others who would later
become directors, received much of their film education at film clubs like the Cinematheque and The Cine-Club
du Quartier Latin. For true film lovers like these, watching films was only part of the experience. They would
also collect stills and posters, read and discuss the latest film articles, and make lists of favorite directors. It was
all a way of putting what they were watching into some kind of perspective and developing their own critical
viewpoints.
Another avid member of the cine-club audience was Eric Rohmer. He had already published articles in other
film journals, and now, with his two friends Rivette and Godard, he set up his own review called La Gazette Du
Cinema. Although the paper had only a small circulation, it was a means whereby they could express their
views on some of the films they were watching. Others like Truffaut and Resnais soon followed, writing
articles for magazines like Arts and Les Amis du Cinema.
Cahiers du Cinema
The most important and popular film journal of all first appeared in 1951. Set up by
Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Andre Bazin out of the ashes of the La Revue du
Cinema, which had closed down the previous year, it was called Les Cahiers du
Cinema. The first issues of the review, with its distinctive yellow cover, featured the
best critics of the time writing scholarly articles about film. However, it was with the
arrival of a younger generation of critics, including Rohmer, Godard, Rivette, Chabrol,
and Truffaut that the paper really began to “make waves,” so to
speak.
Bazin had become something of a father figure to these young
critics. He was especially close to Truffaut, helping to secure
his release from the young-offenders institute, where he was
sent as a teenager, and later from the army prison where he was locked up for desertion.
At first, Bazin and Doniol-Valcroze allowed these young folks a small amount of
column space to air their often combative opinions, but in time their articles gained more
and more attention and their status rose accordingly.
One conviction that these young writers shared was a disdain for the mainstream
"tradition de qualite,” which dominated French cinema at the time. In 1953 Truffaut
wrote an essay for Cahiers entitled "A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema,” in
which he vehemently denounced this tradition of adapting safe literary works and
filming them in an old fashioned and unimaginative way. He argued that this style of
cinema wasn’t visual enough and relied too much on the screenwriter. He and the others
labelled it “cinema de papa,” and compared it unfavorably with the work of filmmakers
from elsewhere in the world.
Bazin delayed the article’s release for a year, fearing that they would lose readers and
anger the filmmakers who were being attacked. When it was eventually published, it
did cause offence, but there was also considerable agreement. The passionate and
irreverent style of Truffaut’s writing, like that of the other young critics, was a shift
away from the hitherto austere tone of Cahiers. It brought the journal both a notoriety
and popularity it hadn’t had before. Now he, Rohmer, Godaard, Rivette, and Chabrol
were given the opportunity to promote their favorite directors within the review and
develop their theories.
...
Favourite Directors
Henri Langlois always believed that watching silent films was the best way to learn the
art of cinema, and he frequently included films from this period in the Cinematheque
Français program. As a result, the New Wave group had a great respect for directors like
D.W. Griffith, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Erich von Stroheim, who had
pioneered the techniques of filmmaking in its early years. When they began making their
own films, silent movies would continue to be a source of inspiration for the New Wave
directors.
Three German directors—Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau—were held in
Fritz Lang
high esteem by the New Wave. Lubitsch’s sophisticated comedies were held up for their
exemplary screenwriting and perfect dramatic construction. Lang, whose later American films were generally
felt by most critics at the time to be inferior to his early masterpieces like Metropolis and M, was defended by
the Cahiers critics who pointed out that the expressive mise-en-scene of his German films had been interiorized
in the intense Film Noir dramas he was now making in Hollywood. They argued that these later films, such as
Clash By Night and The Big Heat, were every bit as complex as his earlier works. Murnau, the director of
masterpieces like Nosferatu and Sunrise, although largely forgotten by contemporary critics, epitomized for the
New Wave an artist who used every technique at his disposal to express himself filmically. They sang his
praises in the pages of Cahiers and helped to re-establish his reputation as a cinematic visionary.
Another European influence on the New Wave was the Italian Neo-Realism movement.
Directors like Roberto Rossellini (Rome, Open City) and Vittorio de Sica (The Bicycle
Thieves) were going direct to the street for their inspiration, often using unprofessional
actors in real locations. They cut the costs of filmmaking by using lighter, hand-held
cameras, and post-synching sound. This approach enabled them to avoid studio
interference and the demands of producers. Their tendency to “cut corners” resulted in
more personal pictures. These lessons learned from the Neo-Realists would prove to be a
major factor in the success of the Nouvelle Vague ten years later.
Roberto Rossellini
A number of American directors were also acclaimed in the pages of Cahiers du Cinema including not only
well known directors like Orson Welles (Citizen Kane), Joseph L. Mankiewicz (The Barefoot Contessa) and
Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause), but also lesser known B movie directors like Samuel Fuller (Shock
Corridor) and Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past). The Cahiers critics broke new ground when they wrote about
these directors, as they had really never been taken so seriously before. They ignored the established hierarchy,
focusing instead on the distinctive personal style and emotional truth they saw
in these films.
By contrast, contemporary French cinema was a major disappointment to the
New-Wave group. The year that followed the Liberation of France saw the
release of some outstanding films including Marcel Carne’s Les Enfants du
Paradise, Robert Bresson’s Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne, and Jacques
Becker’s Falbalas. However, since then, complacency had set in. There was
none of the frank honesty of Italian Neo-Realism. Instead, most of the films
that dealt with the war and the Resistance seemed to be sentimentalized
versions of what had really occurred. It was clear that the majority of people,
including most French filmmakers, were not yet ready to confront the shame of
the Vichy government and the many who had collaborated with the Nazis
during the war.
Rebel Without A Cause [1955]
...
In their articles, the young critics showed their disdain for the tradition de qualite prevalent at the time. Even
directors whom they had once admired, like Henri-Georges Clouzot and Marcel Carne, seemed now to have lost
their ambition; content to play the studio game. Other directors with a more realistic style, such as Julien
Duvivier, Henri Decoin and Jacques Sigurd, were equally disappointing; portraying a cynical view of
contemporary society that was stylistically static and uninspired. For the New-Wave intelligensia, who had
expected so much after the war, it felt like a betrayal; and it explains why their attacks in print were often so
vitriolic.
However, there were some contemporary directors who made personal films outside the studio system like Jean
Cocteau (Orphee), Jacques Tati (Mon Oncle), Robert Bresson (Journal d’un cure de campagne), and JeanPierre Melville (Le Silence De La Mer), who were much admired. Melville was a real maverick who worked in
his own small studio and played by his own rules. His example would influence all of the New Wave; in fact,
he is frequently cited as a part of the movement himself. At the same time, the Cahiers critics praised certain
French directors of an earlier era like Jean Vigo (L’Atalante), Sacha Guitry (Quadrille), and most of all Jean
Renoir (La Regle du Jeu), who was held up as the greatest of French auteurs.
Auteur Theory
For the New-Wave critics, the “concept of the auteur” was the key theoretical
idea underlying their aesthetic viewpoint. Although Andre Bazin and others had
been arguing for some time that a film should reflect the director’s personal
vision, it was Truffaut who first coined the phrase la politique des auteurs in his
article "Une Certaine Tendance du Cinéma Français". He maintained that the
best directors have a distinctive style, as well as consistent themes running
through their films, and it is this individual creative vision that makes the
director the true “author” of the film.
At the time auteur theory was considered a
radical new approach to cinema. Before, it had
been the screenwriter, or the producer, or the Hollywood studio, who was seen
as the principle creator of a picture. The Cahiers critics applied the theory to
directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks, who had previously been
seen as merely excellent craftsmen, but had never been taken seriously as
artists. By uncovering the complex depths in the work of directors like these,
the young writers broke new ground, not only in the way a film was understood,
but also in how cinema itself was perceived.
Alfred Hitchcock
...
Mainly as a result of this radical new way of looking at cinema, the reputation
Howard Hawks
of Cahiers du Cinéma began to grow. In Hollywood the review became
essential reading, and directors like Fritz Lang, Joseph Mankiewicz and Nicholas Ray were photographed with
a copy of the magazine in their hands. Filmmakers like these weren’t used to people discussing their work with
such accuracy and depth. They were deeply impressed by these young enthusiasts with their strong opinions
and perceptive insights into the art of cinema.
Inevitably, as the ideas and writing of the Cahiers critics became better known, there was a backlash. The
aggressiveness of the review was felt to be too extreme by some. It brought about a feeling of resentment, and
even hatred, in those who were “targeted.” As a result a kind of warfare raged between the young radicals and
the old guard of French cinema.
Short Films
The young group of writers at Cahiers du Cinéma were not content, however, with merely being critics. They
wanted to be filmmakers too. At the time there were two recognized routes to becoming a director. One could
go through a long apprenticeship as an assistant director until, after many years, he/she was finally deemed
ready to call the shots. This approach was antithetical to the desires of impatient young directors with ideas of
their own and a disdain for the conservative material they would have to work on.
The other method was to apply for a short-film funding scheme. This
government-approved scheme ensured that all films were made to a professional
standard. In the end it enabled the candidate to obtain the work card needed to
make features. Some of the older members of the New Wave began this way by
making critically acclaimed documentaries: Georges Franju (Les Sang des bêtes,
Hôtel des Invalides), Alain Resnais (Night and Fog, Toute Le Mémoire du Monde,
Le Chant du Styrene), and Chris Marker (Les Satues Meurent Aussi, Dimanche a
Pekin, Lettre de Siberie), and Pierre Kast (Les Femmes du Louvre). Others soon
followed their example, including Louis Malle (Le Monde du Silence), Agnes
Varda (La Pointe-Courte), and Jacques Demy (Le Sabotier du Val de Loire).
The Cahiers group, however, rejected both of these approaches. They knew they
would have to bypass the rules of the system if they wanted to break into the
...
industry and make the kind of films they wanted to make. While still writing for
the magazine, they gained experience and contacts. Chabrol worked as a publicist at 20th Century-Fox, Godard
worked as a press agent, Truffaut worked as an assistant for Max Ophuls and Roberto Rossellini, and Rivette
worked with Jean Renoir and Jacques Becker.
Les Sang des Betes [1949]
Sooner or later, though, they realized that if they wanted to direct, they
would have to start by making short films, raising money any way they
could. Rohmer began in 1950, directing Journal d’un Scélérat, followed by
Charlotte et Son Steak. Rivette, working with a script by Chabrol, directed
Coup du Berger. In 1952 Godard directed a documentary called Operation
Beton about the building of the Grande Dixene dam in Switzerland. He
made the film with funds he earned by actually working as a laborer on the
dam. After selling this piece, he had the means to make two dramatic shorts:
Une Femme Coquette and Tous Les Garcons S’Appellent Patrick. As they
gained experience, their films became more sophisticated. Rohmer made
Bérénice in 1954, La Sonate a Kreuzer in 1956, and Véronique et son
Cancre in 1958, to increasingly high standards.
Les Mistons [1957]
...
Meanwhile, Truffaut had set up his own film company, Les Films du Carrosse, with the help of his wealthy new
father-in-law, and in the summer of 1957, shot Les Mistons, based on a story by Maurice Pons. Pleased with the
success of the film, its financial backer suggested he make another. Truffaut began making a short comedy set
against the backdrop of the flooding that had been taking place in and around Paris at the time, but had trouble
finding the right tone and handed over the footage he’d shot to Godard. Godard felt no obligation to follow
Truffaut’s script, however, and created an unconnected story with an off-the-wall commentary that broke all the
conventions followed by traditional filmmaking. This film, Une Histoire d’Eau, was the most original—and
most New Wave—of all the short films produced at the time.
Other important shorts made at this time, and in subsequent years, included Le Bel Indifferent (1957) by Jacques
Demy, Pourvu Qu’On Ait L’Ivresse (1958) by Jean-Daniel Pollet, and Blue Jeans (1958) by Jacques Rozier.
These were followed by first films from Maurice Pialet (Janine, 1961), Jean-Marie Straub (Machorka-Muff,
1963), and Jean Eustache (Du Cote de Robinson, 1964).
New Developments
When the New Wave directors graduated from making short films to feature
films in the late 1950’s, their ability to do so came about largely as the result
of a combination of fortunate coincidences. Up until this time, filmmaking
had always been an expensive business, and it was necessary to have the
backing of a major studio. Now new circumstances came into play that
enabled them to bypass this stumbling block.
After the war the Gaullist government had brought in subsidies to support
Truffaut and crew on location
homegrown culture. A further act, 1958’s "Constitution of the Fifth
Republic,” resulted in more money being available for first time filmmakers than ever before. Private
investment money became more readily available and distributors were keen to back new directors.
At the same time, technological developments meant filmmaking equipment was becoming cheaper. New,
lightweight, hand-held cameras, developed for use in documentaries, were now available, as were faster film
stocks, which enabled filmmakers to use portable sound and lighting equipment. These advancements meant
filmmakers no longer needed a studio to make a film. They could now go out and shoot on location using
smaller crews set against authentic backdrops. Working fast on low budgets encouraged experimentation and
improvisation and gave the directors more control over their work than they might have had otherwise.
The First Wave
Et Dieu... Crea La Femme (And God Created Woman) (1956) is often
cited as the first New-Wave feature film. Directed by a 28 year old
writer-director named Roger Vadim, and starring his then wife, 22 year
old former model and dancer Brigitte Bardot, it celebrated beauty and
youthful rebellion and proved that a low-budget film made by a firsttime director could be a success, both at home and abroad. Although it
now appears somewhat dated, at the time this film was an inspiration to
young directors hoping to make their first film on their own terms.
An even more inspiring figure was Jean-Pierre Melville, whose 1956
crime caper Bob Le Flambeur (Bob the Gambler) was a landmark in the
Et Dieu... Crea La Femme
French thriller genre. Shot on location on the streets of Paris and in the
(And God Created Woman) [1956]
director’s own homemade studio, its portrayal of the doomed gambler of
....
the title, was both grittily realistic and audaciously stylized. The NewWave critics quickly recognized that Melville was a force to be reckoned with: a maverick with an authentic
cinematic vision all his own.
Worlds away from Melville’s tough gangsters were the strange, haunting films of Georges Franju. Co-founder
of the Cinématheque Francais, Franju had graduated from archivist to filmmaker with shorts like Le Sang des
Bêtes shot in a Parisian slaughter house. His ability to combine the poetic and the graphic, and to evoke the
uncanny in a realistic setting, were seen to full effect in La Tête Contre Les Murs (Head Against the Wall)
(1958), and Les Yeux Sans Visage (Eyes Without a Face) (1959).
Louis Malle made his name working with marine scientist Jacques
Cousteau on the Palme d’Or-winning underwater documentary Le Monde
Du Silence (The Silent World). Coming from a wealthy background,
Malle was able to raise the money to make his feature film debut
Ascenseur Pour L’Echafaud (Elevator to the Gallows) in 1957 when he
was still only 25 years old. Featuring a breakthrough performance from
Jeanne Moreau in the lead and Miles Davis groundbreaking soundtrack,
the picture – a fatalistic film noir – was a success. He followed this up
with Les Amants (The Lovers) in 1958, again starring Moreau. The film
provoked considerable controversy over its frank treatment of sexuality,
and partly as a result of this, became an even bigger success, establishing
a reputation for the young director as a rising talent.
Le Beau Serge [1958]
Claude Chabrol was the first of the Cahiers critics to make the move into feature films. Using money inherited
from his wife’s family, Chabrol wrote, directed, and produced Le Beau Serge (The Beautiful Serge) (1958),
featuring Jean-Claude Brialy and Gerard Blain in the lead roles, despite having no previous filmmaking
experience. Shot on location in a provincial village, using natural light, the film upset the professional
establishment by breaking the rules of what they considered good filmmaking, and it was refused entry to
Cannes. However, the director took it to the festival himself where it was well received, earning enough in
sales to finance his next feature, Les Cousins (The Cousins) (1959).
Set in Paris, Les Cousins again starred Brialy and Blain, in a plot that effectively reversed the scenario of Le
Beau Serge. The film was both a critical (it won the Golden Bear at the 1959 Berlin Film Festival) and
commercial success. Having broken through as a director, Chabrol used the production company he had set up
to support the debut films of Jacques Rivette (Paris Nous Appartient) and Eric Rohmer (Le Signe du Lion).
Cannes 59: The Wave Breaks
The term New Wave first appeared in 1957 in an article in L’Express entitled
“Report on Today’s Youth.” The article, by the journalist Francoise Giroud,
and the book she published the following year called The New Wave: Portrait
of Today’s Youth, had nothing to do with cinema, but was about the need for
change in society. However, the term was borrowed by journalists who used
it to apply to the young directors creating a storm at the 1959 Cannes Film
Festival, and soon the phrase caught on internationally.
The film most responsible for bringing the attention of the world to this new
cinematic movement was Francois Truffaut’s Les Quatre Cents Coups (The
Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows) [1959]
400 Blows) (1959). It caused a sensation at the festival that year. Its young
star, Jean-Pierre Leaud, was carried out of the screening in triumph and Truffaut won the best-director award.
Suddenly the world’s media were talking about the New Wave. Ironically, Truffaut had been banned from the
festival the previous year because of his uncomplimentary remarks about French cinema in Cahiers. Now he
was a star director, and those who had opposed him were rapidly pushed aside.
Also screened at Cannes that year was Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima, Mon Amour, which was awarded the
International Critics’ Prize. Resnais had already made a name for himself as a documentary director with Nuit
Et Brouillard (Night and Fog) (1955), the first film to focus on the Nazi concentration camps of the Second
World War. Like the documentary, his debut feature film employed innovative use of flashback to illuminate
themes of time and memory and the horror of war. The film was acclaimed for its originality and became an
international hit.
“All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun.” - JeanLuc Godard
In Cannes,Truffaut met Georges de Beauregard, an enterprising producer willing to take a
gamble on a young director. Truffaut introduced him to Jean-Luc Godard, who proposed
several projects, including an idea Truffaut had come up with based on a story he had
seen in a newspaper. Beauregard liked the scenerio and bought the rights from Truffaut
for 100,000 francs. Godard was an unknown however, so as an added guarantee,
Beauregard insisted that Godard’s friends, who were now well established, appear in the
credits. Truffaut was credited with the
screenplay and Chabrol as artistic
advisor.
More than any other film A Bout de
Souffle (Breathless) (1960) exemplified
....
the New Wave movement; serving as a
kind of manifesto for the group. While the plot, reminiscent of a
thousand Film Noir B movies, is simple, the film itself is
stylistically complex and revolutionary in its breaking of
traditional Hollywood storytelling conventions. All of the
trademarks of the New Wave are evident: jump cuts, hand-held
camerawork, a disjointed narrative, an improvised musical
score, dialogue spoken directly to camera, frequent changes of
pace and mood, and the use of real locations. As Godard said,
the film was the result of “a decade’s worth of making movies in my head.”
Jean-Luc Godard
A Bout De Souffle (Breathless) [1960]
....
À Bout de Souffle was a commercial and critical success, playing to packed houses in Paris, and winning the
Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival. Its stars, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, became
fashion icons for the young, and audiences across the world responded to the picture’s iconoclastic spirit.
Godard had taken his first step toward reinventing cinema.
Like Godard, Truffaut had a passion for American pulp crime novels and Film Noir. His own unconventional
take on the genre began with his second picture which was adapted from a novel by David Goodis called Down
There. This was a deliberate move away from what he felt the public expected of him after the autobiographical
nature of his first film. Tirez Sur Le Pianiste (Shoot The Pianist) was packed with cinematic references and
deliberate subversions of genre conventions. It was a chance for the director to enjoy himself and prove he
wouldn’t be easily catagorized.
Although considered a classic now, Tirez Sur Le Pianiste baffled audiences at the time who were used to a more
conventional style of storytelling. The film was not a financial success, and Truffaut, who had planned to turn
his company Les Films du Carrosse into a kind of New-Wave studio, was forced to lower his expectations.
From this time forward he made it a rule only to produce his own films, and any projects sent to him, he
referred to other producers.
Zazie, Lola, Catherine and Les Bonnes Femmes
The start of the 1960’s saw the release of a diverse collection of
New-Wave films all featuring female characters at their centre.
Typically unpredictable, Louis Malle followed Les Amants with
Zazie Dans Le Metro (1960), a lively, surreal farce shot in
colour. Adapted from a novel by Raymond Queneau, the story
follows an eleven year old girl and her eccentric uncle on a mad
cap chase around
Paris.
Claude Chabrol also
reacted against his
Les Bonnes Femmes [1960]
previous work with
....
Les Bonnes Femmes
(1960), an unusual mix of Hitchockian thriller and documentary
realism, examining the ups and downs in the lives of four shop
girls. The film details their hopeful but ultimately doomed attempts
at finding romance.
Jacque Demy’s debut feature Lola (1961), set in the seaside town of
Nantes, drew on musicals, fairytales, and the golden age of
Hollywood for its inspiration; furthermore, it set the tone for all his
subsequent pictures. Featuring Anouk Aimee in the title role, this
Jules Et Jim [1961]
....
often downbeat tale of lost love and the machinations of fate was
told with a joie de vivre that would become characteristic of Demy’s unique cinematic oeuvre.
That same year, Francois Truffaut was planning Jules et Jim the story of two friends who both fall in love with
the free-spirited but capricious Catherine. He had initially come across the semi-autobiographical book by
Henri-Pierre Roche by chance in a second hand bookshop, had fallen in love with it, and had considered making
it his first feature. However, realizing how difficult it would be to get right, he put it to one side until he had
more experience under his belt. Now he had the experience and used it to create what would become one of the
most famous and popular films of the French New Wave.
Jules et Jim (1961) was a stylistic tour de force, incorporating newsreel footage, photographic stills, freeze
frames, voice over narration, and a variety of fluid moving shots executed to perfection by cameraman Raoul
Coutard. Despite this, Truffaut stayed remarkably faithful to the source material. The unconventional love
triangle at the centre of the story and the determination of Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) to find sexual satisfaction
outside of society’s conventions caused much controversy at the time of the film’s release but did nothing to
hinder the film’s success.
The Left Bank Group
The Left Bank Group, from left: Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda, and
Jacques Demy (holding camera, front right)
In the early 1960s, critic Richard Roud attempted to draw a
distinction between the directors allied with the influential
journal Cahiers du Cinéma and what he dubbed the “Left Bank”
group. This latter group embraced a loose association of writers
and filmmakers that consisted principally of the directors Chris
Marker, Alain Resnais, and Agnes Varda. They had in common a
background in documentary, a left-wing political orientation, and
an interest
in artistic
experimen
tation.
....
Another
associate of the group was the Nouveau-Roman novelist
Alain Robbe-Grillet. In 1961 he collaborated with Alain
Resnais on L’Annee Derniere A Marienbad (Last Year in
Marienbad). The film’s dream-like visuals and
experimental narrative structure, in which truth and
fiction are difficult to distinguish, divided audiences,
with some hailing it as a masterpiece, and others finding
it incomprehensible. Despite the critical disagreements,
the film won the Golden Lion at the 1961 Venice Film
Festival, and its surreal imagery has become an iconic
part of film history.
L'Annee Derniere A Marienbad (Last Year At Marienbad) [1961] .
Chris Marker began making documentaries in the early 50’s, collaborating with his friend Alain Resnais on Les
Statues Meurent Aussi (1950-53), which begins as a simple film about African art and gradually changes into an
anti-colonialist polemic. Over the following years he developed a unique essay style of documentary
filmmaking. His one fictional film, La Jetee (1962), a science fiction story about a time traveller, composed
almost completely of still photographs, has become a classic in its own right.
Agnes Varda is the most celebrated female director to be associated with the New Wave. She began as a
photographer, then turned to the cinema and directed La Pointe Courte (1954), a low-budget, documentary-like
feature film about the dissolution of a marriage which, in its production method and style, presaged the coming
New Wave. Over the following years, she made a number of shorts and documentaries, before directing Cleo
from 5 to 7 (1962). This real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits the results of a life or
death medical report became one of the benchmarks of the Nouvelle-Vague movement.
The Tide Turns
Adieu Philippine [1962]
....
In December 1962, Cahiers du Cinéma published a special issue on the
“New Wave,” which included long interviews with Truffaut, Godard and
Chabrol, and a list of 162 new French directors. Among the first time
directors discussed were Jacques Doniol-Valcroze (L’eau a la Bouche
(1960)), Pierre Kast (Le Bel Age (1960)), Luc Moullet (Un Steack Trop
Cuit (1960)), Jean-Daniel Pollet (La Ligne de Mire (1960)), Jean-Pierre
Mocky (Les Dragueurs (1960)), and Jacques Rozier (Adieu Philippine
(1962)). The success of the early New Wave had opened the gates for a
generation of unknown directors to break through into what had previously
been a very closed industry. Films were now being made by young people,
for young people, and starring young people.
Inevitably, there was a media backlash. The failure at the box office of Tirez Sur Le Pianiste, Une Femmes est
une Femmes and other high profile releases gave the press ammunition to attack the movement. They
reproached the young directors of the New Wave for making films that were “intellectual and boring.” At the
same time the old guard believed it was making a comeback with a string of successful films beginning with
Rue des Prairies (1960), starring Jean Gabin.
There was dissent too at Cahiers du Cinéma. Most of its leading writers were now directors and no longer had
the time to devote to writing for the magazine. As a result, by the early 60’s, a second generation of young
cinephiles had replaced the first group. This new group did not always share the same opinions as its
predecessors, leading to clashes with editor-in-chief, Eric Rohmer.
Supported by the new writers, Jacques Rivette took over as editor, and the sense of community at the review
fractured. The production of the New Wave group film Paris Vu Par (1964) – a series of sketches by different
directors – signalled the change. Rivette, and Truffaut who had supported him, were symbolically excluded
from contributing. The split had begun. Each of the filmmakers associated with Cahiers now went their own,
increasingly divergent, ways.
"The Cinema is truth 24 times a
second." - Jean-Luc Godard
By the mid-60’s Jean-Luc Godard was probably the most discussed
director in the world. The films came in rapid succession, each one a
further step towards a personal reinvention of cinema. After A Bout
de Souffle, came a political thriller, Le Petit Soldat (The Little
Soldier) (1961), a technicolour wide screen musical, Une Femme Est
Une Femme (A Woman is a Woman) (1961), a social drama about
prostitution, Vivre Sa Vie (One Life to Live) (1962), and a war film,
Les Carabiniers (The Soldiers) (1963).
Anna Karina in Vivre Sa Vie (My Life to Live) [1962]
These early films had made a star out of Belgian-French actress
....
Anna Karina, whom Godard had married in 1961. With his next film,
Le Mépris (Contempt) (1963), he reinvented Brigitte Bardot’s public image, giving her the chance to prove she
could act. The film - a story about the breakup of a relationship set against the pressures of commercial
filmmaking - became Godard’s biggest box office success, ensuring continued financial backing for his prolific
output.
In the following years, Godard continued to make films that established him as the definitive New Wave
director. After the lush Mediterranean scenery of Le Mepris, he went back to the streets of Paris, showing a
gritty view of the city in crime caper Bande A Part (Band of Outlaws) (1964), and an alternative view in the
dystopian sci-fi feature Alphaville (1965).
Next came a road trip to the South of France for the brilliant
Pierrot Le Fou (1965). Pairing Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna
Karina and abounding with ideas and references to both high
and low culture (it even features a cameo from B movie
maestro Sam Fuller), the film was a culmination of all the
director’s radical filmmaking techniques up to that point.
Godard’s political views became increasingly central from
now on. Masculin, Feminin (1966), was a study of
contemporary French youth and their involvement with
cultural politics. An intertitle refers to the characters as “the
Weekend [1967]
children of Marx and Coca-Cola.” Next came Made in the
U.S.A (1966), a playful crime story inspired by Howard Hawks’s The Big Sleep (1945).2 ou 3 choses que je sais
d'elle (Two or Three Things I Know About Her) (1967), starred Marina Vlady as a woman leading a double life
as housewife and prostitute. Le Chinoise (1967) focused on a group of students engaged with the ideas coming
out of the student-activist groups in contemporary France.
Later that year, Godard made a more colourful political film. Weekend (1967) follows a Parisian couple as they
go on a trip across the French countryside to collect an inheritance. What ensues is a darkly comic, sometimes
horrific, confrontation with the tragic flaws of the bourgeoisie. Weekend’s enigmatic closing title sequence
concludes with the words “End of Cinema,” a declaration which signalled an end to the first period in Godard’s
filmmaking career.
Love, Murder, and Morality Tales
Francois Truffaut followed Jules et Jim with La Peau Douce (Soft Skin) (1964)
another story about an ill-fated love triangle, but this time in a contemporary
setting. Despite excellent perfomances and a compelling narrative, the film was not
a financial success, and, over the next few years, Truffaut’s career slowed as he
worked on his book about Alfred Hitchcock, whilst struggling to get his film
adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451 off the ground. When he came to
shoot it the larger-scale production was difficult for Truffaut. He was used to
working on low budgets and unable to communicate easily with the English
speaking crew; as a result, the final product failed to match its initial conception.
Jacques Demy had his greatest success with his third film Les Parapluies de
Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) (1964). The film, staring a 20-year-old
Catherine Deneuve, tells a tragic story of everyday life but is transformed by Demy
....
into a tender romance in which all the characters sing their lines and the town is
painted in a range of beautiful colours. The film was a critical and commercial success, winning the Palme d’Or
at Cannes. He followed this with the equally captivating Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Girls of
Rochefort) (1967).
Catherine Deneuve in Les Parapluies de
Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg)
[1964]
Louis Malle’s typically diverse range of 1960’s films included
Vie Privee (A Very Private Affair) (1962) in which Brigitte
Bardot played a virtual parody of her real life persona; Le Feu
Follet (The Fire Within) (1963), the powerful study of a writer
trying to find a reason not to kill himself; the internationally
successful Viva Maria! (1965) which teamed Brigitte Bardot
with Jeanne Moreau in a tale of revolution in South America;
and Le Voleur (The Thief) (1967), a comedy drama about a thief
starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. After the failure of the last of
these, Malle admitted he was tired of the mainstream film
industry, and, in 1969, he travelled to India, where he made two
uncompromising documentaries about the poverty he found
there.
Le Feu Follet (The Fire Within) [1963] .
....
In 1962 Eric Rohmer made La Boulangere de Monceau (The Bakery Girl of Monceau) (1962), the first in what
would become a celebrated series of films released over the next ten years under the title Six Moral Tales. Each
of the films, which included Ma Nuit Chez Maud (My Night with Maud) (1969) and Le Genou de Claire
(Claire's Knee) (1970), explored the entanglements, temptations and disappointments facing contemporary
relationships. In them Rohmer established a cinematic style all his own, notable for its economical camerawork,
warmly ironic tone, and strict fidelity to the true representation of reality.
More conventional in his approach than the other New-Wave directors,Claude Chabrol’s mid-1960’s output
failed to draw the attention accorded to his contemporaries. Out of step with the mood of the times, for a while
Chabrol appeared to lose direction. Then came the series of psychological thrillers starting with Les Biches (The
Does) (1968), and including La Femme Infidele (The Unfaithful Wife) (1969), and Le Boucher (The Butcher)
(1969), which established his world-wide reputation.
Jacques Rivette’s debut feature Paris Nous Appartient (Paris Belongs to Us) (1960) had been a monumental
undertaking, taking two years to make and featuring a cast of thirty actors. However its intricate plot and
uneven pace found little favour with audiences. His next film, Le Religieuse (The Nuns) (1966) was
considerably more commercial, becoming quite scandalous when the government blocked its release for a year.
The relatively straightforward narrative of this film was, however, uncharacteristic of the director’s vision, and,
it was with the highly experimental and original films that followed, including L’Amour Fou (Mad Love)
(1968), Out 1 (1970), and Celine et Julie Vont en Bateau (Celine and Julie Go Boating) (1974), that Rivette
made a more lasting impact.
1968 - Year of Revolution
In the spring of 1968, a minor protest by students at
Nanterre University quickly escalated, leading to major
civil unrest all over France. On May 10th in Paris, there
was a violent confrontation between student
demonstrators and the police. Over the following days
discontent with the Gaullist government spread into the
labor force, and workers began joining in the protest with
a series of strikes and factory occupations. Ultimately,
the De Gaulle government held firm, and partly because
of divisions within the leftist opposition, the protests
died away.
The Paris Riots, 1968
Earlier in 68, events in the world of cinema had helped to trigger the riots that followed. It began when Henri
Langlois, who had set up and nurtured the Cinématheque Francaise, was fired as its head by the Minister of
Culture Andre Malraux. Claiming administrative incompetence as his reason, Malreaux terminated the archive’s
subsidy and moved to appoint a new head. The firing sparked protests among Parisian film students who
continued to receive much of their education through screenings at the Cinematheque, as well as New-Wave
directors like Truffaut, Godard, Rivette, and Resnais who proudly proclaimed themselves “children of the
Cinématheque.”
Even the Cannes Film Festival was drawn into the protest as Louis Malle and Roman Polanski resigned from
the festival jury, and Truffaut and Godard burst into a screening and hung from the curtains to physically stop
the festival from continuing. Support too came from abroad in the form of telegrams from world famous
directors like Hitchcock, Kurosawa and Fellini. Eventually Malraux was forced to back down and Langlois was
reinstated.
Aftermath
The Langlois affair showed that, despite their political and cinematic differences, the directors associated with
the Nouvelle Vague could still come together as a group. Indeed, after their work came under attack from
critics, and the film establishment began to reassert itself, they felt more willing to assert themselves as part of a
movement than they had at the start.
As Truffaut wrote in a 1967 issue of Cahiers du Cinéma: “Before, when we were interviewed – Jean Luc,
Resnais, Malle, myself and others – we said, ‘The New Wave doesn’t exist, it doesn’t mean anything.’ But later,
we had to change, and ever since that moment I’ve affirmed my participation in the movement. Now, in 1967,
we are proud to have been and to remain part of the New Wave, just as one is proud to have been a Jew during
the Occupation.”
Then and Now: The New Wave Continues
An enduring legacy of the French New-Wave movement was the
inspiration it provided for similar movements in other countries. In
America, the “movie brat” generation of filmmakers that emerged in
the late 1960’s and 70’s, was profoundly influenced by the
storytelling techniques pioneered by the Novelle-Vague directors. In
Europe too, young directors in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
Germany, and elsewhere, were motivated to break with the past and
tell their own stories. Even further afield, in countries such as Japan,
Brazil, and Canada, similar movements prospered for a while.
In France the success of the Nouvelle Vague continued to open doors
La Maman et la Putain
for new directors. Barbet Schroeder (More (1969)) Jean Eustache
(The Mother and the Whore) [1973]
(La Maman et La Putain (1973)), Andre Techine (Paulina s’en Va
....
(1975)), and Philippe Garrel (L’Enfant Secret (1979), made up part
of what could be considered a post-New-Wave second wave. They, and other directors like Jean-Claude Biette,
Claude Guiguet, and Paul Vecchiali, began, like their predecessors, writing for Cahiers du Cinéma, before
turning to filmmaking themselves.
In the 1980’s a new generation of young directors emerged
in France. Dubbed by the media the "New New Wave," the
three main figures in the group, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Luc
Besson and Leos Carax, were quick to distance themselves
from the earlier movement, expressing anti-New-Wave
sentiments in interviews. Their films, which included the
hits Diva (Beineix (1980), Subway (Besson (1985), Betty
Blue (Beiniex (1986), The Big Blue (Besson (1988), and
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (Carax (1991), were criticized for
favouring style over substance. Their style of filmmaking
became known as the “cinema du look,” and, although
popular, was felt by many to offer little more than slick
visuals and alluring stars.
La Belle Noiseuse [1991] .
The tragic early death of Francois Truffaut in 1984 brought an end to the career of the best known and best
loved of the French New-Wave directors. His later work, although varied and not always successful, included
such highlights as the Oscar-winning Day for Night (1973), the poetic La Chambre Verte (The Green Room)
(1978), and Le Dernier Metro (The Last Metro) (1980), a story of the Resistance which was a critical and boxoffice triumph in France. Apart from his work, Truffaut himself has become an icon and inspiration for
impassioned, idealistic young directors, determined to remake cinema on their own terms.
As for his Nouvelle-Vague contemporaries, they continue making waves in the twenty-first century. Godard,
Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette, Varda, Resnais, Marker, and others associated with the movement, are all now
auteurs in their own right with an international following. Their prolific output continues to challenge audiences
and expand the boundaries of cinematic expression. Retrospectives of their work and new prints of New Wave
classics continue to keep alive a cultural revolution that produced some of the greatest films ever made and
changed the course of cinema history.