The French New Wave
Grew out of the magazine:
Cahier du Cinema
Founded by Andre Bazin
Article by Alexander Astruc about
“La Camera-Stylo” (the camera pen)
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The Camera Pen:
Films that create own language:
Not dominated by screenwriters
Not literary or theatrical
Not an adaptation
Something conceived originally as a
film
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Francois Truffaut’s “Theory”
Wrote Cahier article (1954) about:
“La Politique des Auteur”
Bad translation =
“The Auteur Theory”
Picked up by other writers/directors
to-be: Jean-Luc Godard, Claude
Chabrol, Jacque Rivette, Alain
Renais
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The Auteur Theory Attacked:
1. “ The Tradition of Quality” -- films
like Forbidden Games
2. Films dominated by screenwriter
3. Adaptations of “ Great” Literature
4. Canned, overwritten dialogue
5. Theatrical acting, established
stars
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The Auteur Theory Attacked:
6. Films that showed:
Overdependence on written word
Overly literary elements such as
character, plot, and symbolism
(i.e. the crosses in Forbidden
Games)
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The Auteur Theory Affirmed:
1. Directors who write own dialogue
2. Directors who stamp own style or
P.O.V. on film rather than give
faithful rendition of script.
3. Imaginative use of film techniques
4. Rankings of “ Auteur” directors
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Auteur Theory Affirmed:
5. Directors who had great deal of
control over their films (i.e. write,
direct, produce, like Orson Welles)
6. Oddly, included studio directors
like John Ford & Howard Hawks
who stamped personal style on
conventional genre films.
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Auteur Directors
PRO
Auteur
CON
/
Screenwriter dominated
Personality / Enslavement to script
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New Wave Begins 1958-1959
Chabrol makes The Blue Suit (58)
In 1959:
★Truffaut make 400 Blows (59)
★Renais makes Hiroshima Mon
Amour (59)
★Hiroshima & 400 Blows win
awards at Cannes film festival
★Godard makes Breathless (60)
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“The New Wave Revolution”
In 1959 alone 67 directors made
their first feature film in France
From 1959-1963 170 new directors
made their first feature film
But-- not really a unified movement!
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General Points of Agreement
1. Self-consciousness
2. Playfulness
3. Ambiguity
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Some Examples:
1. Hiroshima mon Amour (Renais 1959)
2. Jules and Jim (Truffaut - 1961)
3. Alphaville (Godard - 1965)
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SOME EXAMPLES:
Ingmar Bergman -- Swedish director
book lumps him in with New Wave
important & very unique director:
The Seventh Seal (1957)
Luis Bunuel (Spain) also made films
associated with the “ New Wave”
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SOME EXAMPLES
Other important directors:
Robert Bresson
Chris Marker
Eric Rohmer
Jacque Tati
Jacque Rivette
Louis Malle
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Many Different Styles, but Some
Common Tendencies:
Low budget filmmaking
◆ Natural lighting
◆ Shooting in streets - not studio
◆ Unknown actors
◆ Editing / Camerawork / Sound that
calls attention to itself
◆
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5
Compare to Forbidden Games
Absolute clarity of plot
◆ Acting has a stage-bound
quality
◆ Heavy-duty, obvious
symbolism
◆ Professional studio production
◆
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Summary of New Wave
Principles
Ambiguity rather than Closure
◆ A recognizable POV from
filmmaker
◆ Rough and imaginative -not smooth and slick
◆ A personal cinema not a factorymade, predictable product
◆
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The New Wave’s Lasting
Contribution:
The director
is as much of a hero as
the star
of the film
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Quick Review--British Film 1956Lack of a distinct national tradition
Many British directors came to U.S.
Hitchcock, Lean, Reed, etc.
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4 Basic Types of “British” Film
1. Literary adaptations -- classics
2. Tight little mystery thrillers
3. Ealing comedies
4. Lavish color spectaculars
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Social Realist Movement
Began mid 1950s -- grew out of the
“ Free Cinema” movement
The so-called “ Angry Young Men”
New left
Social Consciousness
Working-class heroes
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Directors of the Social Realist
Movement
John Osborne --- playwright
Jack Clayton -- Room at the Top
Tony Richardson - Look Back in Anger;
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
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Directors of the Social Realist
Movement
Lindsay Anderson -- O Dreamland
Karel Reisz -- Saturday Night and
Sunday Morning
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Movement Short-lived
Most of the important directors went
on to bigger budgets, glossier,
color feature films
Other important directors followed:
Nicholas Roeg, John Boorman,
Richard Lester
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