French New Wave
Years active - 1958 to late 1960s
Country - France
Major figures - André Bazin, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Demy, François Truffaut, Éric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette, Straub-Huillet, AgnèsVarda
The New Wave French is a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of the literary period pieces being made in France and written by novelists, along with their spirit of youthful iconoclasm, the desire to shoot more current social issues on location, and their intention of experimenting with the film form. "New Wave" is an example of European art cinema. Many also engaged in their work with the social and political turmoils of the era, making their radical experiments with editing, visual style and narrative part of a general break with the conservative structure. Using portable equipment and requiring little or no set up time, the New Wave way of filmmaking presented a documentary style. Filming techniques included fragmented, discontinuous editing, and long takes.
Origins of the movement
Alexandre Astruc's manifesto, "The Birth of a New Avant-Garde: The Camera-Stylo", published in L'Écran on 30 March 1948, outlined some of the ideas that were later expanded upon by famous French filmmaker, François Truffaut. It argues that "cinema was in the process of becoming a new means of expression on the same level as painting and the novel; a form in which an artist can express his thoughts, however abstract they may be, or translate his obsessions exactly as he does in the contemporary essay or novel. This is why I would like to call this new age of cinema the age of the 'camera-stylo.'”
André Bazin and Henri Langlois, founder and curator of the CinémathèqueFrançaise, were the dual father figures of the French New Wave movement. These men of cinema valued the expression of the director's personal vision in both the film's style and script.
Some of the most prominent pioneers among the group, including François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Éric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, and Jacques Rivette, began as critics for the famous film magazine Cahiers du cinéma. Cahiers co-founder and theorist André Bazin was a prominent source of influence for the movement.
François Truffaut credits the American director Morris Engel and his film Little Fugitive with helping to start the French New Wave, when he said "Our French New Wave would never have come into being, if it hadn't been for the young American Morris Engel who showed us the way to independent production with (this) fine movie."
The French New Wave was popular roughly between 1958 and 1964, although New Wave work existed as late as 1973.
Film techniques
The movies featured unprecedented methods of expression, such as long tracking shots (like the famous traffic jam sequence in Godard's 1967 film Week End). Also, these movies featured existential themes, such as stressing the individual and the acceptance of the absurdity of human existence.
Many of the French New Wave films were produced on tight budgets; often shot in a friend's apartment or yard, using the director's friends as the cast and crew. Directors were also forced to improvise with equipment (for example, using a shopping cart for tracking shots). The cost of film was also a major concern; thus, efforts to save film turned into stylistic innovations. For example, in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless after being told the film was too long and he must cut it down to one hour and a half he decided to remove several scenes from the feature using jump cuts, as they were filmed in one long take. Parts that did not work were simply cut from the middle of the take, a practical decision and also a purposeful stylistic one. The cinematic stylings of French New Wave brought a fresh look to cinema with improvised dialogue, rapid changes of scene, and shots that broke the common 180° axis of camera movement. In many films of the French New Wave, the camera was used not to mesmerize the audience with elaborate narrative and illusory images, but rather to play with audience expectations. Godard was arguably the movement's most influential figure; his method of film-making, often used to shock and awe audiences out of passivity, was abnormally bold and direct. As a result of his techniques, he is an early example of a director who was accused of having contempt for his audience. His stylistic approach can be seen as a desperate struggle against the mainstream cinema of the time. Techniques that now seem either trite or commonplace, such as a character stepping out of their role in order to address the audience directly, were radically innovative at the time.
Influential names in French New Wave
Cahiers du cinéma Famous Five directors
Years active - 1958 to late 1960s
Country - France
Major figures - André Bazin, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Demy, François Truffaut, Éric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette, Straub-Huillet, AgnèsVarda
The New Wave French is a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of the literary period pieces being made in France and written by novelists, along with their spirit of youthful iconoclasm, the desire to shoot more current social issues on location, and their intention of experimenting with the film form. "New Wave" is an example of European art cinema. Many also engaged in their work with the social and political turmoils of the era, making their radical experiments with editing, visual style and narrative part of a general break with the conservative structure. Using portable equipment and requiring little or no set up time, the New Wave way of filmmaking presented a documentary style. Filming techniques included fragmented, discontinuous editing, and long takes.
Origins of the movement
Alexandre Astruc's manifesto, "The Birth of a New Avant-Garde: The Camera-Stylo", published in L'Écran on 30 March 1948, outlined some of the ideas that were later expanded upon by famous French filmmaker, François Truffaut. It argues that "cinema was in the process of becoming a new means of expression on the same level as painting and the novel; a form in which an artist can express his thoughts, however abstract they may be, or translate his obsessions exactly as he does in the contemporary essay or novel. This is why I would like to call this new age of cinema the age of the 'camera-stylo.'”
André Bazin and Henri Langlois, founder and curator of the CinémathèqueFrançaise, were the dual father figures of the French New Wave movement. These men of cinema valued the expression of the director's personal vision in both the film's style and script.
Some of the most prominent pioneers among the group, including François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Éric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, and Jacques Rivette, began as critics for the famous film magazine Cahiers du cinéma. Cahiers co-founder and theorist André Bazin was a prominent source of influence for the movement.
François Truffaut credits the American director Morris Engel and his film Little Fugitive with helping to start the French New Wave, when he said "Our French New Wave would never have come into being, if it hadn't been for the young American Morris Engel who showed us the way to independent production with (this) fine movie."
The French New Wave was popular roughly between 1958 and 1964, although New Wave work existed as late as 1973.
Film techniques
The movies featured unprecedented methods of expression, such as long tracking shots (like the famous traffic jam sequence in Godard's 1967 film Week End). Also, these movies featured existential themes, such as stressing the individual and the acceptance of the absurdity of human existence.
Many of the French New Wave films were produced on tight budgets; often shot in a friend's apartment or yard, using the director's friends as the cast and crew. Directors were also forced to improvise with equipment (for example, using a shopping cart for tracking shots). The cost of film was also a major concern; thus, efforts to save film turned into stylistic innovations. For example, in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless after being told the film was too long and he must cut it down to one hour and a half he decided to remove several scenes from the feature using jump cuts, as they were filmed in one long take. Parts that did not work were simply cut from the middle of the take, a practical decision and also a purposeful stylistic one. The cinematic stylings of French New Wave brought a fresh look to cinema with improvised dialogue, rapid changes of scene, and shots that broke the common 180° axis of camera movement. In many films of the French New Wave, the camera was used not to mesmerize the audience with elaborate narrative and illusory images, but rather to play with audience expectations. Godard was arguably the movement's most influential figure; his method of film-making, often used to shock and awe audiences out of passivity, was abnormally bold and direct. As a result of his techniques, he is an early example of a director who was accused of having contempt for his audience. His stylistic approach can be seen as a desperate struggle against the mainstream cinema of the time. Techniques that now seem either trite or commonplace, such as a character stepping out of their role in order to address the audience directly, were radically innovative at the time.
Influential names in French New Wave
Cahiers du cinéma Famous Five directors
1. Claude Chabrol 2. Jean-Luc Godard 3. Jacques Rivette 4. Éric Rohmer 5. François Truffaut
Other directors associated with the movement
Alexandre Astruc
Jacques Doniol-Valcroze
Jean Douchet
Marguerite Duras
Jean Eustache
Louis Malle
Jean-Pierre Melville
Luc Moullet
Alain Robbe-Grillet
Jean Rouch
Actors and Actresses
Alain Delon
Anna Karina
Anouk Aimée
Brigitte Bardot
Fanny Ardant
Catherine Deneuve
Françoise Dorléac
StéphaneAudran
Claude Jade
Bernadette Lafont
Jean-Pierre Léaud
Jeanne Moreau
Note - Articles might have inputs from articles in public domain
Other directors associated with the movement
Alexandre Astruc
Jacques Doniol-Valcroze
Jean Douchet
Marguerite Duras
Jean Eustache
Louis Malle
Jean-Pierre Melville
Luc Moullet
Alain Robbe-Grillet
Jean Rouch
Actors and Actresses
Alain Delon
Anna Karina
Anouk Aimée
Brigitte Bardot
Fanny Ardant
Catherine Deneuve
Françoise Dorléac
StéphaneAudran
Claude Jade
Bernadette Lafont
Jean-Pierre Léaud
Jeanne Moreau
Note - Articles might have inputs from articles in public domain
