French New Wave Essay

New wave is a movement that has been best described as breaking traditional ideas. Most New Wave films take place at a time of huge change in a community and in this essay I will be studying the French New Wave also known as Nouvelle Vague. The French New Wave started in the late 50’s and early 60’s. It was born out of the dissatisfaction of many new, young filmmakers felt towards traditional French cinema. This to which they believed was more about literature than it was the approach in regards to storytelling. The pioneers of the French New Wave aimed to rebel against the classic and traditional French cinema. Critics such as those who worked on Cahiers Du Cinema believed that it would be beneficial to develop an auter cinema in which filmmakers could express their own personal visions and create their own personal styles. Their aim was to create films which reflected real life, this meaning that raw and exploring the challenging which were looked over in traditional cinema. The critics wanted to transform and break the constraints of conventional cinema and were inspired by other critics named Alexandre Astruc whose ‘camera-stylo theory’ argued that ‘filmmakers should make use of their equipment spontaneously, flexibly and personally, as a writer uses a pen’ (Sterrit 1999). Through experimentation of different cinematic techniques, they began to apply their own personal values in their films, as auteurs. Throughout my investigation of the French New wave, I will be analysing the work of Jean-Luc Godard. The three films I will be looking at are: Breathless, and Vivre Sa Vie (my life to live).

The 1950/60s in France were a defining period for French Cinema, with the people of France having to overcome the suffering of the World War II which lasted for six slow years. However, the Cold War that was taking place and there was a considerable amount of tension between the East and West. Despite this, a reconstruction process had begun; the people of France had started to restore/ rebuild their economies and political/social subcultures in society. A revolution had begun; after years and years of rationing, shortages, tension and political outrage, France was finally back and standing on its own feet. Technological innovation brought around enormous change in society, making consumer goods such as; cars, televisions and the like more affordable for the general public. Black and White films were a thing of the past, and wide screen formatting was in use - it was a new Golden age for France and for French Cinema. (internationalschoolhistory.net 2015)

Jean-Luc Godard, was born in the 1930s and began his film-making career when he co-founded Gazette du Cinema in the year 1950, which was a short-lived film journal. He later joined Cahiers Du Cinema, where he would find himself writing film critiques with other film critics, producers and directors; Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol; all of which would become vital figures in the beginning of the French New Wave movement (Lanzoni 2002). Godard was one of the first of the young critics to published in Cahiers Du Cinema, with the January 1952 issue featuring his review of an American film by Rudolph Mate named 'No Sad Songs for Me'. He began his filmmaking career shortly after joining Cahiers, whilst also assisting other filmmakers like Rohmer. Godard's films were often seen as being about the presentation of a narrative, rather than the narrative itself due to his emphasis on technique. Many of films digressed from the main storyline or followed a completely non-linear structure. His first feature film 'Breathless' was possibly considered his most ground-breaking film and incorporated many distinct features from the 'New Wave style'. He employed techniques such as jump cuts, breaking eye-line match rules and 180 degree rules, as well as taking several elements from popular culture, particularly film noir. Godard is considered to be what is called an 'auteur', which generally speaking means that he was a director that influences his films so much that he is considered to be their author and the creative force behind them.

Godard first saw actress Anna Karina in an advert for ‘Palmolive’. He contacted her almost straight away about a small part in his famous 'Breathless', however, she turned the role down as soon as she found out it would involve nudity. She agreed to take the lead role in his next film and they soon started a relationship with each other which would later be used as inspiration in some of his future films. However, the first year of their relationship was the happiest and their relationship became more and more strained as time went on. Karina's co-star in ‘A Woman

is a Woman’ spoke about their relationship on-set, saying "They tore each other apart, argued, loved each other, hated each other, screamed at each other". Things became worse when Karina became pregnant. The couple got married, however, Karina unfortunately experienced a miscarriage which damaged her mental/physical health considerably and Godard found it difficult to cope, which ended up with him leaving her for several weeks. She then had an affair with a co-star from another film she was working on, and decided that she wanted to marry him and divorce Godard, which subsequently resulted in her attempting suicide. Despite this, Godard and Karina reconciled and continued working on films together until even after their divorce in December 1964. Their last film together was 'Made in the USA 'which was produced in 1966 and it is reported that the atmosphere on set when the couple were together was very unpleasant, with Godard often seen shouting at Karina. He once again used the narrative of the film to explore the relationship he once had with her. Although this would be the last time they worked together, Karina said in an interview many years later 'He was and will remain the greatest love of my life'.

The French New Wave was an exclusive movement that sought to revolutionize narrative structures, genres, characters, plots and film techniques. François Truffaut, who is one of the founding members of the New Wave, foreshadowed the arrival of this movement in 1954 when he wrote “A Certain Tendency in French Cinema,” a manifesto published in the film journal Cahiers du Cinéma. Truffaut argued that French films lacked individuality and self-expression. Citing such directors as Jean Renoir, Alfred Hitchcock and Roberto Rossellini, Truffaut called for a new group of directors to take the reins and follow in these men’s footsteps by creating films that unmistakably belonged to their respective director. Five years after the publication of Truffaut’s article, the Cannes Film Festival awarded Truffaut Best Director for his feature film debut, The 400 Blows(1959), which told the story of a hopeless boy named Antoine Doinel (Truffaut’s doppelgänger). The premiere of this work was an important event that introduced the first ripples of the New Wave.

A year later, Jean-Luc Godard, a fellow critic at Cahiers du Cinéma, premiered his own debut feature, Breathless (1960), that recounted the adventures of a Bogart-loving criminal and his American girlfriend. Cinema would never be the same. Éric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol and Jacques Rivette joined Truffaut and Godard in creating a slew of iconic films. The New Wave directors, like Charles Baudelaire, who a century before them invented the “poem in prose,” created works that crossed artistic boundaries by incorporating philosophy, theater, linguistics, journalism and painting into films. This band of cinephiles opened the door for the potential of cinema.

The first film I looked at was the 1962 ‘Vivre Sa Vie’ (My Life to Live), which follows the life of a young woman called Nana, who dreams of becoming an actress but instead is stuck working as a shop assistant with a husband and child that she is unhappy with. She leaves this life behind to follow her dream career and independence, however, ends up becoming a prostitute and in fact, becomes more and more dependent on others (predominantly men), being sold by one pimp to another until eventually, she is involved in a tragic murder. Throughout ‘Vivre Sa Vie’, Godard employs various unconventional techniques and methods to excite the audience. Godard liked the make the audience constantly aware of the fact that they are watching a film, and so ‘Vivre Sa Vie’ was shot on the streets of Paris and the set locations used by him were not closed off from the general public. As a result of this, the general public can often be seen looking at the camera, the actors and the crew with intrigue. Looking back on his film 'Breathless', he felt as though he had moved the camera far too much when filming. He decided that for this film, he would use heavier equipment which was not as easy to move around, he would light scenes correctly and capture audio at the time of filming rather than dubbing over in post-production. (newwavefilm.com 2015) The narrative of the film is split into twelve chapters (tableaux), each listing what and who we are about to see in the following scenes. The story is non-linear; elements are missing and mixed up and it is almost impossible to fill the gaps in with the information provided within the film. Here, Godard’s intention was for the story to be as if Nana were recalling each scene like a memory. It has a primary plot, however it lacks cohesion. As well as presenting the narrative in an unfamiliar way, Godard experiments with various techniques throughout the film. There are numerous long takes, many of which last three minutes and over which would not be so long if the film came from a more traditional cinematographer, as they are often uncomfortable or make the audience lose interest. The first chapter's title screen reads ' Tableau one: A bistro - Nana wants to leave Paul - pinball'. The first descriptor tells us the number of the chapter, then the second tells us the location in which the scene is set. The third descriptor tells us about how Nana is feeling, and finally it tells us about an object of importance. Interestingly, the way that the last three descriptors are arranged vary throughout the film depending on what Godard wants the audience to view as important. For example, in chapter nine, the title reads simply 'Tableau nine: A young man - Nana wonders if she is happy'. He wants the focus to be completely on the young man and on Nana's feelings; everything else is insignificant in comparison.

The second film I have looked at is ‘Breathless’ 1960, which is directed by Jean-Luc Godard, follows Michel, who after stealing a car in Marseille and shooting a police officer, meets Patricia. (An American student in Paris). She agrees to help keep him hidden whilst he tries to gather money for an escape to Italy, but eventually she betrays him as the police close in. Godard approached the film's narrative in a radical fashion that subverted from the conventional crime archetypes. "His years as a critic, his immersion in both high and low culture, his philosophical explorations, all impacted on his debut feature film" (Breathless) At this point Godard was an unknown in the world of cinema, and as a result he was relatively inexperienced and had thin knowledge of practical film techniques; though this didn't matter, as he once said in an interview, the film was a "result of a decade's worth of making movies in my head" (Breathless) A large factor of the French New Wave was to capture naturalness and genuine reactions, this was a philosophy of Godard's, who made up a lot of the dialogue for the film as he shot the film. All of the dialogue was dubbed in the final cut, as Godard would give actors lines from behind the camera as they were filming. ‘Breathless’ was a defining film which helped to stimulate documentary-style filmmaking. It was shot with most shots being shot with handheld cameras, using only natural and available light. Nearly 50 years on, this technique is used by contemporary cinema as a technique to immerse the audience in a work of fiction, by making them feel like they're in the film and share the emotions the characters are feeling. However, Godard aimed to achieve the exact opposite. He was heavily influenced by director Bertolt Brecht, who constantly reminded the audience they were watching a film. Godard followed this philosophy by capturing the audience's attention to things that are meant to be discreet in mainstream cinema. Godard is renowned for his use of jump-cuts in ‘Breathless’, but these were not intentional. Primarily the run-time of the film was too long, but rather than cut out entire scenes, Godard decided to cut pieces out of the middle of single shots. This therefore gave the film an unpolished and unnatural effect. This was because seemed as if that the film was skipping through time. This is distinct in one particular scene, our protagonist Michel is in a car with Patricia, and where Godard implements of six jump-cuts in under ten seconds. This represents an unnatural style of editing because the two characters are simply talking, but the jump-cuts disrupt the flow of conversation and strip the film of continuity, almost making the clip into a montage of dialogue rather than a single conversation. Another famous scene in which this technique is utilised in is when Michel shoots the policeman, Godard uses a jump-cut just a Michel fires the gun the shot cuts to the policeman lying on the ground - we don't actually see him get shot. This is also a prime example of Godard cutting out pieces of clips that might not need to be seen as he believed the audience would be able to figure out what happened without the extra footage.

In conclusion, Godard's films, much like many other new wave filmmakers', reflected his own personal experiences in life and focused specifically on his relationship with his wife and muse, Anna Karina. It is also obvious that Godard preferred for his audience to be aware of the fact that his films were not reality, despite the fact that his storylines often echoed and explored and even mirrored his own reality. It is clear that his films, as well as the films of many other New Wave filmmakers had a massive impact on society and the audiences who watched them. The French New Wave was very much inspired by producers such as Renoir and critics such as Alexandre Astruc who emphasised the importance of making films personal. They also emphasised using small film crews and filming on scene, and then the New Wave filmmakers went on to influence more modern filmmakers and directors such as Quentin Tarantino, who made use of their new techniques such as jump-cuts, long takes, using colour filters and wandering from non-diegetic to diegetic sound. Therefore, it is obvious that the French New Wave movement influenced and even changed cinematography and film making forever by introducing a new way of communicating a story and allowing filmmakers the freedom to experiment.



- Sterrit, David. The Films of Jean Luc Godard. Cambridge, UK. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

- http://www.internationalschoolhistory.net/western_europe/europe/rebuilding_europe.htm

- Lanzoni, Remi Fournier. French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present. New York: Continuum, 2002.

- http://www.newwavefilm.com/french-new-wave-encyclopedia/breathless.shtml

- My Life To Live (Vivre Sa Vie). 1962. Jean-Luc Godard. France. Les Filmes de la Pleiade, Pathe Consortium Cinema.



- Newwavefilm.com,. 'VIVRE SA VIE (My Life To Live) - Jean-Luc Godard'. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.