French New Wave

The French New Wave is a revolutionary film movement in the 1950s and 1960s France that rejected traditional filmmaking conventions to embrace experimental techniques, the auteur theory (emphasizing the director's personal vision), and a more realistic, spontaneous style. Characterized by handheld cameras, on-location shooting, and unconventional editing like jump cuts, it aimed for a more personal and authentic form of cinematic expression outside of the traditional studio system.

Characteristics:

Experimental Techniques: Filmmakers used innovative methods to achieve a more immediate feel, including:

- Handheld cameras

- Natural lighting

- On-location shooting (often on the streets of Paris)

- Jump cuts and discontinuous editing

Themes: Films often explored themes of alienation, rebellion, and the search for meaning, while also reflecting social and political upheaval of the time.

Low-Budget Approach: New Wave filmmakers often produced their films with lower budgets outside the traditional studio system, using more portable and direct methods.

Auteur Theory

Director François Truffaut developed the concept of the auteur in his 1954 essay “Une certaine tendance du cinéma français” (“A certain trend in French cinema”) that was published in the influential French journal Cahiers du Cinéma.

Truffaut wrote about a group of emerging French filmmakers whom he labeled auteurs. He contrasted these filmmakers with directors of mainstream studio productions, whom he called metteurs en scène -technicians who simply staged scripts written by others.

He argued that the strongest films came from artists who both wrote and directed their own work and who expressed a distinct, personal vision. He called this philosophy la politique des auteurs (“the policy of authorship”). His ideas were embraced by a generation of French directors who became known as the French New Wave. Where most directors brought someone else’s script to the screen, auteurs typically wrote their own screenplays or had significant creative influence over the writing.

Prominent figures:

Cahiers du cinéma directors

François Truffaut

Jean-Luc Godard

Éric Rohmer

Claude Chabrol

Jacques Rivette

Left Bank directors

Agnès Varda

Alain Resnais

Chris Marker

Jacques Demy

Other directors associated with the French New Wave

Marguerite Duras, Jean Eustache, Philippe Garrel, William Klein, Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville,

Alain Robbe-Grillet, Luc Moullet, Jacques Rozier, Roger Vadim

NOTABLE FILMS:

FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT

- The 400 Blows

- Jules et Jim

- Shoot the Piano Player

- The Soft Skin

- Fahrenheit 451

JEAN-LUC GODARD

- Breathless

- Pierrot Le Fou

- Alphaville

- Masculin/Feminin

- Weekend

ÉRIC ROHMER

- Suzanne's Career

- My Night At Maud's

- La Collectionneuse

CLAUDE CHABROL

- Le beau Serge

- Les Bonnes Femmes

- The Third Lover

JACQUES RIVETTE

- Paris Nous Appartient

- L'Amour fou

- Celine and Julie Go Boating

AGNES VARDA

- La Pointe-Courte

- Cleo From 5 to 7

- Le Bonheur

ALAIN RESNAIS

- Hiroshima, Mon Amour

- Last Year at Marienbad

- IMuriel ou le Temps d'un Retour

CHRIS MARKER

- La Jetée

JACQUES DEMY

- Bay of the Angels

- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

- The Young Girls of Rochefort

ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET

- Trans-Europ-Express

JEAN EUSTACHE

- The Mother and the Whore

ROGER VADIM

- Les Liaisons Dangereuses