What is French New Wave?

French new wave or 'Nouvelle vague' was a term used by critics for filmmakers of the late 1950's and 60's. They included the social and political upheaval of the era. They used radical visual style and editing to contrast with the conservative paradigm.
French new wave films were primarily known for being filmed in black and white. They have many film techniques that express many things, such as long tracking shots used in the famous traffic jam in the film 'week end'. We hope to use this unique way of filming in our trailer to add even more meaning to a light film.
The themes used in films such as these all express the absurdity and acceptance of human existence, questioning 'the point of life' in a subtle manner.
French new wave films were always filmed on low budgets, directors were forced to improvise with equipment, and they often used a shopping trolley for a tracking shot. Because our trailer will be filmed also on a tight budget we aspire to catch the light-heartiness and fresh feeling that french new wave cinema has.

Famous new wave directors:
We will look at directors and see what their techniques they use, the films they have produced and their profound effect on French new wave cinema:

Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard is a french Swiss film director, actor and critic, he was born on the 3rd December 1930.Many of Godard's films challenged the codes and conventions of Hollywood film and if often seen as the most radical of the 'nouvelle vague'. His film expresses political ideologies as well as his knowledge in film history and also his believes in Marxism.
His film 'Breathless' was widely influenced by Orson Welles' 'Touch of evil' and this film is where we first see the radical jump cuts and breaking the eye line match rule in continuity editing.
For many people, Godard is the personification of French New Wave. That look, those sunglasses, even the way he grips his cigarette, like a toothpick from a martini glass. All of these things say “rebellious”, “french” and “cool”.

Godard is both icon and iconoclast and, like Brigitte Bardot, his style is as equally recognisable as his films. Perhaps, then, it is only fitting that the conference moved directly from a discussion of Brigitte to a discussion of Jean-Luc. Except this time we were the recipients of two distinct points of view.

Claude Chabrol

Claude Chabrol was a French film director and like Jean-Luc Godard he was a film critic for the magazine Cahiers du Cinema before beginning his career. Chabrol was known as a more 'main stream' new wave director. Chabrol's career began with Le Beau Serge (1958), inspired by Hitchcocks's Shadow of a Doubt (1943). Thrillers became something of a trademark for Chabrol, with an approach characterized by a distanced objectivity. This is especially apparent in Les Biche (1968),La Femme Indefele (1969) and Le Boucher (1970) — all featuring his then-wife, Audran. Sometimes characterized as a "mainstream" New Wave director, Chabrol remained prolific and popular throughout his half-century career.

Jacques Rivette

Jacques Rivette was also like Jean-Luc Godard and was very experimental with his filming. Rivettes storylines also followed multiple plots than can be romantic, mysterious and comic all at once. All his films were notroiously longs; the film 'out 1' lasts 13 hours. In 1963, Rivette was made editor in chief of Cahiers du cinema after Eric Rohmer was forced out. In 1965 he directed his second feature, La Religieuse staring Anna Karina. The French government blocked its release for over a year on moral grounds and the publicity helped turn it into a hit film.


Eric Rohmer
Like all the other directors Rohmer also worked for the same magazine. His films included intellectual protagonists. The contrast between what they do and what they say fuels much of the drama in his films. He avoided a face close up in his films and also didn;t use much music, and used people in their 20's on beautiful beaches and resorts. Rohmer also tends to spend considerable time in his films showing his characters going from place to place, walking, driving, bicycling or commuting on a train, engaging the viewer in the idea that part of the day of each individual involves quotidian travel. This was most evident in Le Beau mariage (1982), which had the female protagonist constantly traveling, particularly between Paris and Le Mans.

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Many of the French new wave contentions started off not only with artistic inspiration but because of circumstances and necessity. They almost always started off with low budgets and they often improvised with what schedules and materials they could afford. There were a group of conventions that were consistently used in the majority of French New Wave films:

Jump cuts: a non naturalistic edit, usually a section of a continuous shot that is removed unexpectedly, illogicallyShooting on locationNatural lighting

Improvised dialogue and plotting

Direct sound recording

Long takes

Many of the conventions listed above are common in dramas and some films that are out today, but in the late 1950's and early 1960's they were something new and unexpected. Jump cuts were not used as much but became an artistic convention . The movies feature methods of expression, such as long tracking shots. Many were shot in their apartments using the director's friends as the cast and crew. The director of the film 'Breathless' Jean Luc-Godard, was told that the film was too long and that he must cut it down to one hour and a half so he decided to remove several scenes from the feature using jump cuts as it was all one long take.