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The French New Wave
Introduction
The French New Wave or La Nouvelle Vague is the most influential film movements among the various types of movement in the cinema. The New Wave have affectedly changed filmmaking the entire France by inspiring new styles, themes, and modes of production throughout the world after World War II (Richard, N., 2009). The movement began in late of the 1950s as a key of articulate young film-makers. There are few young film-makers who formed the group, François Truffault, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Eric Romer, and critics the films by the film magazine “Cahiers du Cinéma”. The Cahiers du Cinéma critics were very critical of the film of the times. It’s considered the film to be unoriginal, polished, formulaic and studio-bound French cinema of the 1940s and 1950s. The young critics were commended the French film-makers who considered as “auteurs”, such as Jean Renoir, Jean Vigo, Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, and also the Hollywood film-makers, Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Nicholas Ray, and Howard Hawks (Stephen, N., n.d.).
The French New Wave or La Nouvelle Vague is the most influential film movements among the various types of movement in the cinema. The New Wave have affectedly changed filmmaking the entire France by inspiring new styles, themes, and modes of production throughout the world after World War II (Richard, N., 2009). The movement began in late of the 1950s as a key of articulate young film-makers. There are few young film-makers who formed the group, François Truffault, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Eric Romer, and critics the films by the film magazine “Cahiers du Cinéma”. The Cahiers du Cinéma critics were very critical of the film of the times. It’s considered the film to be unoriginal, polished, formulaic and studio-bound French cinema of the 1940s and 1950s. The young critics were commended the French film-makers who considered as “auteurs”, such as Jean Renoir, Jean Vigo, Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, and also the Hollywood film-makers, Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Nicholas Ray, and Howard Hawks (Stephen, N., n.d.).
The main young film-makers of French New Wave assisted and cooperate with each other to help in the growth of a common and diverse use of form, new cinematic style, using breakthrough techniques, a fresh approach narrative, which was to make their work straightaway identifiable. These directors make their films with their own term. They showed that there were various kinds of stories to tell and diverse ways to tell them. The French New Wave film-makers concentrated on bringing a sense of realism to cinema, instead of focusing on studio sets and screenplays adapted from novels where they thought that was not expressing human life. They have proved that they didn’t need the mainstream studios to produce films (Michelle, S. , 2008).
The French New Wave was influences on the New Hollywood generation of directors, and the influence has continue to the present day in the contemporary independent American cinema have generously used its techniques (Simon, H. , 2008).
The most fundamental and earliest films to the movement which includes Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows, 1959) directed by Francois Truffaut; À Bout De Souffle (Breathless, 1960) directed by Jean-Luc Godard; Ma Nuit Chez Maud (My Night With Maud, 1969) filmed by Eric Rohmer; Le Boucher (The Butcher, 1970) filmed by Claude Chabrol; Celine & Julie Vont En Bateau (Celine & Julie Go Boating, 1974) directed by Jacques Rivette. There are also other film-makers who were also related with the movement such asHiroshima Mon Amour (1959) directed by Alain Resnais; Cléo de 5 à 7 (Cleo from 5 to 7, 1962) filmed by Agnes Varda; Bob le Flambeur (Bob the Gambler,1955) directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and so on (Simon, H. , 2008).
The film list:
1983- Confidentially Yours
1981- The Woman Next Door
1980- The Last Metro
1980- The Last Metro
1979- Love on the Run
1978- The Green Room
1977- The Man Who Loved Women
1976- Small Change
1975- The Story of Adele H
1973- Day for Night
1972- Une belle fille comme moi
1971- Two English Girls
1970- Bed & Board
1970- The Wild Child
1969- Mississippi Mermaid
1968- Stolen Kisses
1968- The Bride Wore Black
1966- Fahrenheit 451
1964- The Soft Skin
1962- Love at Twenty (segment "Antoine et Colette")
1962- Jules and Jim
1962- Antoine and Colette (short)
1961- A Story of Water (short) (co-director)
1960- The Army Game (co-director)
1960- Shoot the Piano Player
1959- The 400 Blows
1957- Les Mistons (short)
1955- Une visite (short)
Characteristic
French new wave cinema has very strong characteristic. The most obvious innovation characteristics of French New Wave cinema is these young director work on location rather than work in a studio. Though they were deeply influenced by classic Hollywood during that time, but they rebelled against the traditional cinema to shoot for the new realism to cinema. For example, they opposed the previous studio production methods and turned to natural shooting style of presentation by find real locations to form a general clause in downtown Paris.
French new wave cinema has very strong characteristic. The most obvious innovation characteristics of French New Wave cinema is these young director work on location rather than work in a studio. Though they were deeply influenced by classic Hollywood during that time, but they rebelled against the traditional cinema to shoot for the new realism to cinema. For example, they opposed the previous studio production methods and turned to natural shooting style of presentation by find real locations to form a general clause in downtown Paris.
French New Wave directors usually shoot their films with an extremely low budget. Based on the budgetary restriction problem, they had limited equipment available to them and they also had not enough money to employ professional actors and actress. They started to come out a principle of even without employed any professional actors and actress the quality also will not lose to other films. So, they bravely use social actors to bring out a new realism to cinema.
Since the directors had limited equipment available to them, they shot quickly and often shot with hand-held cameras. It is because by using hand-held camera, they could easily move the camera around. Moreover, they often had only one camera available for use, which led to long tracking shots and fluid panning. Many French New Wave films are use long extended shots, which these types of cameras facilitated. The purpose of using tracking shot and panning shot is to follow the character movement to show the audience what director wants audience to see.
Long takes were very common in French New Wave cinema. It uses to play audience’s expectation by giving the audience the impression that anything might happen next with unpredictable elements and sudden shifts in tone. For instance, the character is lack of goal protagonist so he roaming around, suddenly involved in an incident and spent a lot of time talking, drinking coffee or watching movies. The most important featured is it always had opening ending and not tidily wrapped up at the climax in French New Wave cinema. In other words, the narrative structure is unpolished and loosely structured because they were using non-linear narrative. They often use flashback and rapid framing from one shot to another shot.
In cinematography and editing, one of the notable techniques in French New Wave is jump cut to creating an effect of discontinuity. At that time, jump cuts were very jarring to audiences. Jump cuts were used to a smooth flow of images onscreen. For example, if a single long shot wasn’t usable and couldn’t be reshot due to budget issues, the director might turn it into a series of jump cut.
Moreover, the characters were often eccentric or odd, and usually included a focus on young man dealing with personal chaos. The actors were encouraged to improvise their lines, or talk over each other’s lines as would happen in real life and even make changes in the plot. This improvisation film making style is to achieve a natural sense.
French New Wave cinema did not use studios for shooting. To make the film as realistic as possible, the directors were more dedicated in shooting live with natural lightings and sounds. In French New Wave cinema, the lighting is sharp contrast between black and white to replace the studio lighting with the available light and supplemental sources as much as possible. The techniques of sound used in French New Wave cinema, the film makers extensively use of natural sound environment in order to increase the realism of the film. Sometimes, the dialogues of the characters are submerged in the sound.
Last but not least, the authorship theory was used by the directors of French New Wave in the 1960s as justification for their film as an expression of personality as much as a plot. A French New Wave film maker is an author of his film based on his own experience in their films. However, some of the films’ character is not based on director’s experience, but it may have the similarity or director’s shadow in it. Basically, the character is reflecting the director’s personal interest and his point of view on the society.
Influence & Impact OnContemporary Films Or Other Media
The French New Wave was influenced by the classical Hollywood cinema and Italian Neorealism. The well known French New Wave film makers are Francois Truffaut, Jean Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, and Louis Malle. They are film critics before they start to shoot their own film. They are upset with the unreal Hollywood films at that time which overflow with uninspired happy go lucky content. Therefore, these young filmmakers start to take revolution to shoot the films that are real and inspire.
French New Wave was popular between the years 1958 and 1964. It carries great impact to the modern cinema. French New Wave has been the reference by many modern filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Altman and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The characteristic of French New Wave was then adapted by the young American filmmakers and create the film movement called the New Hollywood.
Quentin Tarantino was the big fan of French New Wave among the modern filmmakers. Quentin Tarantino has dedicated his first film ‘Reservoir Dog’ to Jean-Luc Godard. He named his production company as A Band Apart that he plays the words of Godard film Bande a part. The dance sequence in the film Pulp Fiction where happens at Jack Rabbit Slim's was intended as a reference to Travolta's star-making performance as Tony Manero in the epochal Saturday Night Fever (1977). However, Tarantino who is the director of Pulp Fiction credits a scene in the Jean-Luc Godard film Bande à part (1964) with the inspiration.
Besides, one of the characteristics of French New Wave is the conversations between the characters are long and they love to inject humour in the conversation. For example, in the film 400 blows, the stepfather of the main character always joked around in the present of the son. While in the film Pulp fiction, both of the robbers were having a long and humorous conversation about the burgers they love.
Meanwhile, the film technique of French New Wave has influence the modern filmmakers to create the scene that similar with. In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that directed by Michel Gondry has borrowed the filming techniques and scene from Godard’s masterpiece, A bout de soufflé (1960). The kissing scene of two main actors Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in A bout de soufflé has adapted in the kissing scene of two main actors Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey as well.
One of the characteristics of French New Wave is that in their film they portrayed real life issue. This characteristic is seen in the film 'Taxi Driver' directed by Martin Scorsese that struggles to live in the society after being a war veteran. He found difficulties in communicating with other people and always in depression.
The following American New Wave's films are influenced by French New Wave. One of the characteristics of French New Wave is to reject the traditional narrative of a typical film (we can guess the ending of the film,the narration are almost the same in every commercialized films, only good guys are the main character and etc). This characteristic is shocking when audience found out that the narrative of the whole film is out of the their expectation. The example of films can be seen throughout the films listed here:
1. Director: Arthur Penn.
Film: Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
The second characteristic in FNW is they portrayed realism in their film as what is seen influenced in this film such as presenting sex and violence in the film. This film is the first New Hollywood film that include the cinematic taboos in the film
The third characteristic of FNW is their ambiguous ending which ironically Bonnie and Clyde were shot dead violently at the end of the film after helping a driver to change his flat tires.
2. Director: Stanley Kubrick
Film: A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The fourth characteristics which is the the anti-hero narrative that takes place in this film is the main actor Alex that is interested in classical music and ultra-violence. Throughout the film audience will get to watch him involving in serious crime.
3. Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Film: The Godfather (1972)
Another characteristic of FNW is they shoot on location and not in studio. The examples where you can see from Godfather are the scene in which Don Barzini is assassinated was filmed on the steps of the State Supreme Court building on Foley Square in Manhattan, New York City, The wedding scene at the Corleone family compound was shot at 110 Longfellow Avenue in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island,two churches were used to film the baptism scene. The interior shots were filmed at Old St. Patrick's in New York. the exterior scenes following the
baptism were filmed at The Church of St. Joachim and St. Anne in the Pleasant
Plains section of
Staten Island,the funeral scene was filmed at Calvary
Cemetry in Woodside,
Queens and etc...
The
influences of French New wave to Dogme 95
The founder of Dogme 95 Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg came out with the Vow of Chastity which influenced by French New Wave in the following:
1.On set location shooting.
2. Recording sound have to be original and on the set.
3. Only handheld camera for shooting.
4. Only colour editing. French New Wave films were in colours after it had overcome it financial crisis.
5.No optical works or filters.
6. No murders or weapons.
7.Here and Now. Everything have to be shot today but it's exceptional.
8.No genre films.
9.Only Academy 35mm.
The 400 Blows’ Synopsis
Antoine Doinel always got into misunderstanding at home by his parents and his insensitive teacher always picks on him resulting he hates school more than ever. He started to be rebellious by skipping classes, stealing parent’s money, stealing his dad’s company typewriter hiding his dad’s Michelin’s manual and run away from home. He can’t stand the pressure that everyone is accusing him of lying. The boy finally quits school after being accused of plagiarism by his teacher. He steals a typewriter from his father to finance his plans to leave home. The father is frustrated for all problems he is causing turns Antoine over to the police and was sent to the delinquency center. A psychiatrist at a delinquency center probes Antoine's unhappiness, which he reveals in a fragmented series of monologues.
Analysis
The authorship theory that is seen throughout his
film is the authorship sociology of production. He has been using the same cast Jean-Pierre Leaud for his films in The
400 blows, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board and Love on the run as the same
character Antoine Doinel in the four films. Another cast which he has been
using is Claude Jade which acted as Christine
Darbon in the Antoine Doinel’s series. The films are developed based on the director’s, François Truffaut experience working with the casts and their understanding
towards his style and some resemblances of him in the film by Antoine’s
character.
“The
artist cannot always dominate his work. He is sometimes its God, other times
its creature. One knows the modern play whose main character, in peak form when
the curtain rises, finds himself fully amputated as the play ends, as a
successive loss of each of his limbs has marked the changing of acts.” (Truffaut,1954)
Making a film should
be based more on psychological realism rather than the work of literary masters.
In his films he is associating his problems and the reality the society is
facing rather than directing a film for audience’s escapism as what we can see from this movie the 400 blows about his rebellious self because of the act of adults.
The
French New Wave is influenced by Film Noir and so we can see the influence of
femme fatale in French New Wave’s movies. In the 400 blows the femme
fatale is the mother. She is a decisive wife and mother and she always stand to
her point. When she was asked by her son for pocket money she did not
give any to him but asked her husband to give to him and he did (refer to video clip 1). Another example is
when her husband asked her where they should drive in the weekends she rejected
by saying she is going to her friends place. She did not change her mind at
all (refer to video clip 2). Although she is
remarried she did not feel satisfy with her husband and have another affair.
She is selfish to think for her own good only. She even sometimes feels ashamed
of having a child and does not afraid that his child saw her having an affair (refer to clip 3).
"The object of these notes is limited to an examination of a certain form of cinema, from
the point of view of the scenarios and scenarists only. But it is appropriate, I think, to make it
clear that the metteurs-en-scene are and wish to be responsible for the scenarios and
dialogues they illustrate." (Truffaut,1954)
His stand is clearly seen in his films including this film as well. The following elaboration and example is what he meant by the aesthetics of the mise-en-scene and dialogues.
(video clip 1)
(video clip 2)
(video clip 3)
"The object of these notes is limited to an examination of a certain form of cinema, from
the point of view of the scenarios and scenarists only. But it is appropriate, I think, to make it
clear that the metteurs-en-scene are and wish to be responsible for the scenarios and
dialogues they illustrate." (Truffaut,1954)
His stand is clearly seen in his films including this film as well. The following elaboration and example is what he meant by the aesthetics of the mise-en-scene and dialogues.
The
long tracking shot of Eiffel tower in the beginning is minuscule from the
beginning and the shot is tracking in the tower and as the tower is closing up
it begin to stray away from the tower and the tower is minimizing again. Eiffel
Tower is the main attraction of Paris which in this case it is representing the
main character, Antoine. The shots were made for us to feel that we are
starting to understand the main character but as we are getting nearer to him
we were again parting away from him. There will be uncertainties in the
film as the opening of the film hinted that long take is a sign of
uncertainties. As the shot approaching the Eiffel tower the music gets very suspenseful and slowly fading away as it is moving away from the tower (refer to video clip 4).
(video clip 4)
Most of the scenes are handheld as it offers more flexibility and light in weight. This can be seen in the scene where Antoine is riding in the carnival centrifudge and the point of view is shot by handhelding the camera (refer to video clip 5). During the few minutes ride in the centrifudge he is in dizziness but at the same time he is feeling hyper. The distortion that he is experiencing in the ride seems to be giving him a few minutes of escapism in his life. Throughout the movie panning and tracking shots are often used as this is one of French New Wave characteristics. The shots are used either to follow the character or to show the relations of the characters. For example after Antoine’s classmate stop by at his house looking for Antoine’s he continue his way to school where the panning shot was seen panning from the direction of Antoine to him across the street showing that Antoine is in deep trouble after the classmate visited his house and his father know about his truant (refer to video clip 6).
(video clip 5)
(video clip 6)
When Antoine ran away from the rehabilitation centre the camera is tracking him from side view and as the audience we were following his pace of running hoping that he can escape from the centre but still audience still guessing where he is running to until he reaches one point where the camera angle changes and the camera pans showing the sea finally dropping the hints to the audience (refer to video clip 7). The camera pans until it spotted Antoine again and tracking him again. The panning of the camera with the first person view angle was intentional for audience to see the beauty of onset shooting location until you had forgotten that you are actually following Antoine but then after the audience saw Antoine the camera tracks him again (refer to video clip 8).
(video clip 7)
(video clip 8)
Discontinuous editing and unconventional continuity is also seen in this film movement. This is a way to show the time interval in the same scene is shortened. At the opening of the film, the camera move in one direction to the Eiffel tower and after several seconds it changes the camera position and it shows obvious jump cuts (refer to images 1-4). From movie critics to filmmakers their budget is quite limited. In this movie instead of using cranes and cables to achieve a bird eye view and high angle they shoot from tall buildings to achieve the angle they wanted. For example there is one scene where the teacher brings Antoine and his classmates for a jog in town and slowly the students are running away the angle is changed to high angle and bird eyed view to show the group is getting smaller (refer to video clip 9). The setting of the location is all real locations as influenced by Italian Neo realism. The whole film is shot on location but not in studio. Examples are Antoine’ house, classroom, Paris’s streets, and rehabilitation center and the beach (refer to images 5-10).
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| Image 3 |
(video 9)
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| Image 5 |
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| Image 8 |
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The suspenseful music which is heard at the opening of the film tracking the Eiffel tower is also heard again at the end of the film where it follows the footsteps of Antoine is the uncertainties that is now faced by Antoine. Another characteristics of FNW is that the directors will make the film as realistic as possible which the sound is recorded live on location such as the sound of the baby crying (9.03-9.13) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z45LZhHVDYo&feature=relmfu. In FNW’s film as well you will hear a sudden short line of news reporting. The line of news reporting is edited into the film to tell you the current issue which is happening in France at that time. The example you can get from 'The 400 blows' is when Antoine is getting rid of the garbage in the kitchen the news was reporting on a candidate keen to become the next Vice President of France. (8.36-8.54) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z45LZhHVDYo&feature=relmfu
French New Wave is an improvised film making as they do not have any dialogue and script while shooting, the dialogue in the film seems impromptu and unorganized. They seems to say something random too.The casts are given freedom in delivering the dialogues. This can be found in film while Antoine was talking to the psychologist in the rehabilitation centre (refer to video 12).
(video clip 12)
Another significant of French New Wave is the
ambiguous ending. The ending in the 400 blows ended with the freeze frame of
Antoine’s face (refer to video clip 13). The scene carries a meaning as he is running away from the
confinement that everyone is forcing him to behave and through his eyes he is
yearning for freedom and whatever happens to his freedom is up to our
interpretation .
(video clip 13)
Reference:
Bill, N. (1976). A Certain Tendency of The French Cinema Francois Truffaut. [Online]. Available from: <http://soma.sbcc.edu/users/DaVega/FILMST_113/Filmst113_ExFilm_Movements/FrenchNewWave/A_certain_tendency_tr%23540A3.pdf> [Accessed on 4th April 2012]
(video clip 13)
Reference:
Allysahataway. 6th May
2011. Notes On Short Film. [Online]. Available from:
< http://
Bill, N. (1976). A Certain Tendency of The French Cinema Francois Truffaut. [Online]. Available from: <http://soma.sbcc.edu/users/DaVega/FILMST_113/Filmst113_ExFilm_Movements/FrenchNewWave/A_certain_tendency_tr%23540A3.pdf> [Accessed on 4th April 2012]
Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson. FILM ART: An Introduction. 8th ed. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 2008. Print. Pages 449
Lindsey, W. (n.d). French New Wave Film Techniques. Retrieved March 7, 2012,
from http://filmdirectors.co/french-new-wave-film-techniques/
Michelle, S. (2008). Film History – French New Wave Cinema. Retrieved March 5, 2012,
from http://michelle-strozykowski.suite101.com/film-history-french-new-wave-a47431
Phillips, C. (n.d.). French New Wave. Retrieved March 7, 2012,
from http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/fnwave1.jsp
Richard, N. (2009). A History of the French New Wave Cinema. Retrieved March 5,
2012, from http://uwpress.wisc.edu/Presskits/Neupertpresskit.html
Simon, H. (2008). The Nouvelle Vague: where to start. Retrieved March 6, 2012, from
http://www.newwavefilm.com/new-wave-cinema-guide/nouvelle-vague-where-to-start.shtml
Stephen, N. (n.d.). The French new wave. Retrieved March 5, 2012, from
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Stephen_Nottingham/cintxt2.html
