The French New Wave (1959-1964)

This is the latest of the lessons that sir discussed to us.

It was not only in France but in the 1950's and in the 1960's young generation of directors began to rise around the world. 

Cahier du cinema

A group of young men in the 1950's, wrote in Paris film journal, Cahiers du cinema (which means notebook of cinema in English) and they criticized the highly acclaimed French directors at that time but they also praised some old style directors and eccentric directors. The writers of Cahiers du cinema were the following: Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette.

Jean Luc-Godard

The writers also expressed their admiration to some American directors and coined them "auteurs" which literally means authors. According to the book, auteur usually did not literally write scripts but managed nonetheless to stamp his or her personality, on studio products, transcending the constraints of Hollywood's standardized system. 

They were not contended in criticizing the directors so they decided to make their own films. They made 32 films in the span of only seven years and they were called la nouvelle vague - the New Wave. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FRENCH NEW WAVE

- casual look

- shooting on location

- panning and tracking became the trend (camera moves)

- casual humor

- causal connection became quite loose

- lack goal oriented protagonist

- introduce startling shifts in tone, jolting our expectations

- discontinuous editing

- New wave film typically ends ambiguously

Though in 1957, the film industry in France fell, the french industry still supported the French New Wave because it only requires small budget. The directors helped each other to make more films.

In 1964, the historians believed that the French New Wave ended due to the New Wave directors began to have their own production company and form and style slowly dissolved. 

This is a trailer of 400 blows, a film by Truffaut.

- KC