The French new wave

During the 50’s and 60’s many film makers in many counties were starting to experiment with new style like the “angry young man” of  social realism in Britain cinema, in French, it was the new wave movement from French that became the most influential because of all involved coming from a background in film theory.

 The French new wave movement begin in 1958 to 1964 the directors that formed the main group of this movement were François Truffaut, jean luc godard, clande chabrol, Jacques rivette and Eric Rohmer others would later be associated with the new wave style later on.

 They were all before that film critic for the magazine called cahiers du cinema where they worked under the guidance of film theorist and the co-founder of the magazine, Andre Bazin. Their main ideas were to show an alternative to the films of Hollywood by rejecting the classic Hollywood linear narrative films along with the tradition French narrative cinema in favour of a mise en scene style. (placing in the scene)  as they believe that showing what was filmed instead relying too much on editing as it maniple what was being film using a free editing style and often drawing attention to itself to remained the people there watching a movie an example would be in breathless when jump cuts are used during long conversations.

Also that all films should carry the personal stamp of the director. Many of the French new wave films are firmly rooted in the idea the director much place their own personal mark on the film itself. And also portray the film as a film relying heavily on cuts and camera movements and close ups. They wanted to show that these were movies but at the same time being more realism then the montage films of Russian and the German propaganda movie of the 30’s and 40’s

 Deciding to put there theory’s to the test and direct their own films.

Taking  inspiration from the Italian Neo-Realism and classical Hollywood cinema, praising such film makers of Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford and Orson Welles (as they saw them as an example of director who managed to place their personal mark on their movies,) As inspirer by Italian Neo-realism, French New Wave films were shot quickly, on location and  improvised as much as they could because of this the French new wave films were often had loosely build scenarios as many unpredictable element and changes in both tone and background .the actor were encouraged to improvise and give the films a more natural feel by using  available natural light and background noises were preferred to studio lighting and sounds. French New Wave films are known for their use of long takes, jump cuts and shots that break the cinematic 180 degree rule. Irrelevant shots are usually added in for comical effect. At the time this style was ground-breaking and advances in filming technologies like lightweight handheld cameras and lighter sound and lighting equipment and a new faster film stock which required less light. The camera use is seemed well in the great use of tracking shots and over the shoulder shots to get a feel for the characters point of view and other kinds of spontaneous shooting.

French New Wave was a movement concerned with fashion and creating icons, using characters and actors who were stylish, young and interesting to a young audience. The characters in French new wave were mostly young anti-heroes or loners with no family ties and usually law breakers or just act defying moral principles like in breathless within the first scene the main protagonist robs a car and kills a policeman and show no remorse or regrets for his actions.

French cinema has made a name for itself for producing experimental films. Many of these films becoming box office hits both in French and abroad. Although by 1964 the experimentation element of French new wave were starting to become the norms in mainstream cinema.

Bibliography:

History of narrative cinema 4^th edition: David. A cook

Short cuts the French new wave, a new look: Naomi Greene

See class notes