A Look at the French New Wave: The Cinema of Individual Style

Among these filmmakers was Francois Truffaut who was associated with a group of filmmakers connected to the magazine 'Cahiers du cinema'. Also connected to the magazine was Jean Luc Godard, they among others rejected the classical style of French cinema 'le cinema du papa' and wanted to explore a more experimental 'auteur' based concept to their works.

The French New Wave during this period had distinctive characteristics that set the movement aside from other movements at the time. Its young directors felt compelled to experiment with cinematic style. They rejected the 'tradition of quality' (le cinema du papa) which up until this period they had felt made French cinema too formulaic and ultimately un-adventurous.

The young directors felt free to experiment and draw attention to their own cinematic styles. The directors often chose to shoot on location, using natural lighting and often using hand held cameras which added to the experimental feel of the films. Key themes explored in the French New Wave include breaking the distinguishing boundaries of realism, and with its young directors display a sense of modernism. The other key theme explored in the movement was this idea of romance, exploring the relationships between men and women.

Truffaut argues against the dominant forms of cinema in France in the 1950s. He holds up for characteristic distain films of the 'tradition de la qualitie', a tradition of filmmaking which marked French film production in the immediate post-war years. The 'tradition de la qualitie' depended on adaptations of prestigious, 'quality' literary works.

Francois Truffaut argued against the dominant forms of cinema in France around this period. In an article written for the Cahiers du Cinema entitled 'Une certaine tendance du cinema Francais' he argues that directors are little more than literary adaptors, adapting works written in the past for stage and screen. Among those to be criticised in this article were Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost, who were responsible for writing scripts for adaptations of Gide's: La Symphonie Pastorale (1946), and Colette's: Le Ble en herbe (1953). Truffaut believed that 'the annexing of cinema as a form of literary illustration or enactment is a scandal'.

On the other hand of these classical works were Truffaut's ideas of a group of directors called 'homme de cinema' who display technical expertise in handling images over and above language. They will also exercise creative control over the script and narrative of the film. What I believe Truffaut was trying to do was create his own individuality upon a film thus creating 'auteur status', as with the other New Wave directors of the time, why rely on past works (i.e. novels) for artistic inspiration when there are filmic techniques that have not been explored?

Key Directors of the French New Wave

One of Truffaut's best films in my opinion, for the randomness of the opening sequence alone is the (1960) film Shoot the Pianist. Its varying theme from elements of Film Noir, to the romantic entanglements between Charlie Kohler (the male protagonist) and waitress Lena in the film, and the elements of random comedy mean the film is groundbreaking thematically alone.

Shoot The Pianist Film Clip

The opening shot of Shoot the Pianist, Truffaut's second film is a signifying moment of the French New Wave. A man runs through the deserted night street, over shoulder shots reveal he is being stalked by the headlights of a car, cutting strips of light trough the darkness. It has all the conventions of Film Noir, until what can only be described as a moment of slapstick comedy. The man looks over his shoulders for a glimpse of the Pursuing car. The running man charges and smashes in to a lamp post, turning a Film Noir style sequence in to a more comedic convention. A passer by then helps the distressed man to his feet and having never met before they begin to talk about the mundane aspects of marriage, after the Samaritan leaves the shot never to be seen in the film again, and the man who hits the lamp post despite his evocative introduction is not even destined to be the protagonist in the film.

When I had first seen this sequence I thought it was refreshing to see something that broke convention, and played with the idea of audience expectations. I loved the play on certain thematic devices, and the way in which the two characters in the opening sequence could converge so readily without having known each other. Truffaut died in 1984 after producing over 20 other films after his debut Les (400) coups in (1959). These films included Jules et Jim (1962), and La Nuit americaine (1973) among others.

Among other great works of this period were the works of Jean Luc Godard. Who struck me most with his (1959) effort Breathless 'A bout de soufflé'. Breathless is a film about a criminal / gangster Michel Poiccard who steals anything in order to get by in life and fulfil his live for the moment style of thinking. What strikes me about Michel's character in Breathless is his lust to possess. Upon arrival in Paris (where the film is location shot) he desires to meet up with an American girl who he intends to take to Rome. He wants to possess money, and women but ultimately fails and it is this sense of failed romanticism that the audience feel at the end as the police catch up to Michel for his indiscretions. A great signifier of this doomed romanticism is seen in the lovers hotel room sequence. Michel is laid in bed captured in close up with his traditional cigarette while Patricia Francini's character is also in the room. The shots that proceed are beautiful as the smoke from the cigarette engulfs the room and the two characters, creating essentially a death cloud of smoke engulfing the two characters, possibly an early signifier of the 'doomed to fail' relationship the two ultimately endure.

The shot of the picture of Romeo and Juliet is also interesting, and in my opinion signifies Goddard's romantic themes within the film and another indicator that the romance will not succeed. What the film does well according to Aldgate in his book 'European Cinemas' is to utilise jump cuts 'to break with linear, narrative traditions'. The shot of Humphrey Bogart in the film is interesting, a close up of the poster in the street is present, and I think is a tasteful way by Godard of celebrating the works of somebody he admired by placing him in the shot, again going with the idea that an auteur produces works with their own signature present and this is certainly a distinctive homage to Bogart.

Other prominent directors in the French New Wave included, Claude Chabrol, whose Le beau Serge (1958) is often cited as the first film of the movement, it enjoyed mixed commercial successes, but Chabrol himself went on to be one of the most prolific filmmakers of the French New Wave. Jaques Rivette was cited as one of the most experimental and un-commercial of the cahiers du cinema group directing Paris nous appartient (1959). Eric Rohmer of the same group was slightly later when he came to prominence as a commercial director, and was a decade later than the earliest new wave films. He made his debut in 1959 with The Sign of Leo, but he did not have a commercial success until La Collectioneuse (1967).

Breathless Trailer