The Documentary
filmmakers began using lighter and more mobile equipment, using smaller crews,
and began rejecting structure in their scripts. Cinema Verite was the name
applied, meaning Cinema truth. Then in 1959, France called for a “new wave” and
it got it. The same year, twenty-four French directors made their first feature
films, followed in 1960 by forty-three more features. All this was possible to
accomplish with the advent of the lightweight film equipment and handheld action
ruled the screen. The first of these French New Wave films was Jean-Luc Godard’s
A Bout de Soufflé (Breathless). Breathless tells the story of “a handsome young
criminal (Belmondo), who fancies himself to be a hip gangster, is on the run
from police because he stole a car and killed a motorcycle cop who was chasing
him for speeding. He finds refuge in the arms of a beautiful young American
newspaper salesgirl (Seberg), who steals his heart and eventually turns him into
the police.” The movie set the tone for the French New Wave by telling simple
story and made it into a convention challenging style with many references to
past movies. In addition to telling a simple love story, it can also be seen as
an essay about film making. The movie incorporated what were to become new wave
techniques, jump cuts, handheld cameras, poor lighting, and a sense of
improvisation. These techniques were reflecting their interest in breaking
Hollywood conventions, and at the same time paying homage to what was good in
Hollywood cinema. Soon after, Francois Truffaut released Les Quatre Cent Coups
(The 400 Blows), another landmark in the French New Wave. The film tells a story
of the troubled 14 year old boy and his misadventures in Paris, who deals with
his uncaring parents, and finally the law.
The 400 Blows bears all the marks of Truffaut as auteur, “his obsessions with childhood, education, and the
psychology of his characters”. Truffaut would visit this character in three more
of his movies and a short film. (Antoine et Colette, Stolen Kisses, Bed and
Board, Love on the Run.) The films of the French New Wave tended to have loosely
constructed scenarios, with many unpredictable elements and sudden shifts in
tone, often giving the audience the impression that anything might happen next.
They were also distinctive for having open endings, with situations being left
unresolved, suggesting the audience to use their imagination. The acting was
also a departure from what had gone before. The actors were encouraged to
improvise their lines, or talk over each other’s lines as would happen in real
life. The characters in French New Wave films are often young anti-heroes and
loners, who behave spontaneously, often act immorally and are frequently seen as
anti authoritarians. The five directors, Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, Rivette and
Rohmer made thirty-two films between 1959 and 1966. The films by these directors
represented a radical departure from traditional cinema, and were aimed towards
a young intellectual audience. Most of these directors achieved critical and
financial success, gaining audience both in France and abroad. The directors
diverged in style and developed their own distinct cinematic voices. Francois
Truffaut incorporated more traditional elements in his films, while Jean-Luc
Godard became increasingly political and radical in his film making during the
60s. After 1964, the experimental elements of the French New Wave were already
starting to influence and assimilate into mainstream cinema. The influence of
the French New Wave stretched across all of Europe. Poland, Sweden, Denmark,
Yugoslavia, the U.S. soon followed by creating film schools. To this day The
French New Wave still influences movie-makers who play up the antihero, and
experiment with and go against conventional movie making. Most of these films
are now part of the “independent scene”, a movement not unlike the French New
Wave.
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