FREE ESSAY ON FRENCH NEW WAVE

FRENCH NEW WAVE

The French New Wave was a movement that lasted between 1959 to 1964. It all started with
the Cinematheque Francois, an underground organization that would regularly show older
films from around the world. This beget the cine-club, and by the 1954 there were 100,000
members in 200 clubs. From these clubs several magazines were created, the most famous of
these were L'Ecran Francois, La Revue du Cinema, Postif, and the world known Cahiers du
Cinema.
One of the two most influential people during this time was Alexandre Astruc who declared
that, "the cinema is becoming a means of expression like the other arts before it,
especially painting and the novel. It is no longer a spectacle, a diversion equivalent to
the old boulevard theater...it is becoming, little by little, a visual language, i.e. a
medium in which and by which an artist can express his thoughts, be they abstract or
whatever, or in which he can communicate his obsessions as accurately as he can today in
essay or novel". What Astruc was saying , was that the cinema was now as personal as
paintings and literature, instead of just a show.
The second and most influential of the two was Andre Bazin, who like Astruc believed that
the cinema was equal to the novel. Bazin believed in the long take and the deep focus
over the Soviet Montage, "composition in depth is seen as egalitarian in the sense that
everything in the frame exists with equal clarity, thereby giving the spectator a choice:
our eyes are free to roam from foreground to background and around. It is closer to the
way we perceive in off screen life, and it reintroduces ambiguity into the structure of
the image." Bazin also championed the Italian Neorealism movement, for its revolutionary
humanism, and it's on location shooting, improvisational style, use of non actors, and
for it's long takes. 
In 1950's Andre Bazin founded Cahier du Cinema, a magazine that championed the director
as Film's true author. At Cahier du Cinema, Bazin further developed the theory of
director as author of his film, the Auteur. "Bazin charted the main areas of film studies
as we know them, effectively creating the discipline: authorship, which led Bazin's
disciples to develop the politique des auteurs." Cahier du Cinema "brought together the
leading French critics/film enthusiasts of the time- Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard,
Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette..." These critics began devouring older
movies, mostly silent films like, German Expressionism, Italian Neorealism, thirties
French films and most particularly American studio films that were banned during Nazi
occupation. "Here they learned to love directors like Howard Hawks and John Ford, the
American masters who were virtually ignored in this country until the French critics made
a case for their artistry." These critics also made the world aware of Genre. The
examples of genres are the Western films, Gangster films, Musicals, and Film Noir. But
the most important observation was the director as Auteur. "They championed the director
as the auteur, the creator of a personal vision of the world which progresses from film
to film." These critics began seeing style and same thematic consistencies in certain
film directors, and held them in the highest light.
One of the first scandals in this wave of thought was an article written by Francois
Truffaut in 1954, "A Certain Tendency in the French Cinema." In his essay he criticized
"the French postwar films that were adopted from novels and were heavily dependent upon
plot and dialogue." Truffaut also attacked Jean Delannoy and Rene Clement as they were
stopping the growth of film as art.
The final influence on the French New Wave came in 1958. 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 Souffle
(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.