Surprisingly that the New Wave was actually not began with films, but articles and magazine survey until this ideology turned to be a slogan " The New Wave Arrives! ", that gave a hit to the new youthful generation in French, especially a group of young directors. But, what is French New Wave? What is it about? How French New Wave began its glorious time? French
New Wave is a film movement that shows more like a corresponded title, or a
comprehensive list of the director. This film movement was first and mainly
influenced by a phenomenon in 1950s, resulting from economic, politic,
aesthetic, and social trend. In the other domain, literature and theatre make
changes or transform in French cinema even the main role and field of art
criticism shifted during that time as well and also forced by the growth of the
film criticism that emphasizes Mise-en-scene than thematic and created a new
idea in film making. After the Second World War, France’s population was
dropped until 39 million people, many young men were killed in the First World
War and the second, yet the war also decreases the number of new born in
France.
The population was increased later during 1945 to 1960 when the immigration
takes place that causes “le boom.”According to Maurice Larkin: “the dramatic of
the population increased was not simply a result of predictable, immediate rise
in births among traditional young French families, from new marriages or from
the reunion of young couples separated by the war”, Larkin argued the birth
control at 1950s was too minimal. A large group of people immigrate to France
and started to work which then boost up the economic status in France. Due to
the economic crisis in France, those young directors who want to produce a film
have to come out in many ways such as producing a budget film. They reject the
traditional ways of making a movie like the Americans that strongly emphasized
on the plots and dialogs but preferring visual aesthetics and
mise-en-scene. French New Wave films reveal the postwar environment
rather than the well set backgrounds; it also brings out the evolution on the
social norm in France where women are stronger and more independent than
before. After the World Wars, films that were banned and edited before the wars
were played prominently in France theatre and Cine-Club. Between
1946 and 1955, young cinephiles such as Eric Rohmer, Francois Truffaut and
Jean-Luc Godard had involved themselves into film. Cine-Club and
journals were popping up and spreading all over Paris, while at the same time, nationalistic movement was set in motion, that was then become the Algerian War in November 1954.
On the other hand, according to Craig Phillips, French New Wave or Nouvelle
Vague is considered as artistic film movements whose influence on movie has
been as profound and enduring as that of surrealism or cubism on painting. The term of ‘New Wave’ is
not invented by the group of director as mentioned above. However, there was a journalist
who known as Francoise Giroud in the late of 1957, had wrote a multiple series
of articles on French youth for the weekly news magazine L’ExpressTo date, we can still see
most filming techniques that introduced by the French New Wave is still in
practice. It seems to be one of the most significant film movements in the film
history..
Cahiers
du Cinéma is
a film journal in which content is about theories and criticisms Cahiers du
Cinéma was founded by Andre Bazin and Jacques Donial Valcroze
and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca in year 1951 before the French New Wave
started. The film directors who associated with French New Wave include
François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette. From Bordwell,
D., Thompson, K. (2010). Film art and film history: The French New Wave. Film
Art: An Introduction (9th ed.), it stated that writing the criticism did
not satisfy these young filmmakers, they decided to make their own movies in a
low budget by borrowing money from friends as well as shooting on location. In
brief, the group of young filmmaker has found their own way to express their
creative thinking and ideas in the movie by using several new techniques like
shot composition, editing style as well as long takes.The young filmmakers started to make their own movie. For an instance,
Jean Luc Godard has produced his film, À bout de
soufflé (Breathless), together with François Truffaut’s The
400 Blows and Alain Resnais’s Hiroshima as well as Mon Amour. What make
distinction to their film compared to tradition French Cinema is the way that
they portray the protagonists’ character is completely different with the
classic one. The films using jump cut instead of classic convention in filmmaking.
In the long run, their art works create a great success to French New Wave
cinema.
In
year 1958, with the constitution of the Fifth Republic, subsidies were brought
by the Gaullist government to support homegrown culture. It resulted in more
money and benefits for first time filmmakers. It encouraged distributors to
lend its support to new directors. At the same time, the French New Wave
directors took advantages of the new technology that was available to them
which enables them to work on location rather than studio. The filming
equipment that they used was manufactured by the Éclair Company for sake of
making documentaries. This new equipment offered lightweight cameras, speeding
film stock that required less light and portable sound equipment. It was
adopted by the new French filmmakers who developed small crews and would shoot
on the streets with the previous lighting in realistic situations. With this portable and flexible equipment, it encouraged the filmmaker experiment the new way of telling story through filming. It also provided more artistic freedom for the filmmaker. This indirectly increase
the numbers of French New Wave directors alarmingly.
In
the year of 1966-1968, by the time of this second New Wave, the contemporary
discourses of the earlier New Wave had generally become more politicized and
there was no positive reflection of the dominant ideology. This cinema was
change to much about the process of filmmaking. First New Wave and second New
Wave are putting in counter-cinema to the standardization effects of American
technology such as hand-held camera, no studio and so forth. The first New Wave
was not politicized but it was anti-bourgeois in emotion as well as it was
encouraged to present the point of view of the individual in society. Second
new wave was occurred in the late of late of 1960s, whereby the cinema had
become politicized and questioning society. By the 1970s and 1980s, women,
Blacks and Beurs were entering into filmmaking.
For this part,we have studied 3 French New Wave Films:
The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959)
Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard,1960)
A Woman Is A Woman (Jean-Luc Godard,1961).
The Characteristics
Handheld
In French New Wave films, the directors do not set
their cameras on the tripod frequently as it will decrease the flexibility of
the shooting process. The directors can also shoot
the film whenever and wherever they want if they were holding the camera and
walk around. Besides that, it was also meant to make the film looks like
newsreel as the outcome of the film would be shaky. It is also easier to take
the long take for the film, as in Breathless
(Jean-Luc Godard,1960), in the room where Patricia and Michel were talking,
a handheld camera is more convenient to track the characters’ movement since
the room is very small which then narrows the camera’s movement (2.1-2.2). Rather than
using a tripod, Godard used a wheelchair to shoot some tracking scenes in the
film (2.3). Like one of the scenes in Breathless(Jean-Luc
Godard, 1960), when Michel was in the travel
agency, there was a low angle long take on Michel when he was moving around.
2.1
2.2
2.3
Respond
to the camera
There is a reason where sometimes, the characters of a film smile or even talk
to the camera. That is to remind the audiences that, “you are watching a film.”
Michel talks to the camera when he was driving in Breathless (Jean-Luc
Godard, 1960) (2.4). While in A Woman is a
Woman (Jean-Luc Godard, 1961), it has
more scenes that shows the characters in the film responding to the camera. For
examples, Angela winked at the camera (2.5); Alfred turns to the
camera and smiled after he finished
talking (2.6).And
there is also one scene that he
talked to the camera, saying “There she
goes” (2.7), as if he was interacting with the audience when
Angela enters Cabaret Dancing Strip Club.
This movement breaks the rule of 4th
wall where there is supposed to have an
imaginary wall that lies in front of the camera
in traditional films. In French New Wave, this rule was
broken as the characters respond to the camera directly. It is interesting and considered as something new
during that time, so it happens to draw attention from the audience.
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
Improvised
plots & Dialogues
A French New Wave film disobeys the rule of an
old-style Hollywood film. The directors does not shoot the film with a fixed
narrative but telling a story in a spontaneous way where the dialogues have to
be as realistic as possible. The directors often write the scripts for the film
on the day they planned to shoot. This random move sometimes caused the
characters forgetting their lines and they might started to have some random
conversations that might not related to the story but yet delivers a feeling of
realistic daily lives conversation. In Breathless
(Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), in a scene after Patricia has called the police
and returned to the studio where Michel was waiting for his friend, they talked
randomly and did not give a direct respond to each other. (Figs. 2.8)
2.8
Available
light and sound
The French New Wave films were shot on location
with existing light and sound. The directors reject shooting in the studio with
extra lighting because they think that this will make the film feels fake as
they wanted the film to be realistic. In The
400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959), in the scene where Doinel has escaped
from the observation centre, running on the roadside, existing sounds like
birds chirping and sound of footsteps were recorded. The directors do not use
extra lighting during the shooting, when it comes to a night scene, the scene
will looks as dark as it was. In
A Woman
Is a Woman (Jean-Luc
Godard, 1961), when Angela has
a fight with her boyfriend in their apartment, the only existing light is the
standing lamp (2.9), once they switch off the light the apartment gone into the dark.
YouTube: The 400 Blows (final scene)
2.9
Low
budget
The film was produced in a very low budget. The
characters’ house often shot in a small room or an apartment, narrowing down
the movement of the camera. In The 400
Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959),
Antoine Doinel lives in a small cramped apartment with his family and
he doesn't have a room or even a proper bed,
so he sleeps in the kitchen, on a shabby sleeping bag (2.10). Yet, the production
might be done only with a camera with a very small crew. Sometimes, the
director might just shoot the film on his own with a camera, together with the
characters.
In 1957, because of television
became more widespread, cinema business fell off drastically, causing the
industry in crisis. To encourage and support the independent and low-budget
projects, directors shot their films more quickly and cheaply. Besides that,
those French New Wave young directors also helped each other by promoting or
mentioning each other’s filmnames in their own films, to reduce the fund in publicity and financial
risk. For example, in the film of A Woman
Is a Woman which directed by Godard in 1961, there was a few scenes where the characters mentioned about Jules and Jim, (Francois Truffaut,
1962), Breathless, (Jean-Luc Godard,
1960) and shoot the piano player, (Francois
Truffaut, 1960). (Figs. 2.11-2.14).
2.10
2.11
2.12
2.13
2.14
Jumpcuts
+ long takes
The directors use a lot of jumpcuts to break the
continuity of the film. In Breathless (Jean-Luc
Godard, 1960), after Michel took out a gun from the car, the shot was cut which
only shows he holds a gun at the beginning and next, the police went down. The reason
of using jumpcuts is to create the discontinuity which draws an attention from
the audiences, the
audiences might feel surprise as the continuity is broken and then they will
start to wonder about the process that has been cut. This also reminds
the audiences
that they are watching a film
at the same time. The film was shot in long takes as well
where the scene was done in one shot. This tends to reduce the time they have
to waste in shooting repeatedly.
Strong
Women
In French New Wave film, we know it is a
movement that goes against the traditional ways, where in traditional ways; women are not given neither strong
roles nor freedom. While in
French New Wave films,
women are strong, ambitious and independent icon. Patricia in Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)is an
independent female, she
is an American, immigrates from a foreign country to France,
works hard as a journalist and she doesn't want to rely on men. Meanwhile in The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut,1959), Antoine’s mother is also a strong and independent working
lady, which can be known from the dialogue between Julian and Antoine when
Julian said she will be home late because her boss needs her for the year-end
inventory.
The
Hero
The heroesin a French New Wave film
are mostly young anti-heroes without family ties and that acts spontaneously
and immorally. They were often
seen as anti-authoritarian individuals, a rebellion in the society. InBreathless,
(Jean-Luc Godard, 1959), Michel steals, womanizes
and even killed a police.
Although he did so many bad things but he doesn't care at all. Same
goes to young Antoine who lies and steals in The 400 Blows (Francois
Truffaut, 1959). As for Alfred in a Woman Is a Woman (Jean-Luc
Godard, 1961), he refused to pay after his visit at The
Bikini Hotel and he also try to fool the bartender when he realize he didn’t
have enough money to pay.
Concerns
on Politics
In French New Wave films, audience might notice
the concern of film makers towards politics, especially the policy in Algeria
or Indo-China. Film makers show their support on Algeria by
adding scenes about the issue into their films. In the film Breathless(Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), there is a scene where Michel and Patricia in the room minding their
own business, the radio is broadcasting news about Algeria (2.15). And in A Woman Is A Woman (Jean-Luc Godard, 1961), there are two policemen came to Angela and Emile’s place to have a
look because there was a bomb attack nearby, which is believed it was did by
the terrorists that linked to the war in Algeria in 1950s. (Figr. 2.16)
