Characteristics Of French New Wave Films

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 4^th 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 film names 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 heroes in 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. In Breathless, (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)

2.15

2.16