The History & Development

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.

 1.1 Jean Luc Godard

1.2 François Truffaut