This year marks the 50th anniversary of the start of La Nouvelle Vague, the French New Wave which transformed and dominated European cinema in the late 1950′s and 1960′s. Although the majority of French films from this decade are blanketed with the term Nouvelle Vague, the movement encompassed many different styles and approaches to cinema from a wide variety of directors. The New Wave filmmakers were all united by their desire to alter the horizons of cinema, rejecting the formalist traditions of the classical style, although they never formally recognised themselves as being part of one conscious group, more a body of young filmmakers sharing the same iconoclastic mindset. However, despite their wish to rewrite the cinematic rulebook, many of the directors had a great appreciation for classical cinema. In fact, the movement’s origins began with the magazine Cahiers du Cinema, which saw critics and future pioneering directors Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Jacques Rivette create anew the doctrine of film theory and criticism. Under the guidance of Cahiers founder Andre Bazin, the critics were instrumental in re-evaluating the importance of classical films both in France (from Renoir, Vigo and Cocteau) and in Hollywood. The Cahiers writers felt that the artistic achievements of certain Hollywood directors were undervalued, as they had always been associated with the restrictive American studio production line. Through these writings, the manifesto for ‘Les Politiques des Auteurs’ emerged, where the critics argued that the stylistic approaches and use of mise-en-scene gave some films greater merit beyond their generic narratives. These theories greatly enhanced the critical value of Hollywood director’s oeuvres, notably Nicholas Ray, John Ford, Orson Welles, Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock. Francois Truffaut even conducted lengthy interviews with Hitchcock for a book published in 1967. The Cahiers critics were really the first to celebrate the American films of the 1940′s and 1950′s that are now regarded as classics.
To
represent the varied approaches within the Nouvelle Vague, I’ve chosen
to briefly discuss four of my favourite films from the movement, all of
which represent very different interpretations of the wave’s intentions
from four key directors. The 400 Blows (1959) is
generally considered the first film of the wave. Directed by Francois
Truffaut, it tells the story of troubled teenager Antoine Doinel, as he
struggles at home and at school, finally being sent to a detention camp
after being misunderstood by his parents and the authorities as an
incorrigible trouble maker. The film gives a bleak, realistic
presentation of events, an influence from Robert Bresson and also the
Italian neo-realist style, but combines it with playful cinematic
techniques including jump cuts and freeze frames. In the final sequence,
the camera tracks Antoine running along the beach 