...An artistic movement whose influence on film has been as profound and enduring as that of surrealism or cubism on painting, the French New Wave (or Le Nouvelle Vague) made its first splashes as a movement shot through with youthful exuberance and a brisk reinvigoration of the filmmaking process. Most agree that the French New Wave was at its peak between 1958 and 1964, but it continued to ripple on afterwards, with many of the tendencies and styles introduced by the movement still in practice today… French New Wave The New Wave (French: La Nouvelle Vague) was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of classical cinematic form and their spirit of youthful iconoclasm. "New Wave" is an example of European art cinema. Many also engaged in their work with the social and political upheavals of the era, making their radical experiments with editing, visual style and narrative part of a general break with the conservative paradigm. Using portable equipment and requiring little or no set up time, the New Wave way of filmmaking presented a documentary type style. The films exhibited direct sounds on film stock that required less light. Filming techniques included fragmented, discontinuous editing, and long takes. The combination of objective realism...
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...the New Wave can be found in Cleo From 5 To 7 by Agnes Varda. French New Wave was spearheaded by the people who wanted more realistic representation of lives in the films. The story took place in the 2 hours when Cleo, a pop singer, decides to retrieve some test result from the hospital. As Peter Graham pointed out, the whole film was shot in “real time” (Graham, 578).The camera follows her in the crowd on the busy streets, and the audience know exactly how she get from a place to another since they witness her taking a taxi, riding in a friend’s car and later a bus. Time and space were so precisely captured in the film that viewers can draw out Cleo’s route on a map of Paris. Traditional films, on the contrary, often skip both in time and space(Smith，757). Jump cuts were commonly used in New Wave films to give a sense of jumping forward in time. However, in this film, jump cuts were used to express an unstable status of mind and a splintering sense of self as Cleo flied down the stairs...
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...Film 101 Mansour Week 4 – The Foreign Film (400 Blows, 1959) French New Wave (1959-1964) BREAKDOWN FROM CH 10 READING Origins Early French Cinema of 1930’s A period of Poetic realism which meant treating everyday life with emotional sensitivity, showing us how the hardships or highs/lows are supposed to FEEL Jean-Paul Sartre, philosopher with existentialist philosophies: Artists should rebel against societal constraints Responsibility for their own actions Create their own world Alexander Astruc French film critic who said filmmaker needs to use all aspects of camera as a pen Compares it to a novelist and his novel French documentary filmmaking, called “cinema verite” of the 1960’s featuring: Portable camera equipment to make films mobile and flexible Rough, intimate look Informal framing, unsettled camera work British Free Cinema/Italian Neorealism Influence of surrounding film movements in Europe which used Advanced narrative structure Focus on real stories about real people New Wave Tenets Developed by Film theorist Andre Bazin Realism Realistic depiction of everyday life as opposed to exaggerated Hollywood style Mise-en-scene Meaning focusing the elements within the frame Characters, background, ANYTHING in the frame Authorship Director’s style – his vision/perspective Soon-to-be called “Auteur Thoery” New Wave Film Traits (moves away from traditional film making) Unsettled camera movement Unusual angles Addressing the camera Improvisational Rejecting traditional linear...
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...The 400 Blows directed by François Truffaut changed many cinematic rules and planted the seed for new ones that are still being used today. This semi-autobiographical film played a large role in the beginning of the French New Wave. The most famous and still well used shot that came out of The 400 Blows was not used until the very end of the picture – the freeze-frame. This stylistic device was not used often at that time and it stuck in audience’s minds. The film itself follows the everyday life of a boy named Antoine. It’s not a particularly interesting life, but has its moments. He lives with his parents in a tiny apartment dealing with their oddities. His hurtful mom seems to only care about herself and his father appears to be a total fool. At school he is unfulfilled and everyone can tell. He can’t get away with anything in his attempts to make life a little less dull. For the majority of the film Antoine just plods along form one silly event to the next with his pal René. They skip school, go to see movies, and smoke. None of this is exception to watch or overly memorable. What is exceptional and memorable is how you viewed all this. Antoine travels throughout Paris, walking and sometimes almost jogging or running as if someone was pursuing him. His movement didn’t matter to me at the time until the end of the film when this now familiar trot is highlighted in his escape from reform school on route to the ocean. Even more memorable is how it appears on film. The camera...
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...Cinematic Innovations in A Bout de Soufflé A bout de soufflé by Jean-Luc Godard (1960) is full of new attempts both in its form and contents as he made it with such intention: A Bout de Soufflé was the sort of film where anything goes: that was what it was all about. … What I wanted was to take a conventional story and remake, but differently, everything the cinema had done. Apparently, the film has novel, innovative features in almost every aspect of cinema including shooting, editing, narrative structure, and characters. It achieves such creativity by breaking stereotyped rules of film-making. Godard’s shooting style was innovative. It was rather that of documentary. He used location shooting, which means shooting in real geographical locations, like real, uncontrolled streets in the city, not in artificial studio sets built for filming. As A bout de soufflé was filmed in famous locations in Paris such as the Champs Elysées, uncountable number of ordinary people appear in the film. They look back at Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and Patricia Franchini (Jean Seberg) with curiosity in their faces, some even stare directly at the camera, or some cut in front of the camera. All these things blur the border between the reality and the diegesis, making the latter imperfect. So, the film not only shows real city countenance of contemporary Paris—streets crowded with busy people and roads occupied with an endless cycle of cars, but also remind the audience that they are...
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...Matthew Santarsiero Film 101 3/8/12 The 400 Blows by François Truffaut The movie 400 Blows, a film that was created over 50 years ago is as modern and extraordinary as any film presently released today. It was made during the French New Wave timeframe which was a completely different style compared to many other films during that period of time and honestly was similar to most of the “Hollywood” movies that I am used to in this country. This new wave of films fundamentally surrounded itself by creating a feel of real life and personality on the screen that would captivate its viewers, and the movie 400 Blows did everything and more than I expected. This movie exclusively left out a realizable plot, but there is one thing that it did not do. It kept the life that Francois Truffaut was telling as real and as close to authentic as he possibly could. It was shot in first person singular which allows the viewer to imagine exactly what is going on inside the head of the protagonist, in this case Antoine Doinel. We as viewers, are able to follow the childhood of young Antoine as he constantly gets into trouble and ultimately how he deals with living with an uncaring and very difficult family in Paris during his adolescent years. It’s very easy to become captivated with the dialogue and acting within this picture because at certain points you feel the characters emotions and daily struggles as if they were your own. During the time of watching this movie I immediately felt...
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...Furthermore, this story is told from the perspective of his single communicative eye resulting from the disorder. This film is the incredible narrative of the triumphs and disappointments of a man stuck inside himself, and his ability to make his mind an imaginary haven in which to can seek shelter. Though appalled by his condition, Bauby came to realize that he had been left with an incredible gift, illustrated by his means to escape the “diving bell” of his stricken body. This journey exposes Bauby to the ability to allow the “butterfly” of his memory and imagination to take flight. This film, directed by Julian Schnabel, though originally intended to be an English movie, was, in the last moments, resolved to be produced completely in French for the purpose of realism. Furthermore, as a directorial craft perspective, Schnabel exhibits an exceptionally canny control over the usage of point-of-view, at least for the first third of the film. The effect is claustrophobic, almost suffocating, like the diving bell of the title, which becomes the man's metaphorical image for his condition. The director returns to this again and again over the course of the film, which illustrated in a frightening image of a man donned in a heavy diving helmet, trapped underwater and...
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...Cinema of France From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia See also: French comedy films Cinema of France | Gaumont palace in Paris, c.1914 | Number ofscreens | 5,653 (2014)[1] | Main distributors | Twentieth Century Fox(14.6%) Warner Bros. (9.8%) UGC (6.9%)[1] | Produced feature films (2014)[1][2] | Total | 258 | Animated | 9 (3.49%) | Documentary | 37 (14.34%) | Number of admissions (2014)[1][2] | Total | 208.9768 million | National films | 91.26 million (44.4%) | Gross box office (2014)[1][2] | Total | €1.33 billion | National films | €563.01 million (43.1%) | Cinema of France refers to the film industry based in France. The French cinema comprises the art of film and creative movies made within the nation of France or by French filmmakers abroad. France is the birthplace of cinema and was responsible for many of its significant contributions to the art form and the film-making process itself.[3] Several important cinematic movements, including the Nouvelle Vague, began in the country. It is noted for having a particularly strong film industry, due in part to protections afforded by the French government.[3] Apart from its strong and innovative film tradition, France has also been a gathering spot for artists from across Europe and the world. For this reason, French cinema is sometimes intertwined with the cinema of foreign nations. Directors from nations such as Poland (Roman Polanski, Krzysztof Kieślowski, and Andrzej Żuławski), Argentina(Gaspar...
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...Through the use of “jump cuts,” abrupt transitions from one scene to another, Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" is one of the most influential films of la nouvelle vague, New Wave cinema, which rejected the "well-made traditional French cinema and embraced a rougher, more experimental personal style" (Ebert). “Breathless” is a film that dared to break away from the conventions of traditional cinema, which consisted of characteristics such as “invisible editing”, three-point lighting that enhances clarity and visibility of subjects, and the notion that the film “had to be inhabited by psychologically-consistent ‘characters’” (Connolly). These techniques were used to reduce the audience’s awareness that they are watching a film, maintaining the illusion that reality is...
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...Cents Coups is a film in which the central character’s motives are ambiguous, narrative events are loosely connected, and degrees of closure are limited. These characteristics will later form the basic structure of the art film model and can be used to understand the film and art films, in general. An understanding of Les Quatre Cents Coups proves a difficult task without some understanding of the French New Wave, an influential film movement falling roughly between 1959 and 1964. During this era, directors such as: Godard, Chabrol, Truffaut, sought to produce films with a casual style and ambiguous but psychologically developed characters; these directors were opposed to studio filmmaking and the norms of “classical style” and story, which promoted narrative clarity and unity. According to James Monaco, the “aesthetic of the New Wave cinema was improvisational and its photography and editing were far less mannered than its predecessors” (Monaco). Truffaut’s attempt to grapple with the “poetry of childhood” in the story of Antoine Doinel is replete with the methods of the New Wave. Doinel’s psychological tension becomes the focus of the camera; Truffaut maps out a world which holds as its nucleus a single protagonist. Doinel is centered upon but never treated with overt sentimentality....
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...Neglect and Abandonment: Les 400 Coups Les 400 Coups, is a 1959 French film directed by François Truffaut is highly impactful first-person narrative. The protagonist Antoine Doniel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), is a young Parisian boy who struggles with life. The theme rejection is supported in the film, Les 400 Coups through demonstrations of abandonment, neglect and unhappiness, conveyed through robust cinematography. Abandonment is dramatically demonstrated in the opening sequence. Anotine Doniel, is first introduced to us in the classroom setting. The camera zooms in on him drawing on a pinup poster. Immediately Anotine gets in trouble and is segregated from everyone by being directed behind a large black board. He is being denounced from the...
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...Nuit et brouillard is primarily a film about the memory of the Holocaust than about the Holocaust itself During World War II, France woefully surrendered itself to the Nazi Regime. This new government, led by Henri-Philippe Pétain, was soon to implement Hitler’s anti-Semitic laws and, consequently, France became involved in an event recognised worldwide as the ‘systematic mass murder of European Jewry by the Nazis’ – the Holocaust. Following the end of the war, Charles de Gaulle hastily recovered France’s collective identity and repressed the reality of the nation’s collaboration out of shame. The result? A ‘crisis of consciousness’, in which French society was incapable of facing its shared responsibility. Resnais’s documentary, Nuit et brouillard, offered an even plane, where France was able to recover its memory of the Holocaust. In the forthcoming discussion, there will be detailed consideration as to whether the memory of said genocide is the fundamental theme of Nuit et brouillard, with close reference to the film’s imagery, text, and musical composition. Shot in 1955, ten years following the camp’s liberation, Resnais’s film begins with post-war colour images of Auschwitz, capturing what remains of the barren land. As the camera progressively moves through the barbed wire fence, the present day moment is established and one sees ‘une drôle d’herbe’ surrounding the edges. The inclusion of overgrown flora can be argued as a metaphor for the surface and deep memories...
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...j'ai choisi de parler d'un film que j'ai regardé dans le class il y deux semaines. La film était appelle ‘Au Revoir les enfants’ et il a lieu aux en France au cours de la guerre. Il s'agit d'une école pour les garçons qui est se cache peuple juif, comme jean bonnet et son frère. Finalement, la peuple juif sont trouvé et et fait prisonnier par les Allemands. Je pense que il y a deux personnages principaux qui sont tous les deux comme important comme l'un l'autre. Une est jean bonnet et la autre est Julien Quentin. Premièrement, julien est a élève dans l’école aussi est son frère qui est appelle Francois, Julien est plus de un besoin de sa mère que Francois mais obtient dans la troubler quand meme. Jean est un nouvel élève à l'école et est aussi une des personnes juives dans la clandestinité. Il est très intelligent en plus il est bon en maths et est étonnant au piano. je crois l'acteur interprete très bien le role de jean bonnet. Selon moi, l'histoire est vraiment émotionnel par consequent c'était trés émouvante, cependant, le film démarre lentement et s'éternise un peu trop long... cela vous rend pressé d'arriver à la fin pour découvrir le sort du personnage jean bonnet. je n'ai pas aimé ce film autant que 'les choristes', autre d’un film j’ai regarde dans le classe, parce que C'était moins passionnant que 'les choristes'. En conclusion, je apprécié le film et je recommend ça si vous aimez l'histoire parce que tu vas trouver ça interessant mais malheureusement je ne veux pas...
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...Breathless is a french movie that was released in the 1960. It talks about a sociopathic criminal who steals a car and murders a motorcycle policeman who tries to pursue him. He then returns back to his American girlfriend and begins hiding from the police while continuously trying to seduce her. Towards the end of the film, she discovers what he has done and turns him over to the police. He then accepts the fact that he’s going to get arrested. The police accidentally shoot him and ends up killing him. The movie has very different shooting style from a lot of movies. Instead of having long scenes, Jean- Luc Godard, the director of this movie, constantly uses jump cuts which results in the movie either jumping into a new scene or cutting to the same scene from other places. These cuts show the passing of time like the, for instance, in the car driving scene. Now in the scene where the girl meets up with the American man in the cafeteria, the scene is meant to keep the audience focused on the story by disorienting them with the rough sound and the visual differences and abrupt cuts. The movie was made in france and shown in black and white, it shows to the use of a lot of jump cuts to keep the audiences interested since the movies back then were somewhat longer than they are today. The film has a lot of humorous moments made especially the main character which is interesting because it contrasts what he does to the narrative storyline. Another interesting thing about the movie...
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...Bonnie and Clyde retains several direct links to Breathless: its influence can be felt in the editing of Bonnie’s bedroom scenes, where nervous jump-cuts suggest her sexual restlessness; in the headlong driving scenes, conveying the exhilaration of the open road; in the exciting acceptance of mistakes, as when a fight spills out of frame and the camera must scurry to catch up. As if to openly state it’s a relationship to Godard’s film, Bonnie and Clyde replicates the scene in Breathless where Michel and Patricia hide from the police in a movie theater, the onscreen dialogue offering ironic counterpoint to the characters’ situation. There’s even an odd reference near the film’s end, when the lens in Clyde’s sunglasses pops loose, just as Belmondo’s does in Breathless. But by comparing two lead characters from each movie you find major contrasts. On Characteristics alone you have some similarities: Both Clyde and Michel are trying to fulfill the dapper gangster look, by wearing suits and fedoras and fancy sunglasses. The comparisons go deeper than that as well, but more specifically the fact that they both rely on a strong female character for support is a major comparison. Although, with that, it brings to light one of the biggest contrasts: how different each of the lead male character’s relationship with the lead female character is. Michel is a more of a playboy and will lay with nearly anyone he can make a quick buck on. But with Patricia who he has slept with before,...
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