December: French New Wave
French New Wave is a term critics invented for a group of filmmakers from the late 50’s and 60’s who opposed the standard of their time, when most movies were being based on novels. They instead targeted social and political matters of the current era, experimented with visual style and narrative, realism and surrealism, documentary style, and editing often using very long shots without cuts. At the time it was essentially “cinematic modernism.” This was an extremely influential movement lead by renown artists such as Jean-Luc Godard, Francios Truffaut, and Jacques Rivette. There is also a sub-division within the style, Left Bank and Right Bank. The Right Bank tended to be younger, more financially successful, and more famous. They were also referred to as Cahiers du Cinema. The Left Bank on the other hand tended to be older directors that were more contemplative towards the artistic nature of cinema treating it on par with mediums such as painting and literature. These two groups highly respected each other. Alain Resnais is an example of a prominent Left Bank filmmaker, while Godard, Truffaut, and Rivette were all Cahiers.
I was first introduced to the term here on movieforums.com. I forget exactly how long ago it was, but maybe about two years ago. I’ve been gradually exploring it along with other arthouse styles, but I’ve also wanted to take a more in-depth look at it. Arthouse Mafia has been dry for a while now, so I hope this will revive it.
My idea for this is to focus on the style as a category rather than selecting any specific films, although mutually agreeing to watch specific films is something I think should still be encouraged. Below I’ve compiled a list of directors, the films I’ve seen, and the films I plan to watch this month. There are more directors associated with the movement, but since I’m completely unfamiliar with them and don’t know how significant they were I did not include them in the list. If anyone wants to nominate a director to be added that I haven’t mentioned I’ll do so. The list of directors is just a reference point.
Directors
Jean-Luc Godard
Francois Truffaut
Jacques Rivette
Jean-Pierre Melville
Alain Resnais
Luis Malle
Eric Rohmer
Claud Chabrol
Chris Marker
Agnes Varda
Alain Robbe-Grillet
Marguerite Duras
Jacques Demy
Henri Colpi
Robert Bresson (precursor)
Movies I’ve Seen
Godard:
Breathless (1960)
Vivre sa Vie (1962)
Le Petit Soldat (1963)
Les Carabiniers (1963)
Alphaville (1965)
La Chinoise (1967)
Truffaut:
The 400 Blows (1959)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Melville:
Bob Le Flambeur (1956)
Le Samourai (1967)
Army of Shadows (1969)
Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
Resnais:
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
Malle:
Black Moon (1975)
My To-Watch
Le Gai Savoir (1969) by Godard
The Last Metro (1980) by Truffaut
Joan the Maid (1994) Rivette
Va Savoir (2001) by Rivette
Last Year at Merienbad (1961) by Resnais
Murmur of the Heart (1971) by Malle
Au Revoirs les Enfants (1987) by Malle
According to Wikipedia, Truffaut credited Morris Engel’s Little Fugitive (1953) with helping to start the French New Wave. I don’t know if any of Engel’s other works qualify, but this one movie at least seems to be essential to the movement, and so I intend to watch it as part of this study.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_New_Wave
Velvet said he particularly wanted to watch Last Year at Merienbad, and it's a movie I've had my eye on for a while too. It probably won't be the first one I watch, but I'll make an effort to watch it asap.