The French New Wave film movement, due to its filmmakers’ sense of rebellion and constant need for challenge and change, created a lasting and still very active influence on the world of cinema. Born from Italian Neorealism and film noir, as well as other classical elements of Hollywood, the informal movement boldly experimented with the expectations of the audience: characters within the world of the film actually acknowledged the viewer directly, film editing lacked clarity and wasn’t merely intended to drive along plot, and the films were created with little budgets and obscure actors. Through these experimentations, new film techniques and ideas were developed that are all too present in our current age of cinema. Directors like Quentin Tarantino, Brian De Palma, and Francis Ford Coppola were greatly affected by the filmmakers and works of the New Wave, and most, if not all, contemporary directors give evidence of just how vital of an impact the movement has had on film.
An infinite number of remarkable films came out of this movement, but I’m only going to highlight five of my favorites.
My Life to Live (1962)
Jean-Luc Godard is arguably the most important director of the French New Wave. He produced many of the films that came from this time and even helmed a few of the editing techniques that made the films so recognizable. Here he directs his once wife Anna Karina (who he teamed up with often) as she takes on her most memorable role as the prostitute Nana. The film is comprised of 12 different scenes, much like a book with chapters, all seemingly disconnected but revealing much about Nana and her sense of the world around her. Godard, by constructing his own personal portrait of his wife for the world to see, is quite vulnerable with this work. We are also given an unforgettable ending that nicely juxtaposes the film’s slow pace and intellectual exploration.
Breathless (1960)
For me, this film epitomizes the French New Wave movement. Another film by Godard, it seemed to set the stage for experimental cool, making both Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg memorable stars. Belmondo plays Michel, a sort of inept criminal with plenty of tough-guy opinions and insolence to share directly with the audience. Seberg awkwardly takes on the role of femme fatale Patricia, Michel’s girlfriend, who decides to join him as he flees the law. With Breathless, Godard makes it clear that he’s abandoned Hollywood’s handbook of convention and replaced it with his own chaotic, jump cut profilmic world. Another memorable ending that created an immortal image of Seberg, Breathless offered moviegoers a resuscitated take on film that was well received and often mimicked.
Jules and Jim (1962)
Moving on to Godard’s partner in crime, Francois Truffaut proved to be just as vital to the New Wave as Godard. Truffaut brilliantly delivers the tale of a love triangle that ends in tragedy. Oskar Werner and Henri Serre are Jules and Jim, two close friends who fall head over heels for Catherine (played by Jeanne Moreau). In time, all three of them become very close, each man eventually becoming romantically involved with the playful, tempestuous Catherine. Unlike Godard, Truffaut seems to be far more interested in character exploration, as he constructs a touching world of emotion and concern among Jules, Jim, and their beloved Catherine. Like the men, the camera also seems to be enamored by Catherine, and Moreau delivers one of the best performances of her career.
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
Originally a documentarian, director Alain Resnais creates a poetic and profoundly touching love story with Hiroshima Mon Amour. Elle (played by Emmanuelle Riva) and Lui (played by Eiji Okada), an actress and an architect, meet and embark on an affair. Told through the film’s fragmented and non-linear narrative structure, Elle divulges details of her painful past to Lui. These details involve her affair with a German soldier, the soldier’s death, and her family’s cruel treatment due to their shame in her affair with “the enemy.” Riva’s performance as Elle is striking to say the least, with her clear ability to present a vulnerable, mysterious, and suffering character. What is also striking is Resnais’s/Chasney’s/Colpi’s/Sarraute’s exceptional filming/editing, merging fast edits, fragmentation, effective dissolves, and moving flashbacks. On a more somber note than the previous films, Resnais’s Hiroshima Mon Amour is an elegant and subtly experimental view of love and memory that will impress even the most resistant of viewers.
La Jetée (1962)
Director Chris Marker’s sci-fi short, told via photographs, can easily and justifiably take credit for many contemporary sci-fi films and tales, like Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys. Surprising to many upon first viewing La Jetée, the film’s incorporation of photographic narrative provides more than sufficient intrigue and fascination for the viewer to seize. After World War III, the world is in ruin and survivors look to time travel in order to retrieve necessities from a moment before the war crippled the earth and its resources. An unnamed man (Davos Hanich) is haunted by an image of a woman (Helene Chatelain) he believes is from his childhood, and he uses that image to travel into the past. Marker’s and Jean Chiabaut’s black and white cinematography is exceptional throughout. The images of the man and woman at a museum and the various airport stills are among some of the best. Devoid of various CGI and FX, La Jetée still manages to deliver a convincing futuristic tale of love, time, and loss. By the film’s jarring end, viewers will be both touched and terrified by Marker’s bleak dream and will perhaps look at time in a new way.
Danielle Callesen & Dicky Continental 