1. French New Wave Cinema ~

2. Apolitical – reflected new acceptance of leisure and consumption
France, late 1950s
Apolitical – reflected new acceptance of leisure and consumption
Government sponsored first time directors
New generation of directors:
- estb. romantic image of the young director fighting to make
personal films that defy industry
- many did become mainstream
- yet some popularized a new concept in cinema AND provided innovations in film form and style

3. Main directors were film critics for the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma
New Wave Directors
Main directors were film critics for the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma
Studied, critiqued, wrote about film
Strong advocates of the Auteur Theory
- a film is the personal vision/ creative force of the director
Helped each other by financing projects, sharing crew/professionals

4. Contemporary Critics on French New Wave:
Astruc: “a filmmaker should use the camera as personally as a novelist uses a pen” Bazin: “the most distinctive nature of a movie was its form, not its content”

5. Little-known actors and small crews
Characteristics
Movement more than a style - as director’s personal vision was valued - but some common characteristics…
Shot on location
Little-known actors and small crews
Usually shot silent and post-dubbed
Plots centered around chance events
Directors referred to prior film traditions
- aware of their debt to film history (ex of this and auteur, *)

6. Filmmakers' appeal with young audiences
Popularity
Filmmakers' appeal with young audiences
Based in Paris - fashion/cars, all-night parties, bars, jazz clubs…
Themes: authority to be distrusted; political commitment is suspect; the femme fatale
Open-ended narrative
- ending of 400 Blows (freeze­ frame technique a favored device for expressing an unresolved situation)

7. Jean-Luc Godard Breathless (À bout de souffle)
Directors
François Truffaut
400 Blows ( Les quatre cents coups)
Jean-Luc Godard Breathless (À bout de souffle)

8. The 400 Blows
Meaning: to raise hell, live a wild life, sow one's wild oats Literal translation: to do the four hundred tricks 1959 Bogdanovich Article