article
French New Wave
August 5, 2022
The history of a revolutionary art film movement established by young film critics and directors who spoke up against entrenched standards of cinematography.
French New Wave is an art film movement established by young film critics and directors who spoke up against entrenched standards of cinematography at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s.
Although FNW united absolutely different creators, film historians often divide them into two big groups:
• Directors who had debuted as film critics of commercial films for Cahiers du cinema magazine (Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol).
• "Left blank" (Resnais, Varda, Demy). They had already had experience in short and documentary films. Their first full-length features were released at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s.
Although FNW united absolutely different creators, film historians often divide them into two big groups:
• Directors who had debuted as film critics of commercial films for Cahiers du cinema magazine (Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol).
• "Left blank" (Resnais, Varda, Demy). They had already had experience in short and documentary films. Their first full-length features were released at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s.
It's considered that French New Wave originated in 1959 when "The 400 Blows" by François Truffaut and "Hiroshima mon amour" by Alain Resnais were presented in Cannes. FNW, in contrast to Dogme 95, didn't have its own manifest. The theoretical foundation of this movement is based on scientific works on cinema reality, originally formulated by André Bazin (creator of "Cahiers du cinéma"). Film critics of the New Wave believed that cinematic reality is as important as physical reality because it offers a wider range of tools for manipulating the viewer's consciousness. That's why directors should always be honest in their films.
It caused a number of changes in New Wave films. For instance: experiments with light and picture, shoulder and outdoor filming, reduction in the number of artificial footage, breaking the classical editing rules.
Their films were also notable for their mundane dialogues full of improvisation. The New Wave filmmakers adhered to "auteur film theory", according to which a director is fully immersed in all filmmaking processes from script to the final result. Moreover, thanks to the movement a lot of new faces could get into the industry instead of going through a harsh hierarchical system.
Their films were also notable for their mundane dialogues full of improvisation. The New Wave filmmakers adhered to "auteur film theory", according to which a director is fully immersed in all filmmaking processes from script to the final result. Moreover, thanks to the movement a lot of new faces could get into the industry instead of going through a harsh hierarchical system.
And traditionally, here is a shortlist of important films:
- Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
- Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)
- The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)
- Le Beau Serge (Claude Chabrol, 1958)
- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)
Authors: Anastasiya Chursanava and Velina Peshkur;
Translator: Arina Bokach
Translator: Arina Bokach
