Context of Practice.: LECTURE NOTES: FILM THEORY 2: FRENCH NEW WAVE CINEMA OF 50s AND 60s

French New Wave Cinema in the 1950s and 1960s

There was a period of many 'new waves', but mainly based in Britain and France - where it was most influential,

Influential group of French filmmakers:

Jean-Luc Goddard
Francois Truffat
Claude Chabrol
Jacques Rivette
Eric Rohmer

..they were all once film critics and so have backgrounds in film theory and the general framework of a film and what in their opinion works and doesn't and probably a good historical understanding of films and filmmaking.

..All wrote for Cahiers du Cinema

La Pointe Courte (1954) by Agnes Varda is widely believed to be the kickstart of New Wave

The French New Wave and European Art Cinema, post 1960

Jean-Luc Goddard, Breathless 1960
The French New Wave: Godard and Francois Truffaut
Italy in the 1960s, Federico Fellini, Michealangelo Antonioni, Pier Paolo Palosini
Other countries had prominent figures such as Ingmar Bergman from Sweden
Luis Bunuel (France and Spain)

The French New Wave (Late 50s - Early 60s)

Henry Langlois and the Paris Cinemateque
Andre Bazin and the realist tradition
Cahiers du Cinema
From critics to auteurs
Against the "cinema of quality"
The discovery of American genre films
Cinematic, rather than literary values
Importance of personal expression
Spontaniety and digression

Film Noir

An example of some filmmaking by Truffaut..

Shoot The Piano Player (1960) You can notice the use of B+W film, even though it's made in the 60s, when colour was available if necessary and the high contrast.

Existentialism

Phillip Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
Stressed the individual
Experience of free choice
Absence of any rational understanding of universe
Sense of absurdity in human life
In indifferent world, existentialist seeks to:
- Act authentically
- Use free will
- Take responsibility for all their actions
- Avoid playing out roles pre-ordained by society

French New wave: the "look:

Usually shot on location
Wide use of handheld lightweight cameras
Lightweight sound and lighting equipment
Faster film stocks, less light
Films shot quickly and cheaply
Encourages experimentation and improvisation (who doesn't?)
Casual, natural look
Available light
Available sound

Reaction against French films of 1940s (cineme du Papa)

Against films shot in a studio
Against films that were set in the past
Against films that were contrived and over-dramatised
Against films that used trickery and special effects, much more natural organic feel
Against 'la tradition de qualite'

La Belle et la bete Jean Cocteau 1946

The new wave celebrated American film noir because it reflected contemporary urban life

Characters in contemporary dress, speaking in vernacular

Breathless Jean-Luc Goddard (1930-)

Reinventing film from the ground up
Basis in American gangster films, but everything is deglamorised
Location shooting
Natural light
Handheld camera
Jump cuts
Many 'violations' of continuity editing 'rules', experimentation.
Jean Seberg: America/France
Use of digressions and suspensions of action
Reality of story/reality of film
Ambiguities of character and of identification and ending

Very kind of smoky aesthetics, everyone used to bloody smoke back then too. Reminds me of Mad Men, which is also set in the 60s.

"In A Lonely Place"1950

Overall goal of French New wave style was to remind audience that they are actually watching a movie. Jump cuts etc.

French New Wave: Mood Shifts

Heroes are aimless, stylish, act silly
Also cowardly and amoral
Mood shifts - infatuation, romanticism, boredom
Death and betrayal

Breathless - Jean-Luc Godard..

Influence of Godard

Jump cuts
Elasticity of time
Montage, beyond Eisenstein
Relative independence of sound and image
Focus on both narration and narrated
Self-reflexive cinema
"Reality of images"

Woody Allen & Diane Keaton. Woody Allens moviemaking style is very reminiscent of new wave cinema, with a quirkyness and 'art house' feel to it, focusing more on the characters and locations, rather than a big budget and special effects etc.

Cleo 5 to 7 by Agnes Varda

Shot for $64,000 and financed by New Wave producers such as Beauregard and Ponti thru their Rome-Paris film company
Portrait of a singer in Paris in the sixties