French New Wave Tribute

Video description and technique

This is a low budget film where the film is only equipped with DSLR. There are limited props as well. The film is not shot in a studio due to budgetary restriction. The actors and actress are not professional. The characters in this film are definitely not the typical prefect protagonists who are wealthy, good looking and have influential status. Although they are not marginalized with immoral activities like most anti-protagonists in French New Wave films, yet their characteristics are not goal-oriented and they merely seemed to have positive attitudes toward their lives. This can be seen patently from the actress who tends to criticize and complaint everything and everyone around her, for instance her lecturer, assignment group, group mates, her friends over social networks and the actor Zhe. Also, she complains about deciding lunch spot and reaction of Zhe who ignores her. This film is solely about the interaction between two friends of the same university, sometimes they talk, sometimes only one is talking whereas another is playing with his or her smart phone, and sometimes both are not talking at all. It is a reflection of the reality as it portrays how our generation today interacts with one another, specifically the generation in Malaysia. However, the reality portrayed is imperfect, messy and unpredictable. The film begins with the actors and actress complaining their assignments, group mates and lecturer. It reveals the student identities of both of the actors. Additionally, their dialogues are all improvised as a result of no prior planning or preparation in terms of scriptwriting before shooting. Later, while they are walking toward the car, their voices are barely heard, in contrast, the natural sound of dog barking and car passing by is clearly heard. Instead of continuity editing, there are many jump cuts applied. The most obvious examples are the scene when Zhe is parking the car and both of the actors are walking up the escalator scene. Medium shot is taken at the restaurant to highlight the facial expressions and the interactions of the two characters. When the actress realized Zhe is not engaged in her conversation, she then asked questions to the camera. This is a frequent technique used by French New Wave film to pull the audience off their seats to make them realize that the film is just a film. The pace of the segment changes drastically with the long shot utilized to shoot the zero interaction between the two actors.  The camera seems unsteady as the visible shaking of the camera demonstrates the low budget shooting of many French New Wave films. 

History and Development of French New Wave

French New Wave
Retrieved from http://cargocollective.com/sanamalik/BFI-Cinema-French-New-Wave

  French nouvelle vague or French New Wave started in the earliest of 1940 to 1944 during World War II. The French citizens went to cinema but with limitation of films choice due to implementation of curfew by the German forces. During that time, American films were banned and aside from German productions which mainly consists of imitations of Hollywood musical comedies and melodramatic propaganda movies. The French citizens only can access to about 200 odd French films which were produced during these 4 years period.

   In the other hand, film clubs highlighted one of the important elements of French New Wave. In 1948, Henri Langlois’ Cinemathique Francaise opened the first film club. Langlois believed that Cinemathique was a place for learning but not just watching. They want the audiences understand what they were seeing. Therefore, it became his practice to screen films with different style, genre and country of origin. This approach was to make sure audience kept more attention in the technique.

  During mid of 1950s, a group of young people included Rohmer, Godard, Rivette, Claude Chabrol and Francois Truffaut, make the wave and wrote Cahiers du Cinema. The content of Cahiers du Cinema reviewed on traditional filming way was not visual enough and film makers were too relying on the screenwriter. Besides, they also complemented on the directors in early years like D.W Griffith, Victor Sjostrom, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Erich Von Stroheim. Silent movies become a component for the directors of French New Wave.

          By the New Wave review, the “concept of Auteur” is developed. The argument of Andre Bazin with others said that a film should reflect the director’s personal vision but Francois Truffaut talked about the best directors have distinctive style and it was a individual creative vision that made the director the true author of the film. He also the first coined the phrase “la politique des auteurs”in his article "Une certaine tendance du cinéma français".

        Auteur theory also was considered a foundation new approach to cinema. Because of it the Cahiers du Cinéma ‘s reputation grown up. The film makers who followed the young writers that broke new ground that the ways to understand the film and how the cinema was perceived were deeply impressed by the lover with their strong opinions and perceptive insights into the art of cinema.The young group of writer of Cahiers du Cinéma is not satisfied for writing criticism; they started to shot short films.

       Lastly, Journalists had nicknamed all the young directors as La Nouvelle Vague. Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette have made 32 featured film which are similar to let us recognise the New Wave style. They also continue making waves in the twenty-first century. Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette and others associated with the movement, are all now directors in their own right with an international following. Their large output continues to challenge audiences and expand the limitation of cinematic expression. In addition, their work of New Wave kept alive the cultural revolution and changed the course of cinema history.

Characteristics of French New Wave

Budgetary Restrictions

France experienced a worldwide economic downturn after World War 2. This had eventually become a challenge to film production during that time. However, there were many young and passionate filmmakers decided to produce films without much investments, hence they created a new wave in France. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, many low-budgets and black-and-white images of movies were produced such as Breathless (1960) and Le Petit Soldat (1963). 

Le Petit Soldat (1963): Black-and-white movie
Retrieved from http://nihilsentimentalgia.com/2013/09/10/%D9%A0-on-the-quest-for-visual-intimacy-ii-%D9%A0/

Breathless (1960): Black and white film
Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2007/apr/02/week

Black-and-white allowed many New Wave directors to shoot on location with low budgets. This was because colour doubled the cost production and it inhibited spontaneous shooting on location as it required extensive set-ups and lighting. For aesthetic reason too, the New Wave directors tend to film in black-and-white because they did not  see the need of having colour to fit their needs or desires. According to Francois Truffaut (1950), “The proliferation of color has pushed backwards the average quality of images, making our perception of films simpler and less spellbinding.” Therefore, despite budgetary restrictions, the New Wave directors were able to express their essence of artistic value through black-and-white image. Since the limitation in budgets hence became one of the characteristics in French New Wave films, some of the directors then shot their films in their friends’ apartment, using their friends as the crews or even the casts. For example, in Breathless (1960) by director Jean Luc Godard, the apartment where Michel Poiccard was talking to his girlfriend, Patricia was actually an apartment that belongs to Godard’s friends. Another example to reduce budgets in the film production was that both of the main characters, Patricia and Michel in this movie were unknown actors.

Breathless (1960): Apartment scene: behind the scene that shows the simple shooting due to budget restrictions
Retrieved from http://everyday-i-show.livejournal.com/246690.html

Breathless (1960): Apartment scene where Michel asked Patricia to have sex with him
Retrieved from http://toutelaculture.com/cinema/jean-paul-belmondo-portrait-dun-homme-monument-du-cinema-francais/

Editing

Continuity editing is a way to assure the audience to engage in film world and it does not draw attention to itself which subconsciously provide a form of escapism to the audience. However, the editing and filming techniques of French New Wave films rejected continuity editing. This was because the New Wave filmmakers emphasize more on the fact that art is not just about entertainment and audiences should be jolted into awareness. According to David Mamet (2004), “The audience is only going to look at the most overriding thing in the frame. You must direct their attention”. This can be done by inserting jump cut in film editing. This type of editing intentionally manipulates the smooth continuity in space or time by inserting an abrupt transition from one scene to another. One of the examples of this kind of editing was in Jean Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960) whereby jump cut was first used extensively. This type of cinematic expression was very different from the Hollywood films that emphasized on Escapism, telling audiences to put themselves in the characters’ shoes and to imagine that they are the characters. In contrast, French New Wave films applied jump cuts to inform the audiences of the fractured nature of their films by removing the continuity in time and space between shots. It constantly reminded the audiences that they were watching a film and it was not a reality. In brief, French New Wave films rejected montage aesthetics and continuity editing yet favored elliptical editing and jump cuts.

Breathless (1960): Jump Cuts
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ov4mQJIHhc

Shoot On Location & Natural Sound

Shoot on location means the shooting take place at the real place or actual place that audience are familiar with. By the inspiration of Neorealism, the French New Wave directors preferred to shoot on location instead of studio filming in order to make the films authentic and natural. Another reason to the opposition of studio filming is the budgetary restrictions. One of the benefits for shooting on location was that the lighting of the films can utilize the natural light from the location without spending more to set up the lighting. By shooting on location, the directors can create the feeling of realistic. In other words, the natural lighting as a prominent feature in French New Wave films was meant to highlight the notion of realism and naturalism. For example, the famous location shot was the opening scene of The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959). The opening scene showed a traveling down a Paris Street. 

The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959): Opening scene of Antoine Doinel and his friend traveling down Paris Street is filmed in actual Paris
Retrieved from http://bluellama-solutions.com/les-quatre-cents-coups.htm

In addition, directors of French New Wave did the sound recording during shooting. They used the raw recorded sound and did not do any post production on the sound regardless of the background sound. It was often to hear sounds of ambulances and planes, conversations of pedestrians throughout French New Wave films. Instead, sometimes the use of these natural diagetic sounds can create a sense of chaotic atmosphere and hence enhance the feeling of realism to the films. Taking Breathless 

(1960) as an example, the airport scene where they interview Mr Parvulesco, the noises of planes are clearly heard.

Breathless (1960): Airport scene where interview of Mr Parvulesco takes place, the noises of planes which are the natural sound are recorded
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49FrJPjYNcI

Handheld Camera

In the late 1950s, Enclair Company developed the light-weighted handheld camera or sneaky camera. Some of the scenes of French New Wave films were shaky and not stable because directors of French New wave utilized this new technology for shooting. Shooting with handheld camera facilitated the process of shooting because it was portable and easier to shoot when on location as it saved the steps of setting up. It was also one of the means for representation of realism or some claimed that it is a form of cinema vente.  It reduced the levels of obtrusiveness and reactivity in observation fascinating by performing realism and freedom aesthetic (J.  Hassard, 1998). Directors could shot their films quickly and low-cost with the flexible equipment. 

Breathless (1960): Godard shoots the film using handheld camera
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Besides, using handheld camera for shooting was more convenient when the shooting takes place in a small-scaled location such as a small room as shown in Breathless (1960) where Michel and Patricia had conversation. Besides, in the film My Life to Live or known as Vivre Sa Vie (1962), there was a café scene which utilized the handheld camera where the camera panned to the left and back to show the point of view of Nana. It established a feeling of curiosity to the audiences as they followed the camera to watch and wander what was happening.

Vivre Sa Vie (1962): Cafe scene where hand held camera pans according to point of view of Nana
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n_r_5RXobM

Improvised plot and dialogue

In French New Wave films, dialogues were improvised as one of the oppositions to the classical film making process. There was basically no prior planning or preparation in terms of scriptwriting before shooting. Dialogues were spoken spontaneously In other words; the films were all based on the natural performance of the actors during the shooting. There were times when the dialogue seemed irrelevant to the storyline. As a result, the plot might have to undergone changes due to the spontaneous performances of the characters. It later leaded to the climax that was not wrapped up tidily. This characteristic was a reflection of the loose structure of French New Wave films in their plots and storylines. Again, this characteristic encouraged and strengthened the naturalism and realism in the films. As an example, in The 400 Blows by Francois Truffaut (1959), improvised dialogue took place in the interview session between Antoine and the psychiatrist interviewer.

The 400 blows (1959): Scene where Antoine was interviewed, he improvised his own dialogue
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyBvPcPFXyc

Anti-authoritarian Protagonist

Protagonist in French New Wave films were often portrayed as young anti-heroes. They were not the typical heroes of perfectionism. They were neither rich, super good-looking, had powerful and influential statuses in their lives. Instead, they were always marginalised with immoral characteristics. They lived without family ties and restrictions of rules and regulations. They were not goal-oriented as they merely seemed to have positive attitudes toward lives. They, too often behaved spontaneously. Sometimes, they were just being portrayed as alienated loners. Some said that protagonists in French New Wave films were just sane men in lunatic asylum as they were all trapped in a system. For instance, Michel in Breathless (1960) was a car thief who killed policemen, seduced his girlfriend Patricia for sex, stole money from Patricia and constantly escaped from legal treatment. The ambiguous anti-authoritarian protagonist characters had come to a point to question the reality of traditional films which often portrayed perfect protagonists. 

Breathless (1960): Michel is a car thief and murderer
Retrieved from http://www.cinema.de/bilder/ausser-atem,90502.html

Conclusion

Broadly speaking, the French New Wave rejected the narrative and presentation styles of traditional films. Without many organisations, French New Wave films are expressed in a more genuine way to adhere the sense of realism to their films by using jump cuts, shoot on locations, long takes, handheld cameras, anti-authoritarian protagonists, improvised dialogue and plots. Their deterministic narration constantly reminds the viewer that a film is just a sequence of moving images. In short, French New Wave is a revolutionary film styles that challenges traditional films and come out with its own original way of filming that gains popularity in post-war days.

Reference

Boardwell, D., & Thompson, K. (2004). Film Art: An Introduction. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Neupert, R. (2007). A History of the French New Wave Cinema. Unic of Wisconsin Press. 

Coates, K. (2010, May 28). [The Classroom] French New Wave: The Influencing of the Influencers. Retrieved from http://thefilmstage.com/features/the-classroom-french-new-wave-the-influencing-of-the-influencers/

Hayward, S. (2006). Cinema Studies: The Key Concept. New York: Routledge.

Hitchman, S. (2008). A History Of French New Wave Cinema. Retrieved from http://thefilmstage.com/features/the-classroom-french-new-wave-the-influencing-of-the-influencers/

Miller, J. (2010). The French New Wave and the New Hollywood. Le Samourai and its American legacy, 109-120.

Phillip, C. (2005). French New Wave. Retrieved from http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/fnwave1.jsp

Fowler, C. (2002). Realism, Authorship and Ambiguity. The European Cinema Reader, 95-99.

Monaco, J. (2004). The Camera Writes. The New Wave: Truffaut, Godard, Cabrol, Rohmer, Rivett, 13-18.