The Birth of La Nouvelle Vague

World War Two ends and so does the Natzi censorship in France. Foreign films are shown in french cinemas. The french public is able to watch films by the Hollywood greats like Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Wells who become inspiring french cinephiles. French film Magazines were obsessed with the fact that these Hollywood greats and film directors are artists. A word was created for it, La Camera stylo, directors use the camera as a tool, in the same way that a writer uses a pen or a painter a brush. The idea that a director could have his or her visual trademarks that would personalise their films has enhanced creativity in the industry. There was The Auteur theory of filmmaking in which the director is the major creative force in a motion picture, (it was an outgrowth of the cinematic theories of André Bazin and Alexandre Astruc). Directors were not being controlled by studios and the directors of the new wave became Auteurs.

In 1951 film critic André Bazin co founded a magazine called 'Cahiers Due Cinema' which translates to notebooks on cinema. The magazine employed Françious Truffat and Jean-Luc Godard as essyists and later, Claude Chabrol and Jaques Rivette. They became known as The Young Turks, who write about and critique films. They spoke of how stale films were and that there was a lack of innovation in the industry, that films were out of step with how people actually lived and lacked true human emotion. So they decide to create films in their own new and original format, by doing so they changed cinema. The movement was rooted in creating a more personal style of cinema, that reflected the directors life experiences and philosophies. They wanted to capture true french life throughout the 50s and 60s and to bring back the sincerity that cinema had lacked. There was a realism in the mise en scène of their films and most french new wave pictures gave you an objective view of the world. Which is why there is emphasis on long takes and deep focus, to better interpret the film world. New wave films were known for being very self aware, breaking the fourth wall and using spontaneous, improvised dialogue. However they couldn't use the film techniques of their predecessors because that would go against their values. Those films represented an era of outdated filmmaking, in order to represent their lives The Turks needed to differentiate the way they made films. Simply, the movement created an alternative way to tell stories, breaking the rules of the already existing methods by substituting them, not just being different for the sake of it. They added to the rules of pre established filmmaking, trying to prove that things could be done differently and break the mould of conventional cinema and traditions. The movement was rooted in creating a more personal style of cinema, that reflected the directors life experiences and philosophies. New wave films were known for being very self aware, breaking the fourth wall and using spontaneous, improvised dialogue.breaking the rules of the already existing methods by substituting them, not just being different for the sake of it.

How The New Wave Influenced Modern Day Directors & Cinema

Generations of filmmakers have been influenced by The Nouville Vague. This influence has continued to the present day with many of the major figures in contemporary independent American cinema, the new Hollywood generation of directors such as Arthur Penn, Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, and Wes Anderson, all speaking of thier admiration for the movement and employing many of its techniques. As Scorsese himself said: "The French New Wave has influenced all filmmakers who have worked since, whether they saw the films or not. It submerged cinema like a tidal wave". For this part of my reserach I will mainly talk about hwo the new wave influenced Scorsese and Terantino in depth.

In this clip, Tarantino talks about Jean-Luc Godard and how his work gave him inspiration. In particular, he discusses how a review of a Godard film by noted critic Pauline Kael became more important to him than the film itself. Terantino is in my opinion, the most influential director in my generation and contemporary pop culture. Tarantino speaks about Pauline Kaels reveiw of Godards film, 'Band of outsiders', in the review she said that the film is best described as if bunch of crazy french men took an american crime novel and directed it not based on the novel but on the poetry between the lines. This statement in itself highlights Terantino's whole body of work and film aesthtic 'the poetry between the lines'. Even the infamous dance scene in Pulp fiction was actually inspired by a dancing scene in 'Band of outsiders' by Godard. Tarantino has been known to take scenes out of other movies and remake them in his own way or use them for inspiration, in the same way that the young turks created their own alternative ways to tell stories based on pre existing methods and cinema. He quotes that it was Godard himself that "taught me the fun and the freedom and the joy of breaking rules"

Martin Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver' is a good example of his inspirations that stemmed from the french new wave movement. Imparticular the infamous sequence were the main character is starting to loose it. The jump cuts are unnerving and the fourth wall is broken when the words "you talking to me" are uttered. Throughout the film we get shots that pan away and leave the character out of it, conventionally we would expect the camera to follow the characters. Multiple times in taxi driver we get a camera that tracks away to the surroundings, in the context of the film, this type of shot is used to show how lonely the main character actually is. In the clip on the right we can listen to Martin talk about how 'Jules and Jim' influenced some of his work, through the music, dialogue and editing pace.

Anna Karina, The Muse of the French New wave

Anna Karina, among others is truly the face of the Nouville Vague movement. After researching into her past I thought it was extremely interesting as to how this icon started out and influenced cinema history.

Karina was born Hanne Karin Bayer in Solbjerg, Denmark in 1940, started singing and modelling in her teens, For a couple of years, she worked as a film extra. However the abusive situation at home became increasingly difficult. She headed for Paris at age 17, where some of the actors she had met as an extra now were. There she started a modelling career, famously discovered at then hyper-modish café Les Deux Magots in Paris’s Rue St-Germain. Catherine Harlé approached her and asked her whether she would be willing to do some photos. Anna found out it was a professional shoot for a fashion magazine called Jours de France, she agreed. At the end of the shoot, Harlé gave her some addresses of other contacts. In a short time, Anna established herself as one of the top models in advertising and received steady work. One of them was a shoot for the magazine Elle. Godard spotted her on TV in a Palmolive soap commercial and offered her a role in his first feature À bout de souffle, she declined, reluctant to appear naked. However when directing his next film Godard wanted Karina to be in it. He later sent her another telegram for a main role in 'The small soldier' (1960). He was the most talked about director in Paris at the time, Karina therefore auditioned and got the part. Although the film was banned for its commentary on the Algerian war. Karina starred in seven Godard features, including 'A woman is a woman' Une Femme est une femme (1961), for which she won the Best Actress award in Berlin. Bande à part, Band of outsiders (1964) and Made in U.S.A. (1966).

In the middle of the shoot for the 'The Small Soldier' Anna left her boyfriend at the time for Godard. They had rendezvous on set and were inseperable most of the time. When shooting wrapped, Godard drove her back to Paris. Anna moved into the Alesia, the hotel on the rue Chateaubriand where Godard lived. Their relationship was very rocky to say the least, there was a lot of abuse, violence, love and hate. They would break up and reconcile many times and they eventually divorced. They would frequently collaborated on films while together and both had an influence on creative decisions. I found it interesting that their turbulent relationship impactedthe narrative in some of Godards films, in Contempt (1963) , some of the lines spoken by bridget Bardot were actaully said by Karina herself to Godard. Even New Wave pioneer Jacques Rivette is said to have based his 1969 film L’Amour Fou partly on their arguments

In the 70s, Karina wrote and starred in the first of two films that she directed herself, Vivre Ensemble (1973), shot in Paris and New York and Victoria (2008). She did many things beyond the screen. she sang and creating a record, and wrote four novels between 1973 and 1998.