Characteristics of French New Wave Films

There are several notable characteristics of French New Wave films that reject the film traditions. They range from the editing style, film techniques, type of characters, and the use of new technology. We are going to discuss the characteristics based on the examples of a few influential films for French New Wave, including Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959), The Samurai (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967), and My Life To Live (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962).

Anti-authoritative Characters

In French New Wave films, anti-authoritative characters are always shown. These characters do not obey rules, but behave spontaneously and act immorally in their daily lives. They are often not goal-oriented and have no family ties as well.

For instance in Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), Michel steals a car in Marseille, steals his girlfriend’s money and kills a cop on the way to Paris. In the film, he often shows the attitude  that tends to see life as aimless as he can be drifting all the time while seducing his American girlfriend Patricia.

Michel is stealing money from his girlfriend. Retrieved from Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), 0:09:22

While the protagonist Antoine from The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959) steals the typewriter from his father’s office, skips school, tries to excuse himself by lying to the teacher, steals milk while he is running away from home. He doesn’t tolerate with his parents and teachers who misunderstand him in a few crimes that subject him to various punishments, which eventually also leads him to escape from the reform school.

Meanwhile, Costello from The Samurai (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967) is a professional hitman who steals car, murders and constantly runs away from the police superintendent.

Long Take

Long take is also one of the obvious characteristics of French New Wave films. It’s a shot which does not have a cut editing in between for a long period. It’s very significant in the film The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959), which shows the protagonist Antoine escapes from the reform school and runs seamlessly down the road until he reaches the sea. The scene lasts for about 2 minutes constantly showing Antoine running towards the sea.

Retrieved from The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959), 01:38:58.

For The Samurai (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967), a long take is also shown at the beginning of the film, showing Jef Costello lying on the bed smoking.

Retrieved from The Samurai (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967), 0:01:02.

Meanwhile, long takes are taken in the street scene in Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) where Michel meets Patricia when she is selling New York Herald Tribune papers in Paris street, it’s shot using handheld tracking shot.

 

Retrieved from Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), 0:11:16.

Jump Cut

There are a lot of jump cuts in French New Wave film. Jean-Luc Godard likes to use quick cuts and abrupt jump cuts which violate the rule of continuity editing. In Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), Godard used jump cuts to express the character’s sense of isolation. Patricia and Michel have different background and culture which caused them to be isolated from each other. Michel is a criminal while Patricia is an American. The jump shot makes sure Michel and Patricia remain isolated individuals even when they are in each other company. One of the jump cuts that can be found in the film is a lengthy conversation between Patricia and Michel in a room. And then there is a scene when Michel is killing the cops in the beginning of the film while he is on the way to Paris, many jump cuts are used and seem very abrupt.

Retrieved from http://filmmusings-gabi.blogspot.com/2012/02/bout-de-souffle-breathless-review.html

Improvised Dialogue

Dialogues are spoken spontaneously in French New Wave films. There is no prior planning or preparation before shooting. In other words, it’s all based on the natural performance of the actors during the shooting, this leads to lengthy scenes of inconsequential dialogue, which is contrary to the staged speeches of much traditional film acting.

In Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960),  it shows improvised dialogues when Michel is driving on the street at the beginning of films, The same characteristic can be found in the movie easily, for another example, the scene where Michel keeps seducing his girlfriend to have sex with him in Patricia’s hotel room.

 

Retrieved from Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), 0:48:07.

In The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959), improvised dialogue also takes place in the interview session between Antoine and the psychiatrist interviewer, where Antoine admits knowing that he was supposed to be aborted and confesses that he steals money from the grandmother who defended his life, and also he tells the unknown psychiatrist that he does not have sex before. The dialogues are spoken in the way that showing as if he is a real teenager responding to the psychologist.

Retrieved from The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959), 01:29:31.

Mise-en-scene

French New Wave film favors mise-en-scene. My Life To Live (Vivre Sa Vie) is a film about human soul. The director Jean-Luc Godard did fully use mise-en-scene in My Life To Live. The film begins with a quote of Montaigne “lend yourself to others but give yourself to yourself.” Nana can lend her soul to others but she keeps herself to herself and this is why the back of her always dominates the image of this film. We see her but we can never fully know her as she is reluctant to reveal her thoughts and feelings. In the earlier of the film, Paul told Nana about a child who explained that if you take away the outside of a chicken, you have the inside, and if you take away the inside, you have the soul. Nana is all outside.

Retrieved from My Life To Live ((Jean-Luc Godard, 1962),0:03:14.

Auteur Theory (Authorship)

For the auteur theory, we get to know that camera is the pen for the directors to describe their own visions and life experiences using the camera. Realism is used to motivate the narrative. For example, The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959) is a semi-autobiographical film which reflects Truffaut’s and his friend’s childhood lives. The young boy in the film, Antoine was misunderstood by both his parents and teacher, he was even sent to the observation centre for troubled youths later. This film matches the auteur theory that holds the director’s perspective to reflect the director’s personal point of view or their personal life experiences rather than the screenwriter’s.

According to Monaco (2004), Andre Bazin, the editor of Cahiers (film magazine), restated the broad aim of auteur theory, which includes choosing the personal factor in artistic creation as the standard of reference, and assuming it will continue and progress from one film to the next. This can be seen as upon the completion of the film The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959), four other films depicting Antoine at later stages of his life were made successively by Truffaut, which weere Antoine and Colette (1962), Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970), and Love on the Run (1979), all starred by Jean-Pierre Leaud.

Self-reflexivity

Self-reflexivity reminds audience that they are watching a film. The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959) displays self-reflexivity when Antoine is having his psychiatric interview. The interviewer is never seen and Antoine seems to speak directly to the camera. While in The Life To Live (Vivre Sa Vie), Nana also looks at the camera while she is in the conversation with the philosopher in the café. Another scene in My Life To Live that shows self-reflexivity is when Nana and her friend Yvette are in the coffee shop. Yvette left Nana alone and went to talk to Raoul. Then there is a shot of Nana looks directly to the camera. In Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), Michel directly addresses the camera (“Faire foutre”). Also, Michel speaks to the camera while he is driving to Paris. (“If you don’t like the sea, and you don’t like the mountains, and you don’t like the big city, then go hang yourself.”)

Retrieved from My Life To Live ((Jean-Luc Godard, 1962),1:11:53.

Location Shooting

French New Wave filmmakers like to shoot on location and use available light and direct sound. The famous location shot is the opening scene of The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959). The opening scene shows a traveling shot down a Parisian Street. There is another location shot which can be found in the film is Antoine and his friend Rene run through the streets of Paris with real Parisian walking by. The Eiffel Tower can be seen in distance. Another location shot would be the scene of Michel and Patricia meeting on Champs-Elysee in Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960).

Retrieved from http://www.carcabin.com/-breathless-a-bout-de-souffle-1960-bdrip-1080-/freetorr.com*r*screenshot*c2*0c*5559139414b628f430099b246deb98e4.png/

Handheld Camera

The newly developed lightweight camera by Eclair makes it easy to be handheld and hence provides more freedom and realistic feeling. In Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), when Michel is walking along a complex path in travel agency’s office, the cinematographer is actually sitting on the wheelchair and holding the camera to capture the scene. In The Life To Live (Vivre Sa Vie), the camera starts to pan to the left and then glances back again in a café scene. We just like the camera because we watch and wonder. The camera is not expressing a “style” but the way people look at other people.

References

Broadwell, D. & Thompson, K. (2000). The French New Wave (1959-1964). (9^th ed.) Film Art An Introduction. McGraw-Hill, New York.

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

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