History and Development

The French New Wave is one of the most significant film movements in the history of the cinema during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was influenced by the Italian Neorealism and Classical Hollywood.

According to Bordwell (2010), after The World War II, many young filmmakers in countries like Japan, Canada, England, Italy, Spain and more are rising in their industry and against the elders. Among these countries, French was the most influential one. In late 1940, there is one group of young filmmaker group together and watch film and furthermore they shared passion for cinema that drew them together. They are Jacques Rievette, Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol and Eric Rohmer which is then became the famous directors of French New Wave. Of course the sharing was not enough for them. In 1948, there was a young novelist, critic and filmmaker called Alecandre Astruc had written a essay to called filmmakers to realize the power of film as an art. He stated that camera should become a means of writing just as flexible as written language and this “The Camera-Pen” philosophy had became one of the biggest influences for the young filmmakers to starts their critics in the famous journal Cahiers du cinema.

Italian Neorealism dramatically changed filmmaking inside and outside France by encouraging new styles, themes, and modes of production throughout the world (Neupert, 2007). FNW filmmakers revolted against the mainstream cinematic trend, which in post-war conditions had fallen back on old traditional and heavily reliant on novellic adaptations and the notion of a “cinema of quality”. Hence, filmmakers like Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol, and Francois Truffaut began to make movies that avoided some of the dominant limitations. They used their own production money or found unconventional producers to make low-budget films set within the settings they knew best. The earliest badge’s FNW film included Truffaut's films, Les  Quatre Cent Coups(The 400 Blows', 1959), Tirez sur Ie pianiste('Shoot the Pianist', 1960), Jules et Jim(1961), and Jean Luc-Godard’s film, A bout de souffle('Breathless',  1959) etc.

According to Hayward (2006), the development of the French New Wave was associated with low-budget production and new youth class film-makers. The film generally features young ones both on screen and behind the camera. It also rejected the cinema of the 1950s and advocated auteur and mise-en-scene. Other than low budget, the movement also created non-studio films and carried out counter-cinema practices and disorienting editing styles. Because of French New Wave films made mostly by low budget, the young directors helped one another out and thus lessened the financial pressure of the established companies, (David Bordwell, 2010).

According to Bordwell (2010), year 1964 is the end of the active period of the movement, when the characteristic of New Wave form and style had already become diffused and imitated, plus each New Wave director had his or her own production company, the group had become absorbed into the film industry. For instance, Jean Luc-Godard made Le Mepris (Contempt, 1963) for a commercial producer; Truffaut made Fahrenheit 451(1996) in England for Universal.

References
Neupert, R. J. (2002). A History of the French New Wave Cinema. A History of The French New Waves Richard Newpert (2nd ed.) The University of Winconsin Press, xv-xxiv.

Hayward, S. (2006). French New Wave. Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (3rd ed.), 165-170

Bordwell, D., Thompson, K. (2010). Film art and film history: The French New Wave. Film Art: An Introduction (9th ed.). US: McGrawHill. 475-477.