Escaping The Eight: The French New Wave

While the Hollywood studio system was in decline and studios were having to search for new and interesting ways of conveying stories and making films, the filmmakers in France were experimenting with new and radically different methods of filmmaking. A group of young Cahiers Du Cinema writers/editors had began making films to contrast the perception of film as a high-art that adhered to a pre-existing, strict narrative convention. This resulted in new, low-budget productions that fox used on being deliberately poorly-made and brining the audiences attention to the production of the film itself, serving as fun, entertaining but often involving deeper themes, such as Jean Luc Godard’s repetition of reference to high-art in his films.

New French directors such as François Truffaut and Agnès Varda were focusing creating new, radical films that went against established conventions such as narrative linearity. This led to the rise of auteur directors like Godard, whose films became recognisable. These directors rejected the post-war “Tradition of Quality” in French Cinema which fell back on the comfort of old traditions emphasised old works over new and innovative films. These filmmakers sought to go against the safe adaptations of classical literary works and instead utilised low-budget equipment and deliberately poor-writing to create fun and poor-quality films. Godard, for example, considered the convention of narrative linearity oppressive and deterministic. They were inspired by Classical Hollywood and Italian Neo-Realism, adding their own contemporary, avant-garde styles of direction.

The French New Wave was most popular between the late 1950s and early 1960s. Most of these directors were born in Paris and grew up their in the 1930s, therefore their films related to the youth growing up in that city, such as through the representation of fashion, parties and urban-life.

American director Arthur Penn commented that “young people understood this movie instantly. They sae Bonnie and Clyde as rebels like themselves. It was a movie that spoke to a generation in a way none of use had really expected.” Anastasia & Macnow, 2011.

These directors used low-budget equipment such as hand-held cameras and film stock that required less light. This resulted in films with discontinuous editing, poor sound design and un-convincing acting. Questions raised but not answered in the film would raise narrative ambiguity through the combination of subjectivity and realism. Long takes, the use of jump-cuts and a sense of minimalism in the films were a result of a lack of stock to shoot with. The 180 degree axis would be broke, characters would step out of their roles to address the audience directly, rapid scene changes and improvised dialogue.