The French New Wave was a group of directors who appeared onto the film scene in the late 1950-60s and is one of the most influential in cinema history. French New Wave used to be known as "Nouvelle Vague", it created a new kind of cinema that was highly self-aware and revolutionary to mainstream filmmaking. The French New Wave cinema rejected traditional linear tropes of storytelling and they were able to create a new language of film. They were heavily inspired by both depictions of common, lower class workers of Italian Neorealism and Hollywood's beloved 'Golden Age'. Becoming a vibrant influence on international cinema which we still get influence today. A few French film directors who were part of the movement such as Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Cluade Chabrol, Eric Rohmer and many more. (French, 2010)
From the book, 'A History of the French New Wave Cinema'
These quotes from the book show that the start of the french new wave was heavily influenced by American and British culture when they tried to essentially rebrand after the second world war.
The American entertainment was rapidly increasing and producing dozens of films as the increase of popularity for entertainment in films grew more. So Europe wanted to branch into the same thing, leading them to increase the number of high quality films too. As a result of the high demand filmmaking, European film attendance had the biggest increase in 1956 as well as France peaking with its highest number of people in the box office in 1957.
However this peak was short lived as numbers began to drop from 412 million before to 328 million in France, the reason for this was because of the automobile being the new thing at the time, everyone wanting them as they were seen as 'marker of changes in lifestyles and spending habits'. As well as people being interested in automobiles at the time, television had also become a brand new hit so it became an even more direct competitor for french film, with the television being the new craze it lead many lading movie studios to close their doors as nobody was attending them anymore. So French filmmakers, professionals and critics were concerned as to how post World War II changes that had an economic powerhouse like Hollywood would effect their own, weaker national cinema.
The French government helped out France by adding high tax on the sales of televisions as well as only broadcasting one channel for only 20 hours a week. Then not until 17 years later, coloured televisions were available in France. Compared to the American film industry it was said the the French film industry was able to survive because the government were able to slow the spread of television sales. The sales comparisons around this time were that American has 1 million sales whereas France had only sold a couple thousand so overall the governments decisions help the film industry stay alive. However 9 years later, sales for televisions had sky-rocked everywhere so in France 2.5 million sets were sold, which is a huge difference compared to the 55 million sets sold in America. (Neupert, 2007)
Unfortunately by the 1960's, a large amount of people were more likely to go out and buy a television compared to going to the movies. With televisions now becoming available for lower and middle class as well, it lead to family's not going out to do activities so overall it changed audiences behaviour patterns. Cinema had to change dramatically to cater to a new society and generation who were already involved in the world of television.
A collective of french film critics formed the groundbreaking journal of film criticism 'Cahiers du Cinema'. This film group rejected the 'tradition of quality' of mainstream film, so it allowed more experimental films such as ones with editing, visual styles. This gave the more experimental films more of a chance to be recognised and explored by other french filmmakers as well.
One of the more known French New Wave filmmakers would be Jean-Luc Godard, his films were widely popular in France as well as abroad. He was originally a part of the 'Cahiers du Cinema' critic group, but shortly after this he began creating multiple french films. Such as 'A Bout de Souffle' (Breathless) which is a pop culture inspired film that is told in a unique style.
Multiple generations of filmmakers are inspired and influenced by the french new wave such as Quentin Tarantino. Quentin Tarantino even named his production company after Godard's film, 'Bande a parte' - (Band of Outsiders).
This video clips highlights key areas as to which Quentin Tarantino was heavily influenced by Jean-Luc Godard's work. This represents that the french new wave era is still highly influential to film today.
Band of Outsiders directed by Jean-Luc Godard, is known as a prime example of the French new wave for its innovative style and romantic themes. A specific cafe dance scene from 'Band of Outsiders' inspired Quentin Tarantino to create his own dance sequence in 'Pulp Fiction' with John Travolta and Uma Thurman. (Tinney, 2020)
Band of Outsiders isn't Godard's typical style to his normal work, it's been described as a mischievous and flirtatious film, where a trio of hopeless crooks are planning a heist. In some of Godard's work, he used a lot of colour specifically red, white and blue. He chose this specific colour combination because it represented the French flag, so he looked at it as marking his work if he used these three colours in his films. He would use these colours very dramatically sometimes in his films that makes it very obvious but sometimes it would be subtle hints in his films too, like background props. (Marshall, 2015)
Band Of Outsiders/Bande à Part Analysis:
When watching Band of Outsiders these are notes I made overall. The movie features lots and lots of jump cuts throughout the entire movie. A specific scene of jump-cuts that I liked were the ones of Odile running to get back to Franz and Arthur with edited in, non diegetic upbeat music added into the background of the scene and then jump-cutting to Franz and Arthur just lounging around reading the newspaper articles together with diegetic sounds of trees being cut or leaf blowers in the background. This shows the comparison of how the main characters are appearing in the movies so far. Franz and Arthur give a more laid back/more chilled vibe whereas Odile seems to be very youthful, energetic and somewhat childish in a way. In clips throughout the movie I see all three main characters together and Odile's energy is easily worn onto others because Arthur and Franz appear more happy/joyful at the beginning of the movie when they are around her, think about her or talk about her.
44 minutes into the movie, Odile, Arthur and Franz decide to have a minute of silence to come up with ideas, however in the editing, all the audio is cut so it includes the audience in the minute of silence, making them feel involved in the movie. Although this can be controversial as some people tend not to like when this editing technique of involving the audience is used because they believe that it snaps them out of the movie, making it less realistic.
Multiple establishing panning shots were used when the narrator says something important to the audience, usually being a translation of what the next couple of scenes were going to be. Three separate tracking shots were used one after the other when Odile, Arthur and Franz were running through the Louvre to break the American world record, even though they were essentially the same shot however they were shot from different positions so it wasn't seamless. More like chaotic in a way, that it goes along with them running through the peaceful halls of Louvre, the diegetic sounds of their shoes stomping across the wooden floor while running through the halls also adds to the chaos and high energy feeling these tracking shots have.
The dance scene is one long shot of all three characters dancing to some music that Franz picked to play on the stereo however while they dance, a narrative cuts into the music to make the audience/viewer focus on what the narrator is saying. Throughout the dance the narrator talks about what all three of the characters are thinking about at that time.
The use of a montage style scene is used when Odile is singing a song called 'J'entends, j'entends'. As she sings, different shots of different types of people are edited into this scene. Odile also breaks a rule of filming by looking into the camera, a few shots of her looking directly into the camera are featured around 54 minutes into the movie. Once again some viewers like this style of film as it's unique and different whereas some people don't because they feel as if it snaps them out of the movie.
When the robbery of the money begins and Arthur and Franz are in the house, it's another one long tracking shot of the two of them scouting out the house, going room by room. Non-diegetic music is adding by editing to this long shot to make the scene more dramatic. Following on from this, another long shot is used not long after this of the three main characters setting up the ladder outside to get into the house, this long shot tracks them as they move around and set up the ladder, reminding me of old school fast pace comedy ladder scenes.
Towards the end of the movie more long shots, panning shots, establishing and tracking shots are used throughout, jumping from scene to scene as the movie begins to end, showing what is set out to happen after Arthur is killed by his uncle. Also what Odile and Franz plan to do with the future. As the narrator talks again for the final time, a long shot of a boat is shot and we as the viewer/audience find out that the narrator is actually Jean-Luc Godard, as he ends the film.
Overall Band of Outsiders features lots of different filming techniques and editing techniques that were all newly introduced to it's audiences. The film was inspired by western/ Old American Hollywood styles and the films is able to speak about darker topics but then be completely opposite and become more playful with romance, so the movie covers a lot of topics but does not stray away from the objective of the movie at all.
Lola Analysis:
The French New Wave Film called 'Lola', created in 1961 by director Jacques Demy is a french film about a young man with no future he believe has he has no job and no aspirations in life, however he manages to run into one of his past girlfriends, being Lola. He soon finds out that she is working as a cabaret dancer under the name of Lola, she does this job to provide for her son because she is a single mother at the time. Unfortunately for the young man Lola is still madly in love with her son's father so when the young man confesses his feeling to Lola, she does not return the mutual feelings.
His false hope of a future and purpose with Lola is crushed. Many people have said that this film gives off an American musical feeling with a joyous romantic vibe throughout the movie. The whole films was widescreen black and white clips.
At the very beginning of the film, there is a long shot and tracking shot style, put together when a car is shot driving through some streets of France. Some non-diegetic music is added to this scene, this could represent that the audience is travelling in the car as well and I agree with this point even more because shortly after a point of view shot is seen from inside the car, situated in the back seat is edited in. This is done so that the audience feels as if they are apart of the start of the journey.
Lola also features lots of tracking shots of different characters particularly the people dancing in the room in general. The movie also features lots of panning shots, an example would be when the sailor boys are so caught up in watching the woman dancing, almost hypnotised by them. The camera pans across all of their faces as they are eye-boggling the woman dance.
Some establishing shots were used when the characters leave or enter a different building, signs and text on buildings is visible for the audience to recognise where the characters are at that time in the movie.
Throughout the movie it is obvious to the audience that money to characters is a struggle, which links to the events that had happened in France not long ago at that time, because of the war. This shows that the movie is relevant to the time that it was created and produced, which makes it more relatable to the audience that it was targeted to back then.
There are quite a lot of long shots without any cuts in them, especially when characters are having conversations, i noticed that the camera usually stays still while they talk or tracks one or the other character if they wander off or walk while talking.
There are a couple zoom out filming techniques featured in the film, which then follows onto tracking someone with the camera. This techniques is used frequently throughout the entire movie. I believe that they used this filming technique because it allows the audience to see the environment that the characters are around, allowing the audience to decipher where the characters are in that scene. So once again the film is involving the audience.
In one part of the film, the apartment scene featuring the mother and daughter. That it had used match on action by having the characters flow very smoothly through different doors and hallways in the apartment, overall the shot was seamless, matching perfectly.
Jules And Jim Analysis:
Jules and Jim was directed by François Truffaut in 1962. The film is based on a novel which describes that two close best friends fall in love with the same woman, who is Catherine, an impulsive and very unstable. This love triangle lasts over several decades. This story is based on Henri-Pierre Roche's relationship with Franz Hessel and his wife, Helen Grund.
Truffaut had very unique camera work for his time in film, in this film he uses a lot of wide camera angles and jump-cuts within scenes. An example of this would be when Jules and Jim first meet Catherine, the way he shot them both give the impression to the audience that they are both mesmerised by her, in awe. Truffaut also incorporates dolly shots, wipes, panning shots and freeze frames. François Truffaut frequently worked closely with Jean-Luc Godard and together they were able to come up with cinematic history and creative new ways to film forever.
Another example of how François Truffaut uses his unique camera work is how he portrays emotion through the way he films scene such as the scene with Thèrése who was a one night stand. The emotion is the scene is very joyful and upbeat and it is obvious to the audience at this time. Then the camera does a complete 360 whip around to Thèrése who is seen smoking a lot, the camera appears to jolt on purpose with ever puff of smoke that is taken. the camera physically moves up and down almost as if someone is jumping for joy.
The way that the camera physically shows raw emotion and is able to represent that to the audience is phenomenal for its time.
Evaluation:
I started this essay by researching the history of French New Wave and why it had such an effect on cinema. The film critic group 'Cahiers Du Cinema' were a huge influence to how cinema changed forever and it is evident that their groundbreaking ways of film are still used in very popular film industry's today. After researching and delving deep into the cinema of French New Wave it is clear to see how captivating these films are, and how they are able to represent some much emotion in their films. Overall, the three films I analysed used very similar filming techniques however back then this was very risky and bold for these directors as it had never been explored or even done before so the risk of it being successful was on the line.
Next time I do an essay similar to this I would want to improve it by delving more deeply into the research as I feel like I could have added a lot more research into this essay. The research I did only showed a glimpse of what French New Wave is and how it was created. Some challenges I overcame while making this essay would be the difficultly of trying to obtain footage from these films because they are older, it's more difficult to find copies of it and to have an english translation of it too. If you have no idea what is happening in a movie, it can be confusing to grasp why certain scene were shot the way they were. I learned a lot from this essay, I learned about the history of cinema as I was once clueless. I learned that Quentin Tarantino was inspired a lot by Jean-Luc Godard, before I thought it was all just from Quentin himself. So it gave me a new perspective on cinema in a whole itself, however I believe I could have learned more if I researched more into different directors at the time too. In the future I believe I need to use more different style of resources, even though I used some books for my research I think I should have done more. Also I should have included interviews of how directors reflect on the french new wave and the directors at that time, as this would have given me different perspectives on the topic and how influential they are too different directors.
Referencing:
Neupert, R (2007). A History of the French New Wave, Univ Of Wisconsin Press
K. (2020, May 22). DailyCal. Retrieved from The Daily Californian : https://www.dailycal.org/2020/05/22/band-of-outsiders-is-cinematic-emblem-of-french-new-wave-icon-jean-luc-godard/
Marshall, C (2015, September 28). Open Culture. Retrieved from Open Culture Website : http://www.openculture.com/2015/09/bleu-blanc-rouge-a-striking-supercut-of-the-vivid-colors-in-jean-luc-godards-1960s-films.html#:~:text=Jean%2DLuc%20Godard%2C%20never%20one,white%20and%20blue%20as%20well.
Cartography, T. C. (2015, May 28). Youtube - Breaking The Rule - French New Wave . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R7R0JHvvgo
French, P. (2010, March 14). The Guardian. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/mar/14/cahiers-du-cinema-emilie-bickerton
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