French New Wave and Beyond

 French New Wave - Class introduction

Truffaut and crew shooting The 400 Blows

Today finds us embarking on The French New Wave, perhaps a subject that drew some of you to this class. If you are not familiar with it I think you will find some exciting personalities and work in this week's material and film - Agnes Varda's Cleo from 5-7.

Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda, 1962)

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Identify the characteristics of the French New Wave and its influence on contemporary cinema.
• Understand the stylistic characteristics of French auteurs such as Agnes Varda, Chris Marker, Jean-Luc Godard, and François Truffaut.

Introduction:

1) Following the war, a new generation of film critics turned into filmmakers.

2)They wrote for Cahier du Cinema 

3)The emphasized the role of the director (auteur) in filmmaking

4)The championed the poetic realist film of the 30's we learned in last module of

    French classicism. 

5)Also admired the Hollywood films of the 30's and 40's. 
6)Admired Hitchcock, Orson Welles and Howard Hawks. 
7)The French New Wave is the term used to describe the sudden outpouring of films by these
   young filmmakers beginning in the late 1950's and early 1960s.  

Two groups emerged in The New Wave:

1)The Cahiers group: Truffaut, Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer.

2) The Left Bank group : Chris Marker, Alain Resnais and Agnes Varda. 

Left bank: 
1)Characterized as more explicitly incorporating literature, philosophy and politics into their films.
2) Their films embrace the possibilities of documentary more than Cahiers. 
3)Tended to be more experienced
4)Varda for example was making films in the mid 1950's
5) Her work has been identified by some as the precursor to the New Wave films

New Wave influeces:
1)Neorealism
2)Pulp fiction
3)avant-garde
4)Each film attempted to take a new approach towards its subject.
5)They broke the conventions of Hollywood.
6)Their films might show a character's thoughts
7) Use jump cuts (when the camera does not move more than 30 degrees between 
    consecutive shots
8)Employ a fragmented narrative. 
9)Use reflexive devices ?
10)Make the audience aware of formal construction. 
11)Many New Wave filmmakers could be described as modernist.

1. Reading: Mast & Kawin, Chapter 13 “Neorealism, The New Wave, and What Followed” (pp. 384-406) in A Short History of the Movie

Video on Discontinuity Editing

Voyage to the moon - jump cuts were used sometimes intentionally - the rocket all of a sudden is poking out of the moon's eye.

Mele's vanishing lady has a jump cut in a magicians trick to make lady disappear. 

As other techniques came into fashion, the jump cut fell out of it. 

Other films had weak film stock and after it was shown something would break
the projectionist would piece it together leaving a jump. 

  Shows Godard's the most obvious jump shots... girl walking across the street then on the other side of the street. discontinuity - Mise en scene doesn't change. Jump from upper left of frame to middle of the frame. Make sure to continue the eye trace. On a drive in the car, he cuts the drive into pieces of seeing the passenger and goes further along the ride. Jumps in time and space. 

Used in Golum and jumps from good guy and bad guy personalities.

need to use carefully and judiciously one director says but he says now 

D.W. griffith used cross cutting?? cuts of intercutting of non related footing. influences people intercuts between cow being killed and people running for their lives. engages audience in conflict and disruption. 

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