The Wave Which Redefined The Notion of Film Making - Essay Example

?THE WAVE WHICH REDEFINED THE NOTION OF FILM MAKING The French New Wave which was initiated in the 1950s and 1960s exemplifies one of the most crucial & innovative moments in the history of global film noir. A cluster of dynamic, young French film critics turned filmmakers (most notably Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Agnes Varda, Eric Rohmer, and Claude Chabrol) conceived to over throw the rule books and create films as per their own artistic ways (Marie & newpert, 2003, pp.1-7). The consequence was a succession of impetuous, energetic, and exuberantly inventive movies that intentionally ignored prescribed conventions in order to get closer to real life, yet at the same time were engraved in film history. The new wave film makers altered both the way movies are made, and the traditions we believe about film making; their legacy is still strong today, half a century down the pipe line. The popularity of the movement spread across the continent to discover the most unlikely host in the United States of America (Marie & Newpert, 2003, pp.1-7). The movement found ample support from the Czech Republic as well. This incredible film movement broke the barriers created by main stream commercial movies as well as transformed the darkish orthodox believes which had been carried over through the dark ages of feudalism, medievalism, & ecclesiasticism. Paris was perhaps the darkest city during the history of the Second World War. The German censorship on films & theatres meant that the French citizens could not get a taste of global cinema in any form what so ever. Barring a few exceptional directors like Jean Renoir & Rene Clair, the French audience had to quench their artistic aspirations by witnessing below par domestic films. For the younger generation of people like Eric Rohmer & Alain Resnais, this dearth in film shipment equaled to a hover cast of brutal fascist ideology. This taboo & restriction later turned out to be the source of inspiration for the new wave film makers. To this younger age band born around 1925-30, which would later consist of most of the directors of the new wave, films happened to be the centre of their universe & a sanctuary secluded from the ruthless realities of the outer world. (Marie & Newpert, 2003, pp.7-15) The end of the war & the liberation of France brought along an enormous desire for self expression, open interaction, & cooperation. Discussion of films became a part of the regular discourse. Film journals like the L’Ecran Francais, became an epicenter for great authors like Andre Bazin to familiarize their viewpoints & convey their unbridled panache for films. Bazin approached films as a true form of art, which deserved extensive scrutiny. His viewpoints often put him at loggerheads with the leftist writers who were hell bent on solely evaluating the political standpoints of a film (Marie & Newpert, 2003, pp.10-17). The pioneers, who vividly read film journals, now began to set up film clubs all over the French territory. Future stalwarts like Claude Chabrol, & Alain Resnais were precisely benefitted from these little film clubs. By witnessing hundreds of films they came face to face with art of film making. Eric Rohmer was another avid audience of the film clubs. He invited Rivette & Godard to join him & the trio began to write articles, journals, & discourses on world cinema. The most important film journal came out in 1951, & was named La Cahiers du Cinema, which was published by Andre Bazin & Jacques Doniol- Valcroze. Bazin was nothing less than a father figure to the young crop of film enthusiasts (Ostrowska, 2008, pp.126-138). Henri Langlois deeply believed that watching silent films was the best way to intermingle with the art of cinema. As an end result, the new wave directors had great faith in film makers like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and D.W. Griffith & Erich von Stroheim (Ostrowska, 2008, pp.126-138). The Italian neo realistic movement also had a huge impact upon the outcome of the new wave movement. The young French aspirants were divinely motivated by way the Italian film makers like Vittorio De Sica & Roberto Rossellini, broke the barriers of conventional film norms. Some wonderful films like Godard’s Breathless, Alain Renais’ Hiroshima mon amour and Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 were created in the new wave era (jean, 1999, pp.36-44). Godard’s Breathless was a sheer delight for every viewer. The film’s pure, raw, chaotic newness- took the viewer to an effervescent journey of fun & solitude. The fascinating treatment of every frame represents the ‘unschooled’ quality of Godard’s film making. The story enfolds as follows: Jean Paul Belmondo is the blazing sturdy guy & Bogart aficionado who has murdered a policeman, while Jean Serberg is the svelte American would be journalist & author, who his going out with this man just to discover if she is really in love. Belmondo & Serberg’s directionless, dreamy, erotic conversation in her apartment is a magnificent riff, something to savor for a lifetime. To be precise, the entire film is one incessant, stimulated jazz solo. There has rarely been any other film on earth which has demonstrated the feeling of being in love with such unique precision (Greene, 2007, pp.80-89). Renais belonged to the elderly generation of directors, but his contribution to the New Wave is significant. His movie Hiroshima has been jointly funded by French and Japanese production and was filmed in Hiroshima and Nevers and even in the studios of Paris and Tokyo. In words of Lifton: “its international success has rendered it the source of many people’s imagery about the city and the bomb” (Wilson, 49). However critics have divided opinions on this film. For instance, Marie-Claire Ropars Wiulleumier comments: “Hiroshima precipitates a rupture of codes…dismantles the conventional order of cinema” (Wilson, 49). Some critics like Monaco find the movie one of the filmmaker’s most “complicated, difficult, confusing, and treacherous essay in the social, political and linguistic/semiological ramifications of films”. The movie in fact portrays two different time sequences and ties up two parts of history. He quoted Japanese films within the film and despite illustrating the lives of survivors and the city under the attack of the bomb; he also showed the “return of the lovers to bed” (Wilson, 50). Despite all controversies, his film Hiroshima mon amour even earned him the International Critics Award at Cannes Film Festival of 1959. Francois Truffaut’s epic saga, Fahrenheit 451 was another path changer in the history of global cinema. The movie was inspired from a novel by Ray Bradbury. The film starred Oskar Werner as Guy Montag, alongside Julie Christie, Cyril Cusack, & Anton Diffring. The film, based on symbolism & impressionism, depicted the pathos of an oppressive political system. The film portrays a state which has banned the use of books from the fear of an upcoming revolution. The protagonist Montag is a person appointed by the state to destroy & burn down literature, but his humanity leads him to an entirely different galaxy. The film boasts of sequences never seen elsewhere, as well as professes an ideology of love, creation hope & true enlightenment (Greene, 2007, pp.110- 118). The Nouvelle Vague or the New Wave would remain etched as one of the most effective & famous movements the film history ever had. Admirers & scholars continue to refer it with unbridled passion, emotion, & nostalgia. The French new wave was a articulate faction, which existed for a restricted phase of time, & whose materialization was favored by a chronology of concurrent factors intervening at the close of the 1950’s, particularly for the period of 1958-59 (Marie & Newpert,2003, pp.4-10). The new wave movement was perhaps the most significant socio-political movement during the cold war, which spoke of art for the sake of love, life, & agony. A refection of the journey called life. References 1) Breathless (1960), motion picture, Les Productions Georges de Beaugard, France 2) Fahrenheit 451 (1966), motion picture, Anglo Enterprises, Berkshire 3) Greene, N (2007), The French New Wave: a new look, Columbia: wallflower press. 4) Hiroshima mon amour (1959) Argos Films, France 5) Jean, D. (1999), French new wave, New York: D.A.P in association with editions Hazan Francaise. 6) Michel, M & Newpert, R.J (2003), The French New Wave, an artistic school, New York: Wiley Blackwell. 7) Ostrowska, D (2008), Reading the French New Wave: Critics, Writers & Art in France, Columbia: Wallflower Press. 8) Richard J.N, (2007), A history of the French new wave cinema, Madison: university of Wisconsin press. 9) Wilson, E. (2006), Alain Resnais, Manchester University Press Read More