The New French Wave Techniques - Essay Example

The New Wave technique is a French cinema of the postwar that consists of editions of literary classics. It was the generation raised on the excitement and drama of Hollywood movies, as much as they were not intellectual in the way they approached movies. This influenced directors in the movie industry especially Nicholas Ray and Hitchcock, who had been noted as auteurs, since they were the leading, innovative brain, with their own voices, behind the films.  This was from Naomi Greene in The French New Wave: A New Look (32). Inventive ideas and techniques were used to produce stylish and professional films. This was because they aimed to put across to many people philosophy, as they worked on a minimal budget.

For this reason, they used techniques like jump cuts. These are strident edited cuts, which occur unexpectedly. It was done by changing the angle of the camera to less than thirty degrees, and it had a disturbing effect on the viewer (Greene 45).  This was for saving costs but not to rush the movie. Another technique is improvised film making. This is whereby shooting was usually done in public places, constructed plots on the go, and dialogues were constructed. This captured spontaneity and vibrancy, which no other film could match.

There was also the use of natural sound, whereby, the New Wave did not remix their sounds. A natural sound, recorded during the shoot was used instead. Even though it had intrusions and mistakes, it was still used. This gave the films a sense of energy and freshness. It also uses handheld devices that are easy to maneuver. This enabled them to take long shots and flow the camera, they could also shoot in tight areas that gave an illusion of bulkiness and intimacy. The term auteur was coined to mean that a movie by a particular writer, director, or author was not similar to any other movie. Therefore, the New wave directors strived to make unique movies. They also placed homage to films that were before their work. This is evident in movie genres like Jerry Lewis's comedies and crime movies (Greene 84).

In conclusion, these techniques have been widely adopted by filmmakers, and have proved to be beneficial to them and to the audience. However, the question to be answered is whether the techniques used in the French new wave are still relevant today.