The French New Wave - Essay Example

Introduction The French New Wave cinema movement emanated from a rebellion against the conventional Hollywood filmmaking techniques. Indeed, the French New Wave movement challenged the objectives of Hollywood by introducing its own objectives in a way that directly contradicts those of Hollywood. Structured narrative remains a core element within Hollywood film’s plot; however, Godard together with other New Wavers sought to reflect the random absurdity of life that typifies day-to-day living. Godard and other auteurs adopted the notion that the structure was the core element in storytelling, but twisted it to make it variable, based on chance and the uncertainty of existence in the same way as the audience. The paper explores how the French New Wave radically altered cinematic notions on film style and film storytelling. French New Wave films were essentially narrative films; however, the movement is linked to the production of some of the most perplexing, irregular narratives that film viewers have witnessed since Surrealist filmmaking. At the time, causal connections started to become loose as demonstrated by how Michel, the hero of breathless, behaves. In addition, the films lack goal-oriented protagonists, whereby the heroes drift aimlessly, and engage in actions on the spur of the moment. French New Wave narratives frequently introduce staggering changes in a tone, which shocks the expectations of the viewers (Lanzoni 2008, p.3). In Breathless, the hero, Michel’s comic monologue in the first scene as he drives along a road yields directly into the brutal murder of a policeman. The discontinuous editing of the film further disrupts the narrative continuity; moreover, French New Wave film characteristically ends ambiguously. The French New Wave approach of independent financing of low-budget films availed an effective solution to declining cinema attendance and declining cash budget. French New Wave directors mainly documented films quickly and cheaply compared to other directors. Furthermore, young directors aided each other, which largely minimized the financial risk by the established companies. Background The “Nouvelle Vague” (French New Wave) represents a movement within the French film sector that gained prominence in late 1950s and 1960s. French New Wave heralded new blood and revitalized France’s already cinematic scene, and altered almost every aspect of filmmaking and ushered in youthful film makers. The new movement provided a platform to alter the rules directing storytelling while at the same time rethinking conventional film budgets and production norms. The directors linked to the Nouvelle Vague (French New Wave) included Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, and Jacques Demy have made numerous films numbering in the hundreds. The directors of the French New Wave electrified the international film scene with revolutionary new means of telling stories on film, as progenitors of alternative cinema today, which has continued to have significant influence on popular culture (Sultanik1986, p.67). The directors of the French New Wave generated a fresh cinematic style by utilizing breakthrough techniques and fresh approach to storytelling, which could be employed to express intricate ideas while at the simultaneously remaining direct and emotionally engaging. The French New Wave directors elevated artistic and personal vision over the films values as a commercial product; as such, they can be considered as pioneers of contemporary independent film (Neupert 2007, p.47). The pioneers of French New Wave took the risk of discarding the “cinematic rulebook.” French New Wave filmmakers chose to shoot inexpensively, shooting primarily on location, utilizing new or lesser-known actors and small production crews. The filmmakers filmed on the streets where they resided, or in apartments in which they grew up and managed to turn financial shortcomings to their advantage. The stories featured in the French New Wave movement were mostly loosely organized around intricate spontaneous young characters. Most significantly, unpolished, and sometimes awkward film styles to fit together chaotic, good-humoured tales. The stories featured detailed themes seldom explored in conventional cinema. The films usually featured disjointed scenes and incredible lighting effects, quick scene changes, jump cuts, improvised dialogue, and other tools structured to upset the audience out of their expectations for cinema. The New Wavers illuminated a dark side of cinema in which themes such as desperation, suicide, loneliness and paranoia gained prominence. French New Wave movement also aspects such as nudity, drug use, vulgar language, graphic violence, graphic sexuality, as well as other themes considered by the audience relatable. Discussion The French New Wave has rendered it a regular filmic concept to change the normative establishment of storytelling practices. The narrative conversations possessed a progressive sense of forward motion, a casual connection between the events which manifest within the films, coupled with their meaning, significance and influence on the film as a whole. The character monologues and breaks within the editorial continuity provided an arsenal of cinematic devices that Godard’s employed to disrupt the linear pace, introduces a narrative delay, and lengthen plot resolution. The discontinuous cuts generated a sense of freedom and liberation away from the norms of filmic convention. The style also created a free-flowing sensation that most things are possible with the new mode of filmmaking. Auteur Theory According to Auteur theory, the director, rather than the screenwriter, should be charged with making decisions shaping the creation of images including editing, the sets, editing, cinematography, and acting. Moreover, auteurs impose their prints on their work with regard to aspects such as individual themes, stylistic practices, and psychological preoccupations. The auteur theory maintained that the story itself was not above the artists’ vision. The artists’ vision provided filmmakers with the freedom to experiment, grow, and tell the story in their own distinct way. Jean-Luc Godard et al. postulated that film auteur or author could generate a movie in the same manner that novelist utilizes words. As such, film could mirror the personal style and vision of the filmmaker. Some of the inventions that boosted auteur film included sophistication and portability of filmmaking equipment; the equipment allowed informal shooting in which settings could be less formal, and location shooting allowed the camera to respond spontaneously. This allowed the extension on the utilization of mise-en-scene in which the cameramen responded to the whole environment. Auteurs Style Godard and Truffaut utilized references from other directors’ movies within their films by showing a poster from American movies and utilizing the structure of Gangster film as is the case of Breathless (1959). In Breathless, the hero of the film, Michel, models himself after the film persona of Humphrey Bogart (mouth gesture). To this effect, some of the critics to the French New Wave movement criticized the films for lack of originality. The films utilized documentary techniques such as on location shooting, improvised acting, use of comparatively long takes (12 minutes), and departure from conventional style by utilizing jump cuts (Brenez and Parks 2011, p.367). The most apparent revolutionary quality associated with the French New Wave films derived from their casual look, which might have passed as sloppy. The French New Wave directors derived inspiration from Neorealists. The proponents of the French New Wave preferred to shoot on location, rather than studio filmmaking. Furthermore, the directors replaced glossy studio lighting with “light of day.” The French New Wave encouraged its actors to invent their lines, irrespective of whether such an action may slow down the plot. For stance, the bedroom scene in Breathless can be regarded as astonishing, especially with regard to the incoherent, repetitious dialogue. This mise-en-scene altered the cinematography since the French New Wave camera moved significantly, coupled with frequent planning and tracking in a locale (Gray 2010, p.49). This presented a number of advantages such as shooting cheaply on location required flexible, portable equipment, but the directors had developed light weight camera. The French New Wave films heralded a fresh freedom presented by hand-held camera. Jean-Luc Godard’s debut feature can be regarded as one of the films that signified the advent of French New Wave. The story revolves around a young criminal, Michel, who casually murdered a policeman, goes back to Paris to collect money that he is owed. Upon return, Michel intends to persuade his American girlfriend Patricia Franchini to leave the country with him. Patricia betrays Michel and reports him to police, who shoot him dead when he attempts to flee. Based on the rules of cinematic language, Breathless can be viewed as revolutionary in the manner in which it directly challenged the status quo. For instance, in the sequence close to the first scenes of the film, Michel drives towards a police speed-trap and addresses the camera (the audience) directly, which fosters spectators’ identification (Godard and Andrew 1987, p.160). Breathless can be regarded as a metropolitan romance whose narrative is told in a revolutionary style. The film elevates the presentation of story higher than the story itself. A Bout De Souffle (Breathless) can be regarded as the first film under the French New Wave movement. In the film, Godard uses nonprofessional actors, and the film appears to have little expectation of the script. Breathless embraces numerous aesthetics that constitute French New Wave films. With Breathless, Jean-Luc Godard creates a cinema that documents the ordinary experiences and situations, daily recognizable language and emotions, and fragile individuals, whereby Jean-Luc Godard displays a non-superior relationship to the characters (Bordwell & Thompson1986, p.175). The film demonstrates Godard’s manipulation of genre conventions, which were not at the time universally embraced by the audiences. Breathless presents the auteur with an opportunity to identify with Michel (a Frenchman infatuated with everything American) and, Patricia (Jean Seberg), a sensitive, rather than intellectual young lady from America who dreads that she might be too engaged with the underworld. The two characters mirror the director’s imaginary identity represented in the romantic tales but failed relationship (Dixon 1997, p.42). The relationship between Patricia and Michel is echoed within a dense pattern of allusion: genre movies and high-cultural literature. The bulk of devices that Godard utilizes seek to produce a collective working relationship between the audience and the filmmaker, in which spectators can easily collaborate within the production/consumption of meaning. Godard successfully brings the audience into the action of the story as evidenced by his film, Breathless. In the film, Michel speaks directly to the camera as he drives through a French landscape. The utilization of this strategy allows Godard to break any barrier that may exist between the audience and the film, in which the audience forms part of the film’s mise-en-scene via the elimination of the audience’s conception that they are simply watching the film. Conclusion The French New Wave represented a freedom of expression or a fresh mode of acting and remains a core movement in the history of cinema. Although, their stories appeared amateurish on some degree, their stories came out as honest and urgent. The storys structure that was woven around intricate, spontaneous characters appeared weak. As such, the stories were unpolished and sometimes disjointed. Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless can be cited as a prime example of the stylistic innovations associated with French New Wave. Breathless is deeply personal, which is indicative of the cinematic qualities linked to the film movement including the mix of realistic and artistic self reflexivity. Godard’s features disregarding conventional rules by baffling the viewer every ten minutes. Godard’s films represent a juxtaposition and recontextualization of discourses, which yields to confrontation of meanings. Breathless demonstrates that his films were designed to represent reality, especially based on the manner in which it reflects the randomness of life. Godard avoided manipulation of mise-en-scene and utilized a unique editing format to highlight the dynamic, mainly discontinuous, relationships. 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Hollywood: Critical concepts in media and cultural studies, Volume 1, London, Routledge. Pp.227. Sultanik, A. (1986). Film, a modern art, New York, Cornwall Books. Pp.68. Read More