Contextual Studies New Wave cinema- Nouvelle Vague research

The new wave was all about representing the spirit of the era, creating a new style of filmmaking (had to make the audience aware they are watching a film)

The French New Wave of the late 1950s, one of the key movements of post-war European filmmaking, forever altered long-established notions of cinema style, themes, narrative and audience. The New Wave (or Nouvelle Vague) showed the vibrant realism of Paris’ streets and its inhabitants at a time when many Hollywood films were still formulaic and studiobound. A Hollywood film of the time would more than likely have included a linear narrative and uncomplicated shots and edits (such as a typical shot-reverse-shot); a film from the New Wave, however, would astonish you with extended shots, handheld footage, naturalistic performances, on-location shooting, whip-pans, socio-political commentary and ambiguous or unresolved endings. Today, its impact can still be felt in the work of many contemporary directors including Martin Scorsese, Bernardo Bertolucci and Quentin Tarantino.


The French New Wave was born out of the dissatisfaction that many young filmmakers and critics felt towards the existing, outmoded, French cinema of the time. While cinema was the most popular entertainment option in France in the 1950s (it was, after all, not long after the war and television had yet to fully impact upon society there), serious art critics found the films on offer to be unchallenging, stolid and without vision. Critics of the existing order, including Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, believed an auteur cinema, in which the director’s vision was paramount and personal, should be developed. They wanted to make films in which social and political issues could be explored – films that felt ‘raw’ and new. Taking matters into their own hands (and a dash of inspiration from the Italian Neo-Realist movement), Truffaut, Godard and several others set about changing cinema forever. The New Wave was born.

Jump Cuts- show the difference of space and time between two shots (to match or to mismatch 2 shots)
Camera-stylo (personalising films)
"Golden rule of show dont tell"
capturing a 'fly on the wall' feel
breaking the forth wall
push the boundaris of story telling
ahead of their time
'look at what works in your medium and think how could it be done differently'
'all you need to make a great film is a vision'
heavy on stylistic experimentation

'reality was the world as it presented itself to consciousness, and the film-maker as perceiving consciousness was responsible for mastering the flow of this perceived reality and shaping it to make its truth visible.' Andre bazin's nomenology (the Cahiers group)


'The French New Wave was a group of trailblazing directors who exploded onto the film scene in the late 1950s; revolutionising cinematic conventions by marrying the rapid cuts of Hollywood with philosophical trends.'

look at- the umbrellas from cherbrough

Bibliography 

'In France the great commercial success of 28–year-old Roger Vadim’s Et Dieu . . . créa la femme(And God Created Woman, 1956)' p.214 Cinemas of the World'

French New Wave, The pocket essential

Making Waves New cinema of the 1960s

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/the-french-new-wave-revolutionising-cinema/

http://www.newwavefilm.com/new-wave-cinema-guide/nouvelle-vague-where-to-start.shtml

http://www.filmeducation.org/pdf/resources/secondary/FrenchNouvelleVague.pdf