VIFF: Nouvelle Vague

ALL YOU NEED TO MAKE A MOVIE IS A GIRL AND A GUN  – Jean-Luc Godard.  Paris, 1959.

There are some things I will never understand.  This movie may be one of them.  But some things I cannot fully make sense of will still stand stand out as being innovative, artistic and surreal.  This movie was the opening film at VIFF…about a film…that’s a bit vague (for lack of a better word). Visually it is stunning, filmed in all black and white.  It’s also a true story and the original film Breathless went on to win several awards.

Nouvelle Vague stands for French New Wave, which was an influential film movement in France from the late 1950’s to the early 1960’s that rejected traditional filmmaking conventions through experimental techniques like jump cuts, location shooting, and handheld cameras. A direct response against the formulaic and studio-controlled films of the time, which focused on strong, easy-to-follow narratives. This type of filmmaking is a “go with whatever flow” method and has a kind of film noir imaging – creating a more immediate and spontaneous feel. 

The low-budget, documentary-style approach of this film speaks to me, because now I don’t feel so bad about my trial and error, guerrilla-style, unprofessional YouTube (not telling you about it right now) channel where I am director, etc.

Directed by Richard Linklater (included in Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world),  it is fresh and compelling. It follows the true story of Swiss intellectual Jean-Luc Godard as he makes a movie starring American starlet Jean Seberg (who speaks French with an American accent) and boxer Jean Paul Belmondo.

The primary pioneers of the French New Wave were film critics and future directors François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard,  Éric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, and Jacques Rivette.