The French New Wave of the most influential movements in the history of cinema!
The French new wave or the Nouvelle Vague is a film movement that started in the early 1960s and was spearheaded by young film critics who watched a lot of Hollywood cinema and were tired of the French Bourgeois cinema in the early 50s and 40s. The impact of the French New Wave was so massive that it quite literally reshaped cinema, and brought dynamism and eclectic style into filmmaking. Along with style it also brought a lot of new concepts and ideas to modern filmmaking which were never explored before such as shooting with bare minimum set-ups, using handheld shots, and substituting high-end cinema gear with common items, like a wheelchair for a dolly. Or setting up close-up shots at the back of the character's heads. This list explores films within that movement that had the most impact and are continued sources of inspiration for new creators and artists throughout the globe.
Breathless is synonymous with the French new wave, it is the most idiosyncratic film on this list and can be credited for birthing many modern film techniques including the ‘jump cut’, directed by Jean Luc Godard, the film has a runtime of ninety minutes and a story that has a feeling of a banal pulp American novel, the movie has reached a status of immortality and is liked almost universally among enthusiasts, scholars and practitioners alike.
Another absolute classic, 400 Blows put the French New Wave on the world stage as it won the best director at the Cannes Film Festival, directed by another titan of the French new wave Francois Truffaut, the film is a coming-of-age story of a young boy who runs away from home the star of the film the child actor Jean Pierre Laud later goes on to star in other important films from many directors in the French new wave as an adult.
Perhaps stylistically most dissimilar to other films on the list, Hiroshima Mon Amour is an exercise in cinematic storytelling and ever-present with dreamy and stark imagery yet does not only intellectually satisfy you but also strikes an emotional chord. Directed by Alain Resnais who is also a collaborator in many other projects by stalwarts of the French New Wave.
