New Wave Cinema Jake Shepherd

What is ‘New Wave’ Cinema? The ’New Wave’ is a blanket term named by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s. Although not a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by: their self-conscious rejection of the literary period pieces being made in France and written by novelists; their spirit of youthful iconoclasm; the desire to shoot more current social issues on location; and their intention of experimenting with the film form. "New Wave" is an example of European art cinema. Many also engaged in their work with the social and political upheavals of the era, making their radical experiments with editing, visual style and narrative part of a general break with the conservative paradigm.

What is ‘New Wave’ Cinema? (Continued) The ‘New Wave’ way of filmmaking presented a documentary style. The films exhibited direct sounds on film stock that required less light. Filming techniques included fragmented, discontinuous editing, and long takes. The combination of objective realism, subjective realism, and authorial commentary created a narrative ambiguity in the sense that questions that arise in a film are not answered in the end.

Directors who have created ‘New Wave’ films The directors associated with the Nouvelle Vague, including Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Louis Malle, Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda and Jacques Demy to name a few.

The Top 10 ‘New Wave’ films La Maman et la Putain (The Mother and the Whore, 1973) - dir: Jean Eustache La Vie à l'envers (Life Upside Down, 1964) - dir: Alain Jessua Méditerranée (1963)- dir: Jean-Daniel Pollet Adieu Philippine (1963) - dir: Jacques Rozier L’Eau a la Bouche (A Game for Six Lovers, 1960) - dir: Jacques Doniol-Valcroze Le Bel Age (Love Is When You Make it, 1959) - dir: Pierre Kast Une Vie (One Life, 1958) - dir: Alexander Astruc Marie Pour Mémoire (Marie For Memory, 1967) - dir: Philippe Garrel Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) - dirs: Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillot Une simple histoire (A Simple Story, 1959) - dir: Marcel Hanoun

‘New Wave’ film posters