The most important movement done in French New Wave was these young filmmakers fight against the prevailing trends such as literary adaption which means the movie made by the story from a book, costume drama and massive co-production. The young generation of filmmakers in the late 1950s wanted to do more whether on screen or behind the screen. The appearance of the new wave of filmmakers caused the older filmmakers dying off in a short period. In the mid-1950s, these young men wrote for the Paris film journal Cahiers du Cinema which the content about the critics on the most respected French filmmakers of the day. The authors write about the Film Noir and watched a lot of unreleased films.
Became a writing criticism do not satisfied the young filmmakers and they decided to start to make a movie with borrowing money from their friends. These young filmmakers always rejecting the French filmmaker's establishment with the Hollywood's commercials. The principles of these filmmakers usually did not have literally write a script and must reject the montage aesthetics and insert directors' personalities into his/her studio products. Before the French New Wave occur, Hollywood control the film industry. Back in those days, Hollywood famous in their continuously editing to create the similar edit. They love to create a film world to pull the audience into a part of the movie. However, the French New Wave filmmakers always wanted to transcend the constraints of Hollywood's standardize system. They will reject all the strong editing and prefer use mise-en-scene to create a movie. For them, visual is very important as well as the film must include emotion and psychological elements.
Due to they do not associate with any group, they started to create low-budget and non-studio films. They have their own thought in making films and do not stuck in the studio based system. The director in French New Wave able to become an artist who making a real film art by no third party's controlling. The filmmakers show proficient and mature with each successive film to become an author. The economic situation for these filmmakers was independent with no studio interaction but with a low budget which means they do not have own studio and money.
The characteristics of French New Wave film somehow has some similarities with Italian Neorealism as these young directors had admired the Neorealists. They did not progress the studio filmmaking but shooting on actual location. They took the views of Paris as their mise-en-scene. They prefer to use natural light source rather than glossy studio lighting. The filmmakers loved to use shooting techniques such as panning, tracking to follow characters and long takes. Hence, Eclair had developed a lightweight camera that could be handheld and these filmmakers were crazy in love with this camera. On top of that, the filmmakers created unique editing skill as well to reject the film traditions such as jump cut and elliptical which means mouth do not sync with the voice we heard. The characters in the film will not follow the script and sometimes they will look into the camera and enter monolog mode. New Wave film has a casual humor as their special characteristic and the narratives often introduce startling shifts in tone and jolting our expectation.
Breathless is a 1960 French film which written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film is about a youthful criminal, Michel who steal a car in Marseille and shot a policeman. He tries to escape from the police forces and falls in love with an American named Patricia at the same time.Patricia hides him in her apartment as he simultaneously tries to seduce her and call in a loan to fund their escape to Italy. Patricia says she is pregnant and most probably is Michel’s, however, she notices that Michel is on the run when questioned by the police. In the end, she chooses to betray him, but before the police arrive she tells Michel about this. The police shoot him in the street end, after a long run, he dies out of breath.
The most obvious New Wave characteristic can be found in this film is the editing technique, jump cut which brings a discontinuously editing in the scene where Michel shots down the police. On top of that, the whole film was shoot on in actual location but not a studio filmmaking. In the beginning of the film, Michel is driving on a road and talking in front of the camera as he is talking with us, the audiences. This can often remind us that we are watching a film by not enter the film world. Plus, the characters dialogues were not script based hence they were natural in talking with each other some more they will use hmph a song to complete the particular of a shot. The real life conversation makes they talk a lot in the movie for example Michel and Patricia's interaction in her apartment. It is not hard to find several shots are very shaky and unstable as they prefer the handheld camera to shoot the film.
The characteristics of French New Wave film somehow has some similarities with Italian Neorealism as these young directors had admired the Neorealists. They did not progress the studio filmmaking but shooting on actual location. They took the views of Paris as their mise-en-scene. They prefer to use natural light source rather than glossy studio lighting. The filmmakers loved to use shooting techniques such as panning, tracking to follow characters and long takes. Hence, Eclair had developed a lightweight camera that could be handheld and these filmmakers were crazy in love with this camera. On top of that, the filmmakers created unique editing skill as well to reject the film traditions such as jump cut and elliptical which means mouth do not sync with the voice we heard. The characters in the film will not follow the script and sometimes they will look into the camera and enter monolog mode. New Wave film has a casual humor as their special characteristic and the narratives often introduce startling shifts in tone and jolting our expectation.
Breathless is a 1960 French film which written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film is about a youthful criminal, Michel who steal a car in Marseille and shot a policeman. He tries to escape from the police forces and falls in love with an American named Patricia at the same time.Patricia hides him in her apartment as he simultaneously tries to seduce her and call in a loan to fund their escape to Italy. Patricia says she is pregnant and most probably is Michel’s, however, she notices that Michel is on the run when questioned by the police. In the end, she chooses to betray him, but before the police arrive she tells Michel about this. The police shoot him in the street end, after a long run, he dies out of breath.
The most obvious New Wave characteristic can be found in this film is the editing technique, jump cut which brings a discontinuously editing in the scene where Michel shots down the police. On top of that, the whole film was shoot on in actual location but not a studio filmmaking. In the beginning of the film, Michel is driving on a road and talking in front of the camera as he is talking with us, the audiences. This can often remind us that we are watching a film by not enter the film world. Plus, the characters dialogues were not script based hence they were natural in talking with each other some more they will use hmph a song to complete the particular of a shot. The real life conversation makes they talk a lot in the movie for example Michel and Patricia's interaction in her apartment. It is not hard to find several shots are very shaky and unstable as they prefer the handheld camera to shoot the film.
