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Flow of Ideas: articles - French New Wave Cinema

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Chandos Book Publishing

French New Wave Cinema


Gregory Rikowski
5th November 2006, London

The French ‘new wave’ cinema during the 1950s is said to be one of the most influential new waves of all time. The term new wave was coined by a journalist called Francoise Giroud at L’Express, and referred to the group of films produced in France by new directors in 1959 and 1960. New Wave films illustrate the kinetic devices that emphasise movement and the way that people reveal their lives. The journeys, challenges and difficulties people had to face were uncovered. This was very important because it emphasises the use of freedom and how important it was to have freedom of expression, of speech and also freedom of thought.

It can be argued that the Old Cinema had a very low concern with this topic because freedom goes against particular traditional views, such as some religious and also ethical beliefs. One of the reasons why the French New Wave was successful was because it was the majority that wanted change in the French democratic system. However, it is often the majority that are the ones with average minds and it is various cultural minorities and revolutionaries who normally achieve originality in the arts. Television at this time was starting to affect the audiences of film viewers. People began to visit the cinema less regularly, so French film distributors wanted to interact with new directors for less money. Technology had a significant impact on the new wave cinema as well, and on the ways that these films were produced and appeared to audiences.

Values in France in the 1950s had begun to change very fast and some say this was because of the influence of the war. The economic, political and social changes resulting from the Second World War were still extremely important then in society, and influenced changes in youth culture and ideology. Maybe war strengthens people’s ideas and produces people to make their thoughts clearer, and to question whether in fact they are happy with the society they live in. Or possibly it could be another reason. For example, the emergence of youth style which was epitomised in Rock and Roll by Elvis Presley made a dramatic change to the lives and ideology young people lived by.

Before A Bout De Soufflé (1959) was produced, Hollywood had only used vertical integration methods, and that was during the period mainly between the 1920s and the 1950s. Each studio had control of all the aspects of its films. For example Warner Brothers, had the honour of having everything controlled within their company. A Bout De Soufflé was made in France between August 17 and September 15, 1959. The film had cost 4000,000 francs; equivalent to £30,000. This film had changed and challenged many concepts that Classical Hollywood was familiar with. The camera shots were fascinatingly closer than ever before and had broken the 180 degree rule, which the camera could not go beyond. Film makers wanted to modernise films which were a lot more open and expressive, and more philosophical, unlike the traditional French cinema. The strange thing about this particular film is the scene where Jean Seberg (Patricia) and Jean–Paul Belmondo (Michael Poiccard) sit in a room and have a discussion for around 20 minutes. Classical Hollywood would not have such long scenes, because they are often very much action driven movies which were essentially very different. We can see in A Bout De Soufflé that the protagonist character questions life and is portrayed differently as compared to original gangster conventions. We can sense that in this particular film Old Cinema would never consider using very extreme jump cuts, because before the 1950s the narrative had to be very clear, and simple and also logical to the viewers. Film makers could start experimenting with the style of camera angles and movement, also involving the recording of sound. You can also recognise that light was becoming a lot more sensitive and a stock element, which let films be made on locations. This anti-classical Hollywood convention would never have featured in Classical Hollywood.

The main character in A Bout De Soufflé, Michael Poiccard, had attempted to push the gangster narrative further than ever before. The lip swipe and also a more childish character was a new idea at the time which modern films today use. The issues regarding sex and babies were very openly discussed in A Bout De Soufflé. When Michael Poiccard showed no concern, for example, when Jean Seberg announced she was pregnant this was very shocking mainly because it was not talked about at the time. He showed the irresponsible and childish side to his character. A Bout De Soufflé was set in a city which is a typical iconography for the gangster theme. In contrast, in Pulp Fiction two men talk about burgers and say things which a gangster is not often familiar with because gangsters in general are associated with being mean and very narrow minded.

A Bout De Soufflé was considered the film which had destroyed all the old principles, bending many rules in the World of Cinema and was said to have brought in the end of the Old Cinema. A Bout De Soufflé was very progressive and it was extremely brave to try and conquer many techniques that had never been experimented with before. Locations started developing into very accurate positions and places that we are familiar with today. This may have been the main influence on the realism of characters in A Bout De Soufflé because the realism of locations and characters combine very well together. Although it was a very amateur film in some ways; for example when in the beginning Michael Poiccard aims his gun in one direction but the officer stands in another direction and gets shot! In some ways A Bout De Soufflé was seen to be the opposite to Old Cinema mainly because people’s ideology had begun to change and for some time Hollywood had seemed to struggle to catch up with the dramatic changes that had been foreseen by the new wave. The film matches the combination of art and life but in a very subtle and direct way which Classical Hollywood could not deal with. The film captured what change there was to be in the near future and how old conventions were being turned around to create a more optimistic but over ambitious world.


Gregory Rikowski is an A-level student at Epping Forest College in Essex. He is 17 years old. His poems, The All Rounder (The Centre of Everything) and The Ideal World, were published in the latest issue of Information for Social Change (No.23, summer 2006) at:
http://libr.org/isc/toc.html



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