This is why you should go see Nouvelle Vague, and also the film that liberated cinema

Why am I so enormously charmed by New Wave, Richard Linklater's homage to the French film movement that heralded a major renewal of French and European cinema? A liberation that began with a group of film critics, including Truffaut, Godard and Chabrol, who decided to become filmmakers in order to show what cinema could be. A deliberate act of liberation.

Of course, it's wonderful to see how beautifully Linklater has captured that new feeling and camaraderie with appropriate light-heartedness. But what undoubtedly also plays a role is that, as a film buff, I would have loved to have experienced that creative wave myself. But then again, my love of film only began about ten years later, when the Nouvelle Vague was still inspiring (and still is, even now), but had already become a tiny bit of history.¹.

Nouvelle Vague brings that era back to life and has actors step into the shoes of a large number of innovators, such as Truffaut, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette and many others, including lesser-known figures. But the most important thing is that Linklater does this by focusing on Jean-Luc Godard and how he made his name in Paris in 1959. Out of breath With a basic story by François Truffaut, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg as boldly improvising protagonists, and a camera moving just as freely through the streets, this low-budget film became a legendary classic.

Free spirit

Godard, then. He was one of the most convinced innovators who constantly (he died in 2022 at the age of 91) continued to reinvent cinema. In my opinion, he grew into a somewhat inaccessible genius whose explorations were sometimes difficult to follow. I realise that I am summarising this a little too succinctly, because his oeuvre remains very special and there are major differences between the Godard who was caught up in the revolutionary spirit of 1968, with sometimes extreme work, and the still challenging but also more accessible filmmaker he later became.

At the time, I wrote about his Sauve qui peut (1980), for example: ‘A beautiful, unusual film in which, alongside the necessary cryptic remarks and symbolism, everyone can find something to their liking.’ But one of his last films, Film Socialisme (2010), which received mixed reviews at Cannes, was a return to a more severe Godard, a rather sombre cultural critique that begins on board a cruise ship, in which you can, of course, see all kinds of symbolism.

My admiration for Godard's free and inquiring mind was accompanied by the feeling that he had withdrawn into himself, retreating to an island, as it were. This was more or less confirmed in Visages villages (2017) by Agnès Varda, who was also one of the pioneers of the Nouvelle Vague at the time. In this documentary, she wants to give Godard a place, but when she arrives at his home, she is met with nothing but a blunt refusal, much to her disappointment.

Sunglasses

With that in mind, it was a delightful surprise to see a young Godard in Nouvelle Vague (he was 29 when he made À bout de souffle), played with verve by Guillaume Marbeck. With his ever-present sunglasses, clearly already possessing the necessary know-it-all attitude and a touch of arrogance, but also full of bold energy and cheeky charm.

During the lively scenes filmed with a handheld camera, things naturally go wrong on a regular basis, but Godard doesn't care. When someone claims that a shot is impossible to edit, Godard confidently asserts that this is actually a good thing, because the old rules of filmmaking no longer apply. You can see how his teammates sometimes look on with concern, but also how infectious his energy is. Yes, this is the Godard with a boyish bravado that I want to etch into my memory.

Out of breath

And then, after seeing New Wave of course, the original one too Out of breath (re)view. Since that groundbreaking work appeared, that free style has been widely imitated, so that it may no longer seem as revolutionary as it did at the time. Yet you can still sense that urge to do things differently.

A wonderfully nonchalant Jean-Paul Belmondo plays a chain-smoking car thief who, after killing a police officer, goes on the run and ends up in the hotel bed of an American journalist and newspaper seller played by Jean Seberg. A story that effortlessly combines admiration for American B-movies with tentative conversations about love and who or what you could be for each other or yourself. Playful, romantic, serious and sobering at the same time. Nouvelle Vague and À bout de souffle, a unique double bill.

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1. The Nouvelle Vague was started by film journalists from the renowned magazine Cahiers du cinéma. ︎