New Wave Cinema Film Realism and Formalism
Table of Contents 1) Nouvelle vague 2) Nouvelle vague’s contribution to film realism 3) Realism or Formalism?
Nouvelle vague • ‘New Wave’ Cinema • Films in the late 1950s and 1960s which are loosely linked by their self-conscious rejection of conventional filmmaking methods. • Radical experiments in narrative construction, mise-en-scène, montage, and subjects and themes (political)
Nouvelle vague Jean-Luc Godard François Truffaut (1930- ) (1932-1984)
Nouvelle vague Eric Rohmer Claude Chabrol (1920 - 2010) (1930 - 2010 )
Nouvelle vague Jacques Rivette André Bazin (1928 - ) (1918 - 1958)
Nouvelle vague Film journalists and critics for Cahiers du cinema a) Attacked the films of many master filmmakers of the day
Nouvelle vague • Reappraisal of certain directors considered as outdated (Jean Renoir and Max Ophüls); • eccentric (Jacques Tati and Robert Bresson); • and unimportant and inartistic (Howard Hawks, Otto Preminger, Samuel Fuller, Nicholas Ray and Alfred Hitchcock). • CINEASTE - watched a huge number of films at Cinématèque française (Henri Langlois’s creation) and had a encyclopediac knowledge of world cinema.
Nouvelle vague 1958 • Claude Chabrol’s Le Beau Serge • François comes back to his home village after a decade to find that his village hasn’t changed but his friend, Serge has.
Nouvelle vague 1959 • François Truffaut’s Quatre cent coups (Four Hundred Blows) • Semi-autobiographical film about a boy who is neglected and misunderstood by his parents and teachers, skipping school, stealing a typewriter and being sent to institution
Nouvelle vague 1960 • By this time, those young filmmakers had become a force to reckon with. • Jacques Rivette’s Paris, nous appartient (Paris Belongs to Us)
Nouvelle vague • Jean-Luc Godard’s A Bout de souffle (Breathless) • A small-time thief, Michel Poiccart steals a car and murders a policeman. In the end, he is betrayed by his ambiguous girl Friend, Patricia.
Nouvelle vague • Claude Chabrol’s Les Cousins • Charles comes to Paris to share an apartment with his decadent cousin, Paul. He falls love with Paul’s friend, Florence. Paul does not care much about a serious relationship and his cousin’s interest in his girlfriend.
Contribution to Film Realism • CASUAL LOOK - the lack of tight narrative structure - ignoring technical conventions - the heavy reliance on improvisation
Contribution to Film Realism • CASUALNESS → to give nouvelle vague films a great sense of presence = a significant instance of reality effects. • Reality looks more casual than well-structured. • The sense of presence similar to the one found in a live TV programme, a documentary film or an amateur film.
Contribution to Film Realism • Hans Holbein Portrait of a Gentleman • Edouard Manet, The Balcony
Contribution to Film Realism • Auguste Renoir, Dance at the Moulin de la Galette
Contribution to Film Realism • ‘All artistic discoveries are discoveries not of likenesses but of equivalencies which enable us to see reality in terms of an image and an image in terms of reality.’ • E.H. Gombrich • ‘If you ask me what the world looks like to me, it looks like a painting by Pissarro.’ Ernst Gombrich
Camille Pissaro, Boulevard des Italiens
Contibution to Film Realism A) The lack of narrative structure: Truer to actual situations Unclear narrative goal - e.g. the protagonists drift aimlessly, start actions on the spur of the moment (Chabrol's Les Cousins, Rivette’s Paris, nous appartient) Improvisation - unpredictable / natural
Contribution to Film Realism • Constant detours and digressions from the main gangster film narrative (Truffaut's Tirez sur le pianiste, Shootthe Piano Player, 1960)
Contribution to Film Realism b) Unconventional mise-en-scène Location shooting and opposition to studio filmmaking: the influence of Neorealist filmmakers (Rivette's Paris Belongs to Us and almost all other Nouvelle vague films) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trxPuwQYRAk
Contribution to Film Realism • Studio lighting was replaced by available light and some auxiliary sources. Filming without artificial lighting was made possible by the availability of fast film stock. • e.g. Quatre cents coups
Contribution to Film Realism • Frequent and agile camera movements - panning and tracking by a hand-held camera or a light camera. • Eclaire camera (mainly used in documentary film - direct cinema)
Contribution to Film Realism • The long tracking shot with a hand-held camera of Antoin Doinel in Quatre Cents Coups • Impressive stop-motion (formalist ending)
Contribution to Film Realism • Hand-held elcaire camera captures Patricia and Michel walking along Champs Elysée • Passer-bys gaze at them and walk in front of the camera.
Contribution to Film Realism • Claude Lelouche’s Un Homme et une femme (1966) • Images go occasionally out of focus or shot against light or the sun
Contribution to Film Realism • François Truffaut’s Jules et Jim (1962) - encyclopedia of film techniques (freeze frame, wipe, masking, swish pan, the insertion of newsreel footage and still photos, etc.) • Casual composition and out of focus photography shot by zoom lens. • Film as play and joke (e.g.)
Contribution to Film Realism • Significant influence on new American films in the 1960 and 70s • George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid • Casual filmmaking - images go out of focus • Bicycle scene
Contribution to Film Realism • Direct sound recording with noises not being erased • Eric Rohmer’s films
Realism or Formalism? • Nouvelle vague filmmakers - self-conscious filmmakers • Do not hide that their films are disguised reality • They rather manifest that their films are ‘films’ - something artificially created and invented
Realism or Formalism? • Films are created not only from imitating reality but also from referring to other films - a form of artifice • Films are not representations of reality but commentaries on the film and the process of filmmaking
Realism or Formalism? • Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le feu • Samuel Fuller’s cameo appearance commenting on filmmaking. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPXV_Tm6iIw
Realism or Formalism? • A film is made of quotations from other films. • A bout de souffle and Humphrey Bogart • Phillip Marlow in Big Sleepand Michel in A Bout de souffle
