the french new wave, or nouvelle vague, was a french film movement that emerged in the late 1950s from a group of critics writing for cahiers du cinéma. the magazine had been co-founded in 1951 by andré bazin, jacques doniol-valcroze and joseph-marie lo duca, and its writers — among them françois truffaut, jean-luc godard, claude chabrol, éric rohmer and jacques rivette — moved from criticism into directing. rohmer edited cahiers from 1957 to 1963.
chabrol's le beau serge (1958), filmed in the village of sardent over nine weeks and financed by an inheritance, is often cited as the first new wave feature, and it won the prix jean vigo. truffaut's debut, the 400 blows (1959), was shot on location in paris and honfleur, starred jean-pierre léaud and won best director at cannes. godard's first feature, breathless (1960), starred jean-paul belmondo and jean seberg and was made from a treatment by truffaut; it also won the prix jean vigo and drew more than two million viewers in france.
the new wave films were cheap and mobile. breathless was shot handheld by raoul coutard with the éclair cameflex camera over 23 days in august and september 1959, with almost no lighting and most dialogue dubbed afterwards; its jump cuts became its signature. the 400 blows and le beau serge were filmed in real locations rather than studios.
the movement reached the united states through art-house distribution. alongside godard and truffaut, alain resnais's hiroshima mon amour (1959) was grouped with the new wave, and the american critic pauline kael called breathless the most important new wave film to reach the united states.
related profiles; American New Wave, Francis Ford Coppola, John Cassavetes
sources; wikipedia: french new wave, wikipedia: the 400 blows, wikipedia: breathless (1960), wikipedia: le beau serge, wikipedia: cahiers du cinéma
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