The French New Wave: 3 Moments of radical change

1. The Blum-Byrnes Trade Agreement Of 1946 

• American imports were regulated during this post-war period. 
• 13 weeks were set as the maximum number for screening purely French films. 
• This corresponded to the production capacity of the French film industry, badly hit by lack of investment during the war. 
• TV was slow to take off. 
• Specialist press flourished. 
• Serious discussion of film flourished. 
• Most particularly “Cahiers du Cinema” (1951) 
• Cinema in France was taken extremely seriously for the first time. 
• Art screenings and discussions were common. 
• Created by University drop-outs this ‘counter-culture’ attempted to position cinema within the mainstream of French and European culture. 
• Andre Bazin, Jean-Luc Godard, Francis Truffaut (critics) 

2. The Nouvelle Vague (new wave)

• These critics went on to make films. 
• They dispensed with the technical hierarchies required by traditional cinema. 
• Divisions between – producer / director / editor / cameraman / actor / writer - became blurred 
• Worked from an idea - improvised - work on other films as (actors/writers etc) 
• Used their own apartments instead of sets & cast friends & girlfriends in starring roles. New actors and actresses employed. 
• Subject matter changed. Literary adaptation went out the window. They wrote about things that they knew: Relationships/lives etc. 
• They had the look of documentaries and explored the relationship between ‘fiction’ and ‘doc’ and ‘naturalism’ and ‘formalism’.
• They also incorporated a consciousness of the history of cinema – especially Hollywood. 

3. The Events of May 1968

• Many Directors demonstrated against the governments proposals to take over the film organisations Cinematheque. 
• Students/workers rioting. 
• Nouvelle vague directors were seen to be aligned with this new political radicalism. 
• Godard’s “Le Petit Soldat” (1960) was considered critical of the war in Algeria. Was not released till 1963. 

Issues

• Sexual politics/Gender/Prostitution/Homophobia 

Nouvelle Vague created

• The low budget art film 
• The director as auteur
• Introduced a radical approach to genre and narrative