This week we learned about the French New Wave the last film movement that we going to discuss. To understand more about French New Wave, Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard 1959 was been played in the classroom.
French New Wave started in 1959 with Breathless by Jean-Luc-Godard and ended in 1969 possibly with Weekend by Jean-Lun-Godard also. French New Wave is one of the film movement that enrolls a group of film directors or we call trailblazers of the French New wave. French New Wave introduced a group of directors that they cannot manage to enroll in the French commercial cinema and turned out to revolutionizing with mixing the rapid cut of Hollywood and the philosophical trend. (Parnell, 2016)
The French film was the main literary adaptation which means that the story from a book, becomes the movie after the books. For example, fictional tales published in books and adapted to cinema. These films were actually filmed without a studio system or on big-budget spectacles and international co-production. They only use a camera or recorder and actors for their film production because an actor is the main ingredient to them.
Besides, French New Wave films challenge the traditions of films. They reject the heavy emphasis on plot & dialogue, and more concern on visual aesthetics and mise-en-scene. They try to make the video more elliptical, that is why when we watched the films, they are using jump cut for the editing style.
Furthermore, The New Wave directors had admired the Neorealists and in opposition to studio shooting, they choose to shoot on location. For example, Bicycle Thieves 1948 by Vittorio De Sica, all on the scene are shot on location. They replace the glossy studio light by using the available light source such as daylight. They also use direct sound, which means, they did recording when shooting on location and do not do any corrections.
French New Wave directors using a unique way for shooting, they didn’t emphasize on the traditions film style, they using handheld cameras for shooting, that is the reason why some of the scenes are shaking and there is a lot of long shot.
Moreover, we can always feel that we are actually being brought into the scene and interact with the characters. The film often calls the attention of the audiences, not only through their cinematography but also the behavior of the actors. Even we see that the character is alone in a particular scene but this doesn’t really make us feel that way because the actors may communicate or talking to the camera and had created an interaction with the audiences.
Regarding the acting, we can see that the actor always improvised their dialogue that could reflect the real-life situation due to the filmmaker does not provide any script. The actor has the freedom to how to act their character and they can create the line spontaneously.
Film discussion: Breathless (1959)
In term of the theory application in the film, the most identifiable is the natural resources that use in the video. For example, the natural daylight and the real environment sound design are appealed in the film. Most of the scene is shaky because the filmmaker is using a hand-held camera most of the time. Next, we also found that there is a lot of long-shot scene in the movie. For example, there is a scene of Michel and Patricia walk along on the street for a long take without any close-up shot or over the shoulder shot. This explains that the whole conversation on that scene only has one take.
Besides, there is a lot of jumpcut in the films. For example, when Patricia was investigated by a police officer, she did not wear sunglasses, but when going to the scene after it, she wears sunglasses in the same place. This also explains that personal authorship is being applied in the film. There is another jumpcut that really easy to be seen. Patricia and Michel were staring at each other at the first, then the scene jumps to they are kissing without any scene that they approach each other. Sometime jumpcuts will be surprising the audience but it breaks the continuity of the storyline.
In the film, there have a self-reflexivity. When Michel driving along to Paris, he keeps talking to the camera, just like have a conversation with the audience. This allows the audience to feel and engage with the character in the film better.
French new wave only longs for 10 years at the pass from 1959 until 1969. Start by Jean-Luc-Godard and also ended by him. French New Wave is one of the film movement. As we can see, most of the film produced by New Wave directors, are all taken by using the hand-held camera so we can see there are some of the scenes are very shaky. This may make the audience feel boring with the long take and shaky scene. But what I like in the French New Wave films is they using all the natural resources for filmmaking. This may spend more time but can get the best visual by using daylight and the environment of the surrounding. I hope that the directors can try to use the French new wave to make a film for once in the 21st century.
REFERENCE :
Parnell,L.(2016). The French New Wave : Revolutionizing Cinema.
Retrieved from https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/the-french-new-wave-revolutionising-cinema/
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