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The French New Wave

The emergence of the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague) was situated at a time of radical historical transition during the later Post World War II period when the concerns of many French filmmakers differed sharply from traditional French cinema. The social atmosphere of the film movement, that came to prominence in 1959 and lasted to about 1965, was marked by the Liberation that followed the Occupation, Collaboration and Resistance. Cahiers du Cinema magazine writer Jean Douchet, involved with the New Wave since its inception, wrote of the period in a book published in 1999.

Arriving with explosive force, the Liberation

was aptly named, sweeping the country clean not

only of the occupying force and its

collaborators, but also, and especially of a

reprehensible ideology. It was a form of

redemption, which awakened an immense need for

communication, expression, reflection, and

understanding. In film, as in many other fields,

speaking out became a necessity (35).

Filmmaker Francois Truffaut, whose first film The 400 Blows (Les Quartre Cent Coups won the Best DirectorÆs Award at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, put the French New Wave film movement on the international film scene. The 400 Blows (a slang term meaning ôraising hellö) is rightly cited as an autobiographical narrative, but the film may also be viewed as an allegory representative of the alienated post-war generation in France, particularly the younger generation.

As an allegory, the fictional (albeit semi-autobiographical) character of Antoine Doinel and his actions may be taken as a symbolic representation about human existence in post-War France. Several factors support this view. The first is the mark on FranceÆs psyche created by the countryÆs occupation, and response, during World War II, and the deprivation the French underwent regarding the necessities of life. New Wave was

initially a blanket term for fu...

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The French New Wave. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 01:16, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1701506.html