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 Director's 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 "raising hell") 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.

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xistentialism is a Humanism). To Sartre, consciousness is a lack or nothingness that can never be filled; his pessimistic views are based on his premise that "man is in anguish" as well as despair. "We limit ourselves to a reliance upon that which is within our wills, or within the sum of the probabilities which render our action feasible." Reality only exists, therefore, in action, and man is "nothing else but what his life is" (Existentialism is a Humanism). As an existential character, Antoine undergoes a unique and isolated individual experience in a hostile and indifferent society and universe that denies any special or unique essence that humans might have. The consequence of such a predicament is the necessity of freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's actions. Antoine's existence his essence, is determined by his choices. Antoine is a typical example of a character in French New Wave films. These characters are often young anti-authoritarian loners and anti-heroes, with no family ties, who behave spontaneously and act immorally. Antoine may have a mother and step-father but they pay little attention to him, and eventually abandon him to social workers and the criminal justice system, leaving

Category: Film - F