French "New Wave cinema" is directly linked to the overarching concept of a "national cinema." At issue herein is the question of how successful French filmmakers have been in creating a "national" cinema that addresses or depicts relevant social and political themes or issues that define a film as being from a particular country subsumed within the ideology of the "New Wave." Such a film, as referenced by Aaron Sultanik (1986), is readily identifiable as positioned ideologically as well as physically within the context of events or ideas shaping the socio-political landscape of a country.
By examining a selection of films by two French filmmakers - Claude Berri and Bertrand Blier - it will be argued in this report that France is home to an established "national cinema" that does represent the country's guiding ethos and which is firmly positioned with the larger context of the "New Wave." Additionally, as a product of French cultural rhetoric meant for French and international audiences, this "national cinema" is a multifaceted set of artifacts that have the twofold creative purposes of entertaining and promoting French art; invariably, of course, films are business "products" as well that re designed to make money for producers and film companies.
Stephen Nottingham (2008, p. 1) described New Wave French film as follows:
During the late 1950s and early 1960s young film-makers in many countries were creating their own "new waves", for example the working-class cinema of the "angry young men" in Britain, but the new wave movement in France turned out to be the most influential. The French New Wave directors' background in film theory and criticism was a major factor in this. They changed notions of how a film could be made and were driven by a desire to forge a new cinema. The Cahiers du Cinéma critics were highly critical of the glossy, formulaic and studio-bound French cinema of the 1940s a...