Critical Analysis

1. Breathless &
The French New Wave

2. The French New Wave
The French New Wave was an innovative and
intellectual film movement. It was instantly
recognizable in the late 1950s due to its distinctive
form, narrative and style of film making among the
youthful directors. The major factors contributing
to the characteristics of this film movement are the
French New Wave directors background in film
theory, critics and their willingness in
experimenting and breaking established film rules
to keep with contemporary French culture of the
USA invading the French market post-war.
Nevertheless, the uniqueness of French New Wave
film movement is also inspired by the Italian Neo-
Realism film movement, and driven by the concept
of “auteur” as well as budget restrictions. Hence,
these factors highlight the characteristics of this
film movement in aspects of narrative, mise-en-
scène and mise-shot.

3. Film Synopsis
Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is a youthful criminal who is
intrigued with the film persona of Humphrey Bogart. After
stealing a car in Marseille, Michel shoots and kills a
policeman who has followed him onto a country road.
Penniless and on the run from the police, he turns to an
American love interest Patricia (Jean Seberg), a student and
aspiring journalist, who sells the New York Herald Tribune
on the streets of Paris.
The ambivalent Patricia unwittingly hides him in her
apartment as he simultaneously tries to seduce her and
call in a loan to fund their escape to Italy. At one point,
Patricia says she is pregnant with Michel’s child. She learns
that Michel is on the run when questioned by the police.
Eventually she betrays him, but before the police arrive
she tells Michel what she has done.
He is somewhat resigned to a life in prison, and does not
try to escape at first. The police shoot him in the street
and, after a prolonged death run, he dies “à bout de
souffle” (out of breath).

4. Case Study
https://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=yV5Wf5VGVy8
How WWII changed cinema

5. Nouvelle
Vague
● Forever altered long-established notions of cinema
style, themes, narrative and audience.
● Extended shots, handheld footage,
● Naturalistic performances, on-location shooting,
whip-pans, socio-political commentary
● and ambiguous or unresolved endings
● Cinema as documentary
● Cinephilia
● Technical advances
● Subversion of the norm

6. To simplify
transportation and
filming, basic sound
recording was used
whilst shooting
meaning that many of
the main actors had
to re-dub their
dialogue in post-
production.
As a result, many
fluffed lines remain in
the final cut.
Characteristics For a sense of
immediacy and
urgency, many scenes
shot on the streets
were
unrehearsed and
unannounced.

7. Natural lighting
Scenes jump to
and from
different points
in time, skipping
over linking
material.
Lack of
establishing
shots in the
films: confusing!
Lots of the main
characters seek
solace or refuge
in the cinema, a
reference to the
director’s love of
the movies.
Unsettling,
challenging and
exhilarating to
an audience
used to
formulaic
narratives,
pacing and
camerawork.

8. Auteur Theory
Film as a product of
the director’s
absolute imaginative
and inspired aesthetic
vision

9. Mise en scene
Arrange of props & production -
http://welovefrenchnewwave.blogspot.in/2012/0
3/unique-characteristic-narrative-and_08.html

10. Montage
Editing in the film

11. Cahiers du Cinéma
Oldest film magazine -
founded by Andre Bazin.
Writers Jacques Rivette,
Jean-Luc Godard, Claude
Chabrol and François
Truffaut.

12. “
Godard was at the time, and still is today, seeking a
visual form for his films that is as minimalist as
possible. When you watch a Godard film, this is its
primary interest. This is for me the great art of
Godard' s modem films: minimal technique to
achieve an extreme wealth of intellectual
possibilities….. Jean-Luc Godard is completely excep-
tional this way. Not one of his films is stereotypical.
You never know what's going to happen, and their
form continually bursts forth. It's not only in the
power of what is said and printed on.

13. Examples Jump cut is used
almost throughout
the film A bout de
soufflé. Along the
way Michel drove
Patricia to a café to
meet up the
American
journalist, there
are about eleven
jump cuts in 1
minutes and 14
seconds scene.
In A bout de
soufflé, the
camera was held
by a
cinematographe
r while sitting on
a wheelchair to
follow the
character’s
movement in a
travel agency’s
office.
In the
meanwhile, the
brightness of
lighting for the
jump shot
scenes shows
discontinuity of
the brightness.
-
PoV (rolled
poster scene)

14. STAGING: The actors were encouraged to improvise their lines, or talk over each
other’s lines as would happens in real-life. Lengthy scenes of inconsequential
dialogue in A Bout de Souffle film included the use of vernacular speech and
colloquial expressions of main male character, Michel.
CASTING: Played by unknown actors, Belmondo and Seberg which used to portray
real life through its use of ordinary actors besides than emphasized the low budget
nature of the new wave films.
Marginalized, young anti-heroes and loners, with no family ties, who behave
spontaneously, often act immorally and are frequently seen as anti-authoritarian.
(Eg: Metaphor of masking face)
WOMEN in Nouvelle Vague: Central female characters were often given strong
parts too, for example, Patricia in A Bout de Souffle (1959) was portrayed as
desexualized woman that reshaping and resisting the stereotypical film femme
fatale. She represented the modern women who are independent and active within
the narrative, opposing the traditional representation of women as passive in
tradition classic Hollywood cinema by being journalist in earning own money to
gain independence. e use of naturalistic lighting on Patricia, the lead actress in A
Bout de Souffle (1959) was successful to portray her innocence in order to gain
male attention rather than sexuality.
Manifestations
of the Nouvelle
Vague in
Breathless

15. Summary
- French New wave
- Documentary style of filmmaking
- Jumpcuts (Montage)- Pan shots, POV shots, Track
shots (Elliptical editing)
- Mise en scene- Setting, lighting, Sound
- Auteur theory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=3Iz3JTGHRh0
What I Learned From Watching: Breathless

16. Merci.