French New Wave: La Vie en Rose

The innovation of French New Wave Cinema, (or can be referred to La Nouvelle Vague)
was a film language innovation during French cinematic history. During the 50’s until about late
70’s, at first the style of French films were very dictated under Hollywood approach, meaning
that making good films must build a studio, and must have expensive machines in order to get
the best takes. According to youth filmmakers, the message delivery is not personal to the
French daily life. As a result, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnes Varda, Claude Chabrol,
Jacques Rivette, Alain Resnais, Louis Male, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Demy made a
breakthrough, which is called La Nouvelle Vague.

The influence of La Nouvelle Vague came when youth filmmakers decided to change the
filmmaking theory, by capturing real life experience in the movie, and invented new shots
without adding expensive equipment; because at that time, although they admire studio-made
film, however French films didn’t express human life, thought, and emotion in a genuine way. 1
In this era of film, most directors portray the reality of French lives. As a result, most films
attracted great attention to youth that big theaters in France started to experience bankruptcy.
Therefore, the government of France subsidized those directors in order to develop their new
films, as well as entering the movie theater.

Most youth preferred to attend small movie screenings, as well as appalled in seeing
new shots. So what is so special about the shots? Mostly, La Nouvelle Vague applied jump cuts,
rapid editing, shooting outdoors & location, natural lighting, improvised dialogue and plotting,
direct sound recording and long takes 2 . For instance, the application of the new wave film on
L’auberge Espagnole and Casse-tête Chinois applied jump cuts during the last scene in
L’auberge Espagnole, where the director showed different faces in one sequence, and freeze
shots in Casse-tête Chinois.

I think this invention of French New Wave really amaze me, because it is not just about
the shot inventions, but the style of 50’s and 70’s that indirectly becomes a trademark of La
Nouvelle Vague, although some shots have been applied in some film nowadays, however the
influence of La Nouvelle Vague has created a major change in cinematic development, as well
as the pop culture in fashion, advertising, and lifestyle.