The Relation of Italian Neorealism, French New Wave and New German Cinema (Part 2)

           After we look at Italian Neorealism, now it’s time to see the French New Wave. It all started during the 1950’s, where the idealism of political movements during postwar gave way to a more apolitical culture of consumption and leisure. The emerging generation was led by youth who read film journals and attended screenings at Cahiers du Cinéma and “art & experiment” cinemas. However the government didn’t tap these new consumers. In 1958, the film industry was declining that the youngsters would like to make their own film, thus the government created Prime de la Qualité ("subsidy for quality"), where filmmakers receive subsidy for making films, if the script is interesting. This new style of film comprises of daily lives instead of studio-like films. It doesn’t mean New Wave filmmakers don’t like Hollywood films, they do like their artwork. However to them, filmmaking techniques can be invented, and surprisingly it became an inspiration to many famous filmmakers, one of them is Quentin Tarantino in his Pulp Fiction (1994). So what makes this wave so special? Jump cuts, rapid editing, on-location shooting, natural lighting, mobile cameras, and long takes (Hitchman, 2008) became the most prominent shots. These techniques have helped filmmakers shift into an artistic scene, where they experiment creativity in using shots. For instance, À bout de Souffle (1960) uses so much jump cuts in Patricia’s scene, when she was sitting in the car, because Godard wanted to give audience a sign that they are watching a film (Channel Criswell, 2015). In addition, they focus on what is more important in a frame, in order to save time during filming. Just like when you want to make an establishment shot. If you don’t have any budget, it is impossible to catch the city of New York with octocopter right? Or even cranes. Therefore Godard framed one important background, which is the door, and the man who wanted to run across. Thus, if the man moves across he can pan his camera. Less budget, saves time (Channel Criswell, 2015). This movement has been increasing until other filmmakers besides André Bazin’s Group, The Left Bank (Rive Gauche) had made several films that consist of professional, experimental movement. It consisted of Agnès Varda, Alain Resnais, and Jacques Demy. Three of them created films that aimed to emphasize literary and political perspectives, instead of cinematic language. As a result, Hiroshima Mon Amour won as the best film in Cannes Festival, 1959 due to the sexual intimacy, as well as political situations during Pearl Harbor in the story (Thompson & Bordwell, 2003). Unfortunately, during whole decade society didn’t put more interest into New Wave films anymore, until it declined. Therefore, New German Cinema has emerged, starting in 1962.

            Twenty six young filmmakers have signed a manifesto that the old film is dead in Oberhausen Film Festival. As a result, these pioneers, Herzog, Fassbinder, Schlöndorff, Wenders and Syberberg became the pioneers of New German Cinema.

“We were all great movie fans and we went to cinemas when we were 15 years old and 20 years old, 5 and 6 times a week; and we always what we saw was Manhattan, Hong Kong, California, Marseille, Paris and Rome. So I think we have a terrible need to show places in here too, and people who lives here too. And we want to show them. We wondered why aren’t we ever happening on the screen? Why always the others?”-Schlöndorff- (Anything I Like, 2013)

This movement happened not because they are inspired to replicate French New Wave, however they made films in order to rebel films that contained political propaganda, commercial films and gain more active spectators. The main reason was these youngsters want to make films again. Thus, these filmmakers gained petition for the government to give them subsidy. It took a lot of hard work because the governments didn’t believe what they were doing. Therefore, filmmakers used the limited, given equipment in order to create films. According to Schlöndorff, Germany has something to tell, which is from their cultural customs, as well as from literary works. It is proved when he adapted a novel called The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1974). The story tells about a maid who fell in love with a random guy in a party, and it turned out he is a terrorist and Katharina became a trap by the police. In this film, Schlöndorff conveyed the loss of humanity in people; he thought that people became mean by taking advantage of people. As a  result, Schlöndorff had successfully won two prizes in German Film Awards and San Sebastian International Film Festival (Schlöndorff, 1976). What makes this film different from other waves was the aspect of political rebellion, against commercial films that just making films based on market’s demands. Thus, these three movements reflect within each other, in similarity and differences.     

           It seems interesting to see the connections between those three waves, after the movement of Italian Neorealism. Clearly, each waves have a different flow of story when conducting new filmmaking, but on the other hand these movements have a quite similarity, and differences in each similarity, which will be looked at how they create history. I will elaborate about the similarity, and this similarity will show their differences as well.

The similarity can be seen from camera techniques. Mostly, young cinemas and neorealism used shot on-location, natural sound & lighting, low budget, handheld cameras, and improvised plot & dialogue. French New Wave is influenced by Italian Neorealism at first, then followed by German New Cinema (Thompson & Bordwell, 2003).  But there is something much more than these inventions. It is how filmmakers create a movement against political oppression and old tradition. Three of these movements has conveyed the angle of humanity based on those eras.

            Let’s jump back again to Italian Neorealism. This movement portrays the angle of humanity under an economic problem. Italian filmmakers make films as a stand against fascism, under the rule of Mussolini. Thus, Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica has captured the other side of Italy, besides political propaganda, and economy during post-war era. Mostly, Rossellini and De Sica wanted to portray the effects of working class men during post-war (Thompson & Bordwell, 2013). These Italian filmmakers wanted to convey that these people have suffered terrible unemployment and lack of financial stability. Only chosen people who can have a job but didn’t have an access to seize more income, except receiving low wages (De Sica, 1948). Moreover, elder people didn’t get any right to have a good place to stay due to unsustainable finance for pension. This example of reality has been depicted in another De Sica’s film, Umberto D. Umberto desperately tried to raise the money by selling his books and watch, even beg on the streets, so that he can pay his landlady, Antonia (De Sica, 1952).

             Another story when it comes to French New Wave. The French created La Nouvelle Vague in order to fight conservatism of Cinéma du papa, which consist of continuity, and targeted mainly to old people. In relation to social change, this old film connected to conservatism in covering sexuality and freedom in filmmaking. The reason is when there was a student protest against wage and social discrimination against sexes. At that time, youngsters separated dorms into men and women, which caused rage in students because sleeping together is a part of their freedom (‘Egalité! Liberté! Sexualité!: Paris, may 1968’, 2008). In addition, men and women must wear certain outfit as a part of manners during school, however the education system is discriminating. Only people with straight A’s can get to reputable universities. Based on this social problem, due to sexual and social oppression, Henri Langlois created Cinématheque Française. After the existence of his place, the 2 legendary film communities have emerged; Rive Gauche (The Left Bank) and Cahiers du Cinéma, which consist of André Bazin, François Truffaut, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette. [W1] Mainly, Cahiers group is the pioneer of French New Wave, by establishing film critiques. They made reviews, criticized bad movies, analyzed films, and made films (Thompson & Bordwell), in order for movie goers to learn about film (Thompson & Bordwell, 2003). That was the most prominent signature of this movement in France because it is like the pioneer of film knowledge, particularly in learning French New Wave. In addition, the sexual revolution influenced how filmmakers obtain more liberal censorship by showing naked bodies. But what about The Left Bank? This group tended to see cinema as similar to other arts, particularly literature. According to The Left Bank, films can be made documentarily and experimentally, where the story in literature will be taken only the important ones. It is like when you skim an essay, and you highlight it with stabilo. This highlight will be used as one of the shot list (Channel Criswell, 2015). If you look at the film, À bout de souffle (1960), this film didn’t put continuity, meaning Godard just jump the shot into another scene, without smooth cutting, and surprisingly it turned out to look quite good. Although it might seem slightly distracting, but somehow Godard had successfully created witty shots (Godard, 1960).

        New German Cinema also played in developing a new angle of the story, and also this movement aimed to rebel political oppression and capitalism (Anything I Like, 2013). In addition, they wanted to show the life of the character. For instance, in Kluge’s film Yesterday Girl, Anita G. must drift through cities, tries to hold a job, indulges in petty theft, has love affairs, and winds up pregnant and in prison. In this film, it seems that Kluge might be inspired by Neorealism, because it tells the sad life of a character. But in terms of camera techniques, comparing to French New Wave, he still puts continuity in order to depict Anita’s past life and her present day (Thompson & Bordwell, 2003).

           To sum up the comparison above, in terms of storytelling, Italian Neorealism and German New Cinema is like a documentary film, because they want to show the exact reality of Italy from stories into shots, which might be boring for some audiences. But in contrary, French New Waves tells about the life of French youngsters (Thompson & Bordwell, 2003). In relation to New German Cinema, filmmakers experiment literature of politics and character relations. As it is explained before, the message of Katharina Blum’s story is related to the terrorism of Baader-Meinhof organization (Anything I Like, 2013). From the youngsters’ rebellion, finally they made an auteur film from their version, which means each of their films have a trademark in film techniques, or story. Thus, this movement has created an art cinema, and it has influenced Europe and Hollywood. Thanks to Italian Neorealism, De Sica and Rossellini has successfully convinced youngsters that making films can be done and inspired by your surroundings, especially through the parts of the world like Indonesia. Yes, it is very complicated because the history might seem quite different comparing to young cinema. However, I believe that Indonesian government should take a look in films, not just the censorship, but the distribution, and the subsidy system. Governments can form an institution of independent movies where young directors have a chance to develop their creativity, and when the story is interesting, they can give subsidies for youngsters to continue their filmmaking. It is beneficial for the government due to the fact that it will increase Indonesia’s tourism, as well as introducing the daily lives of Indonesians, from city life until rural life.