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Home , Film styles, French New Wave, Raoul Coutard

FACTFILE: GCE A2 MOVING IMAGE ARTS THE AND CINEMA VÉRITÉ

The French New Wave and Cinéma Vérité

Learning Outcomes • demonstrate knowledge and understanding of Cinéma Vérité as a distinct style of documentary ; Students should be able to: • identify the technological advances that made • demonstrate knowledge and understanding this new style of documentary -making of the French New Wave as an alternative possible; cinematic storytelling tradition to Hollywood; • discuss the following elements of Cinéma • identify the storytelling techniques and film- Vérité and explain their purpose: making practices of the French New Wave and − hand-held camera technique explain how they depart from the Classical − location shooting Hollywood Style and narrative; − long takes; and − the use of diegetic sound; • discuss the following elements of the French New Wave and explain their purpose in key • explain the influence of Cinéma Vérité on the works: directors of the French New Wave and their − film-making practices contemporaries; − narrative − style • demonstrate knowledge and understanding − characters; and of the influence of Cinéma Vérité and − themes; -making techniques on Hollywood cinema; and • explain the influence of the French New Wave on the work of contemporary filmmakers; • analyse the cinematic style of contemporary film-makers who have been influenced by • analyse the cinematic style of filmmakers who Cinéma Vérité and documentary film-making have been influenced by the French New Wave; techniques.

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Course Content

Cinéma Vérité and Technology rule of thumb was to shoot as quickly as possible with portable equipment, sacrificing the control In the late 1950’s technological innovation and glamour of mainstream productions for a made it possible for a new style of documentary lively, modern look and sound that owed more to filmmaking to develop –lightweight cameras, documentary and television shooting methods portable sound equipment for sync-sound on than to mainstream, commercial cinema. For location and new faster film stock that could be these filmmakers, glamorous three-point lighting, used in lower light conditions. These advances in smooth crane shots, and classically mixed technology made possible a radical new method of soundtracks were not only out of reach, they filmmaking employinghand-held cameras and were the arsenal of a bloated, doomed cinema.” live, synchronous sound that came to be known (Neupert, 2007) as Direct Cinema in America and Cinéma Vérité in . The key directors of the French New Wave - Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, , Eric The pioneers of Cinéma Vérité believed that Rohmer, - started out as film these advancements in film technology would critics for the magazine, Cahiers du Cinema, which enable documentary to achieve authenticity first championed the theory of personal and to collapse the distance between reality and filmmaking. These film critics then had an representation, with the camera becoming ‘just opportunity to put theory into practice when they a window someone peeps through’. The mobile, began making their own stylised personal in hand-held cameras enabled filmmakers such as the late 1950’s. to move freely, recording real life on the run. /Les Quatres cents coups

The ‘fly on the wall style’of Cinéma Vérité creates The 400 Blows was the breakthrough film that the impression that what is taking place onscreen ushered in the French New Wave winning Francois is an authentic , a transparent record Truffaut the best director award at the Cannes of what actually took place in front of the camera. Film Festival in 1959. The partly autobiographical The Cinéma Vérité documentary employs long film portrays the troubled childhood of 13 year- takes and location shooting to record events as old Parisian, Antoine Doinel. Truffaut adopted the they unfold in real time. Sound is also direct and is mobile camera technique and location shooting of simply recorded while the camera is rolling. Since Cinéma Vérité, using zoom lenses and swish pans the 1960’s, the handheld camera and fly-on-the- to follow the actions of his young protagonist as he wall style of documentary have become wanders the streets of Paris with his friend René. powerful storytelling devices in mainstream The only lighting used for these night scenes was narrative cinema. the available light from street lights and store windows. French New Wave As Marilyn Fabe points out, “Truffaut photographs The documentary aesthetic of Cinéma Vérité Antoine and René in their all-too-few moments inspired the young directors of the French of freedom with a moving camera in wide-angle, New Wave or La Nouvelle Vague who defined deep-focus long shots. Wide-angle lenses tend themselves in opposition to the commercial to exaggerate the distance between foreground films and filmmaking practices of the previous and background planes, making the world seem generation. As young filmmakers starting out open and expansive, the perfect lens choice, with limited budgets, it offered them a way to when combined with a freely mobile camera, for shoot cheaply on the streets of Paris with small conveying a feeling of unbounded freedom.” (Fabe, production crews and use of real locations, 2004) including their own apartments. “I wanted a film which would resemble a The French New Wave was, first and foremost, an documentary without being one,” Truffaut said exciting new model of production that was both at the time. The director creates ‘the feel’ of fast and cheap. As Richard Neupert explains: “The a documentary by capturing the rhythms of ordinary life as Antoine carries out kitchen chores,

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puts out the garbage and wanders through the light so that their faces are obscured, makes use streets. Working against the grain of conventional of jump cuts, disregards narrative coherence, cinematic storytelling, “Truffaut lingers on ignores continuity shots and renders dialogue seemingly insignificant orextraneous details inaudible through the use of ambient noise.” and actions, that, ultimately contribute not to the (Greene, 2007) film’s narrative but, rather, to its dense emotional texture.” (Greene, 2007). Breathless was shot on the streets of Paris cinéma vérité-style in just four weeks with a tiny crew The directors of the French New Wave shared a and completely silent, with the sound dubbed in desire to revitalise film language and experiment post-production. Cinematographer with film form and technique. As Richard Neupert used a hand-held camera throughout, shooting writes, “The hand-held camera became a from a wheelchair and the back seat of a car. In distinctive marker of New Wave images, adding the famous scene where the two main characters, a casual, contemporary look that found a bit of Michel and Patricia, stroll along the Champs- shake and jitter in the image not just acceptable, Elysees, Coutard secretly filmed from inside a mail but lively and desirable.” (Neupert, 2007) pushcart with those passing by unaware that a film was being made. This ‘fly-on-the-wall’stripped- The visual style of the French New Wave down approach gave the filmmakers the freedom constantly calls attention to itself. The invisible to improvise and invent on the spot, as Coutard storytelling of the classical Hollywood narrative is explains. “The shooting plan was devised as we deliberately subverted in the most self-conscious went along, as was the dialogue…Little by little we fashion. Flamboyant tracking, zooming and discovered a need to escape from conventions and panning shots, long takes, discontinuous edits, even run counter to the rules of ‘cinematographic high-angle shots, swish pans, lap dissolves, grammar’.” (Neupert, 2004) jump cuts and freeze frames are employed to disrupt narrative time and convey the energy and The use of new or relatively unknown actors and vitality of the characters. a naturalistic style of acting contributed greatly to the documentary realism of the New Wave films. Classical Hollywood conventions such as the 180 The characters and themes of the New Wave also degree rule are openly flouted in French New Wave marked a new departure in French cinema. As films. InThe 400 Blows continuity is disrupted Richard Neupert writes, “Narrative experimentation when the director deliberately crosses the lines was combined with a renewed interest in telling of sight to show a character facing in different stories for a younger generation or at least directions in a series of continuous medium close- from their perspective…New Wave stories tend ups. The film ends with astriking freeze frame to be loosely organised around rather complex, that has become one of the most famous images spontaneous young characters. Importantly, in cinema. The freeze fame is a key visual motif in unpolished, sometimes disjointed Truffaut’s third , (1962) fit these rather chaotic, good-humoured tales of where it is used to “stop the action, much like a youths wandering through contemporary France.” photographer’s camera would, helping foreground (Neupert, 2007). In an echo of Italian , the emotions of characters while isolating specific children were often also the central characters in moments in time.” (Neupert, 2007). Francois Truffaut’s films.

Breathless/A Bout de souffle The stylish exuberance of the New Wave filmmakers came as a sensory shock to , who were Jean-Luc Godard’s debut feature was perhaps the used to traditional films and ‘invisible’ cinematic most radical of the New Wave films, using a number storytelling. The techniques used in these of conventions, notably the , to disrupt films deliberately drew attention to themselves, continuity. As Naomi Greene says, Breathless reminding the that they were watching a “leaves no doubt about Godard’s desire to do away film. As Mark Cousins explains:“The shock attached with a certain kind of cinema – one built on the to seeing jump cuts in Breathless arose because illusion of reality – along with the rules that hold they were not there for any special psychological it in place. To this end, the director, deliberately, purpose….The reason for cutting the sequence in defiantly, breaks with preceding conventions even this way was because the cuts were beautiful in as he insistently calls attention to the very process themselves, because they emphasised that what of making a film. For example, he hascharacters we were watching was cinema, just as painters had address the audience directly, shoots into the turned to Cubism many years earlier because it

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emphasised the flatness of the canvas.” (Cousins, movement and a rapid-fire editing style that 2004) throws everything out of kilter. A fast tracking hand-held camera moves with, around, and behind Influence of the French New Wave the robbers shifting perspectives and camera angles at a rapid pace. Though heavily stylised and The energy, passion and dynamism of the French frenetic, this hand-held camera style has an New Wave left a lasting imprint on . immediacy and fly-on-the-wall quality that puts It transformed filmmaking in the 1960’s, inspiring us there in the confusion of the moment – as if we the Polish School and the Czech New Wave and are one of the gang. deeply influencing a new generation of American filmmakers. The first robbery is intercut and superimposed with a recurring low-angle shot of a white fluorescent started his career with an light revolving in fast motion. The soundtrack strongly influenced by the music is upbeat and pacey, with a samba-like French New Wave. Who’s That Knocking At My Door rhythm, that conveys a cool, ‘hip’ feeling and (1969) employs hand-held camera movement perfectly complements the high energy camera and jump-cutting with a freshness and restless movement. energy that is similar to Breathless. Scorcese continued to emulate aspects of the French New Jump-cuts are also employed in the bravura style Wave and cinéma vérité’s documentary style in of the French New Wave to fast forward us through later films, most notably through excessive and at the scene. The director is literally slashing into the times frenetic camera movement and use of freeze scene with this abrasive editing style. The effect frame. is dramatic. The sheer pace of the camera and cutting and the oblique camera angles keep us Moving seamlessly between the contrasting off balance throughout the sequence so we have of drama-documentary and the action movie, no centre of gravity – no single or fixed point of British director Paul Greengrass also evolved a view of what is taking place and no time to focus kinetic visual style that has drawn heavily on the upon anything before our attention is drawn to cinéma vérité techniques of hand-held camera something else. We have the feeling that anything movement, natural lighting and live, synchronous might happen, at any moment – that we are sound. walking a tightrope with these angry young men who have their fingers on the trigger. The revolutionary spirit and stylistic daring of the French New Wave were also given a new lease of This in-your-face visual style brilliantly conveys life by Fernando Meirelles in his explosive film, ityC the hyped-up emotional state of the robbers as of God (2002). well as the anxiety, fear and confusion of their victims. The director increases this feeling of Sequence Study: City of God disorientation in the bank robbery by increasing (Timecode: 01:31:42-01:32:11/01:32:40- both the speed of the editing and the number and 01:33:00) range of shots.

In this sequence, the director employs a An extreme high-angle, canted long shot of the flamboyant visual style to convey the swagger robbers entering the bank cuts to a low-angle shot and bravado of the bank robbers, a gang of wildly of the hold-up before the hand-held camera begins unstable, pumped up criminals, charged with to swing violently on its axis – zooming out and nervous energy and latent violence. spinning wildly in a wide circle, the light from the window flooding in, The sequence begins with an off-centre shot of a until everything becomes a blur of whirling motion. car speeding down a motorway, diegetic traffic noise flooding the soundtrack. This sets the tone The jaunty rhythms of the non-diegetic music and rhythm of the entire sequence. The robbery create an exhilarating soundtrack to the robbery literally explodes onto the screen in a hyper-kinetic and express the thrill and sense of power felt style that evokes the feeling of a rollercoaster ride by the bank robbers. The visual pyrotechnics into violence. brilliantly convey the adrenalin rush of the young men. We have the feeling that, like the camera, the Time is speeded up and our sense of space robbers are spinning out of control that they are on radically disrupted through frantic camera a crash course to self-destruction.

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References

Cousins, Mark. (2004). The Story of Film. Pavilion Books, Great Britain, Chapter 7, p. 270.

Fabe, Marilyn. (2004). Closely Watched Films. University of California Press, Chapter 2, p. 128.

Greene, Naomi. (2007). The French New Wave. Wallflower Press London, Chapter 4, pp. 76 & 86.

Neupert, Richard. (2007). A History of the French New Wave Cinema. University of Wisconsin Press, Introduction, pp. 3-4, 40, 204 & 210.

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