NOUVELLE VAGUE: 4 STARS. “study of fascinating time in film history.”
SYNOPSIS: Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague” is a vivid recreation of the events surrounding the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 feature debut “Breathless.” “S’ils veulent la Nouvelle Vague,” says Goddard (Guillaume Marbeck), “donnons-leur un raz-de-marée.” (“If they want the New Wave, let’s give them a tidal wave.”)
CAST: Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch, Aubry Dullin. Directed by Richard Linklater.
REVIEW: Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague” is a love letter to Jean-Luc Godard and the French New Wave, but also to storytelling and imagination.
A recreation of the events surrounding the making of Godard’s feature debut “Breathless,” “Nouvelle Vague” is set at a creatively fertile time. It’s Paris, 1960. Jean-Luc Godard (Guillaume Marbeck), a longtime critic at the influential “Cahiers du Cinéma” magazine, he was one of several young wannabe filmmakers, alongside François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, Éric Rohmer and Jacques Demy, determined to blow the cobwebs off conventional Hollywood style filmmaking by experimenting with narrative, unconventional use of jump cuts, sound, and camerawork.
Frustrated that several of his colleagues, notably Chabrol and Truffaut, made films before him, Godard poured himself into the subversive “Breathless.” The story of a small-time thief on the run from the police and his attempts to persuade a hip American journalism student to run away with him to Italy, it was called one of the most influential films ever made by legendary film critic Pauline Kael.
Using the techniques of the French New Wave, Linklater goes behind-the-scenes to stylishly capture the style and roguishness of the French New Wave, but more importantly, the spirit of change that fueled the movement that changed cinema.
He’s reverential in his treatment of the characters and history, but only to a point. For instance, none of the rough edges have been shaved off Godard, a man known for his ever-present sunglasses and cigarette, arrogance and grand pronouncement on art and life. But instead of being grating there is a lightness to Guillaume Marbeck terrific performance that elevates what could have been mimicry into a playful portrait of the man beneath the iconoclast.
Like an entertaining class at film school, “Nouvelle Vague” is a study of fascinating time in film history.
