Recommend Me Some French New Wave

The other important director to know is Alain Resnais, especially Hiroshima mon amour, Last Year at Marienbad, La guerre est finie, and Muriel. Resnais brought some of the narrative experimentation of the nouvelle roman to the movies. His films don't look as new as they once did, I think, because of generations of knock-offs (some bad, many good).

Resnais was identified with the "Left Bank" group, who were (in general) older and more cerebral that the people who came out of Cahiers. They tended to be influenced more by other media (literature, painting, even comic books in Resnais's case) than the Hollywood movies that were fetishized by Cahiers. Other figures in the "Left Bank" group include Agnes Varda and Chris Marker.

of course, i've never cared much for breathless so what do i know..... my fave godard's are contempt and alphaville which are both available in nice DVD's.... i would skip weekend though - even despite my love of insane films, i didn't enjoy it.

Godard has never made a bad film. 'Pierrot Le Fou' is as gd as any.

Truffaut's 'Enfant Sauvage' is Truffaut's most neglected pic.

I have never found much use for Eric Rohmer, and I don't think I've ever even seen a Chabrol.

seriously, any fan of surreal film should see this. it's one of the most complete dream-states i've ever seen cast to film.

Of the stuff that's easily available in the US, search La belle noiseuse, Secret Defense, the Joan of Arc films, and Va savoir--and destroy Wuthering Heights. The best part of Rivette's recent films is Sandrine Bonnaire:

http://www.ecrannoir.fr/stars/actrice/images/Bonnaire/bonnaire2.gif

I once saw a documentary by Claire Denis, which was basically an hour of Rivette talking to the late critic Serge Daney. To the extent that I could keep up with the French, he's a pretty interesting (and modest) guy.

Here's an interview.

Godard has never made a bad film - this so needs its own thread. But not now, please.

Oh, Le Petit Soldat has a wonderful gag at the end of a disturbing torture scene.

Anyway a lot of people have attempted to categorize Godard's films (especially the mid-late '60s ones) as "essay films" as a way of accessing their nonnarrative, disruptive elements. That might be a good way to think of them if you don't want to lose patience on first viewing, but as a critical rubric I don't think it works, because how many essays that you know of break into fictional stories over and over again? I see them as fictions, but fictions where certain aspects hover on (or fall right over) the edge of perceptibility and others are extended to dramatically "useless" lengths. So the narrative thread is twisted up, obscured, elongated, to the point where it becomes difficult to trace. Inevitably you start focusing on other things: extrafilmic references, framings, political spiels, colors, patterns of shots, etc. This functions very differently in the later (post-1979) films, which are simulataneously more conventional in their imagery and more obscure in their meanings, but the basic aesthetic purpose is much the same. I think it's a mistake though to suggest that Godard's cinema is largely "about" film, about breaking down and reconstituting our perceptions of same--I think he engages with the world more than most reviewers are comfortable admitting. I think talking about his films, especially the post-1979 ones, in terms of other films is both inevitable (because Godard himself is so inclined to speak through film references) and kind of a cop-out.

There's a lovely review of Godard's film Passion (1982) on the Internet Movie Database, of all places, that I think serves as an adequate precis of the mans approach and accomplishments. It's worth quoting in full:

matthew wilder (cosmovitelli@xx.xx)
los angeles

Date: 30 August 1999
Summary: Haste war du cinema

Godard scholarship, lined along the axes of variants of French post-structuralism, would appear to have gotten it all wrong: a Godard movie can't be assimilated into a coherent and non-self-contradictory statement about work, gender, representation, or whatever academically approved topic you might name; it can't even be assimilated into a coherent process. What has to be confronted is that the work is essentially diaristic and subjective; these films are the more or less uncensored insides of Godard's head, not a white paper on a topic (no matter how "challenging" or "frustrating to expectations").

It also must be acknowledged that for Godard, even ideation is essentially sensuous, aestheticisable; ideas, like a piece of irruptive slapstick staging, a stale aphorism, a blast of the Mozart Requiem, are objects of delectation and desire, and finally repositories of aesthetic emotion--handwrapped presents. To say that the ideology of Godard's Maoist period was finally another aesthetic object for him is not to condescend to him as a radical-chicster. Very simply, Godard is an artist for whom the gland that produces aesthetic feeling works ten times more overtime than anyone else.

This produces the jarring and sometimes tonic feeling that we are overhearing the disordered and associative thoughts of God as He falls asleep. In a late, lyric work like HELAS POUR MOI, this quality becomes transcendent: the film is like a communication from a higher alien intelligence. In PASSION, that desire to aestheticize everything in sight, to wave a wand marked "excruciating beauty," in essence to make like a cinematic Goldfinger, is tripped up by the story Godard was required to tell in order to receive funding.

The necessity of telling a story is one of the (many) subjects that flit by in this production, which followed Godard's minorly popular comeback, EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF. And the story Godard tells is so halfheartedly offered it disrupts the all-pervasive atmosphere of heightened lyricism he generates elsewhere. In essence, it's the same old movie about the making of a movie: the director (Jerzy Radzilowicz) is an idiot caught between a virginal proletarian (Isabelle Huppert!) and a slatternly hanger-on (Hanna Schygulla). The director pontificates, the producer (Michel Piccoli) avoids paying checks, and the inevitable phone calls for completion funds are delivered in dirty rooms.

If this reminds you of everything from BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE to LIVING IN OBLIVION you're right; but nothing in those movies compared to Godard's strategy of contempt-uously making his stars Huppert and Piccoli stutter and cough, respectively. Or to the moment when a grip tells a child extra out of nowhere, "O those who will come after us--do not harden your hearts against us."

PASSION reminded me of John Simon's review of LE GAI SAVOIR, which began in the manner of, "I have seen no movie more illucid, arbitrary, and, yes, insane as..." PASSION genuinely is insane--it raises every line, every gesture, every landscape to a plane of unbearable intensity, and refuses to draw any lines between them. The cumulative effect suggests the personality of a slightly depressed but highly stimulated schizophrenic. Godard's late work is so beyond the prison of our narrative and identificational expectations that we may have to wait several lifetimes for its voice to be genuinely, not just indulgingly, heard.

And here's a recent picture of the man:

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/images/14/godard_cover.gif

i've always wanted to see some of the weird political godard films; i had a class with colin maccabe who has written books about godard and he would occasionally make references to films like Pravda in class that made me curious. the class was about james joyce, by the way.

(not that the perceived melville-fnw split is unwarranted - he was still circling the same territory once godard had moved on to Weekend for instance. nevertheless see see see Le Samourai from i think 1967 feat.the young alain delon (rowr))

Melville was a cinemaphile and a lover of American movies (and American culture in general: his last name comes from Herman Melville) before such a posture was truly fashionable in France. Starting with his fourth movie (Bob le flambeur), most of his films were eccentric takes on American genre tropes.

His influence is everywhere. You can see recent Bollywood action films ripping off John Woo ripping off Melville ripping off American gangster pictures.

A new print of Melville's Le Cercle rouge has been touring the USA thanks to Rialto Pictures. Hey, neat -- here's a tribute from John Woo:

Le Cercle Rouge is visually arresting and powerful in its silence. There is not much dialogue and the silence creates a more dramatic cinematic language as it draws more attention to the story and the great moments of the actors’ performance. By creating a cool, calm atmosphere with immaculate camerawork and precise editing rhythms, his style and message move with his actors as they deliver their soulful performances.

Melville’s themes embody the spirit of honor, loyalty, and tragic destiny among characters played by fate. These classic themes are also found in ancient Chinese and Japanese philosophies and cultures. I believe in this kind of romanticism. These valuable lessons of spiritual morality draw me into his movies and make me feel like we are in the same world. The romantic values of friendship and brotherhood expressed in this movie are almost impossible to find today. They are another reason why Le Cercle Rouge became a classic gangster film.

There is no mistaking that Le Cercle Rouge is a Jean-Pierre Melville movie, as all of the elements synchronize to his vision. Melville was the coolest, most stylish auteur of his time. I've long admired him for his spirit and his movies. He's had a great influence on my work.
John Woo, December 2002

While nowhere near Godard, Eric Rhomer is underrated. Claire's Knee, while having a simplistic plot, has good performances from the whole cast, and plays with the idea of innocence in subtle ways which may lead the viewer to question his/her own beliefs. Usually a good sign. While it may sometimes be seen as a weakness, Rhomer has what I would describe as a "light touch" as a director. While I have only scene a few of his movies, what surfaces as his signature is restraint.

Yes Philippe Garrel, i met him once during a retrospective, he is a really nice guy. My favorite is "J'entends plus la guitare", about Nico. I don't consider Garrel a great formalist (not a pejorative word, perhaps i should say stylist?) all i can say it's one of the most moving thing i've seen (especially if Nico is important for you), it catches Nico's spirit more than, say, "Nico icon". The only film with Nico i saw is "La cicatrice intérieure", (I've always been convinced it was quite famous outside of france (maybe because of the soundtrack, "desertshore"), is it?) and it's just boring : very symbolic, almost mystic...

I've always wanted to see his silent film, Le Révélateur, and the John Cale connection among other things has made me curious to see his recent work. I hear it's big in Japan.

Someone mentioned Malle's Lift to the Scaffold, which I'm guessing is the movie I know as Elevator to the Gallows (language is a funny thing, innit?). Definitely second that -- a nice piece of contrived suspense, with nifty twists and turns.

Jesse- upthread, dude! ;)

The scene where the camera faces all of the children watching the puppet show is really cool and visually interesting.

I think 400 Blows is like The Bicycle Thief, dramas of this sort seem kind of dulled taken in a different context. There is no sex or real violence, so the visceral thrills are low and much more subtle like any family drama of the type.

What will Kramer vs. Kramer or Ordinary People mean to someone in twenty years in another country?

I'm not a film scholar, but I seem to remember that the freeze ending of 400 Blows was a big deal of the time.

It definitely isn't as cool as Breathless, which seems to be where Richard Hell ripped off his look and style.

Traffaut made Farenheit 451, which has a groovy late 60s look. It isn't great film, but it is worth watching.

"Atlantic City" by Louis Malle is one of my favorite all time movies. That movie and Tempest cemented Susan Sarandon in my soul as one of the grand dames of movie.

Hiroshima Mon Amour is a good movie. It definitely has a heavy post war "Age of Reason" Sarte existential ennui feeling.

I would kill to see either version.

Morbs, you don't even like Celine et Julie...?

It's the least gruesome of the 4 features I've seen -- but no. It's one of a good friend's all-time favorites, so I saw it twice. I have to be awake to solve a 'puzzle film.'

'spectre' is the edited version, down from 743 to, oh, i dunno, 240 minutes. weirdly they aren't showing it.

am intrigued by the leaud thing.

is that in j-ro's book on rivette?