New Wave Video Essay Script- Final Cut

New wave video essay script 

The French New wave was a pivotal turning point in cinema, it rebelled against a medium that became stale and bland, injecting a vibrancy and charisma that had previously never been seen before in the art.

the french new wave was essentially a rebellion against the classical formula of film,originating in the post war france of the 50’s, pioneered by the young turks, a group of four film reviewers for the magazine Cahiers du cinema, the young turks most notably jean luc godard had a habit of attacking the most artistically respected French filmmaker of the day. 

Writing criticism didn’t satisfy these young men, no matter how much they attacked the stale medium of film, they sensed no change in the medium, by the end of the decade the turks began making there on movies with borrowed money, un restricted by the rules and regulations of studio environments and the rules and regulations of the publishers, thus began the french new wave. 

The new wave sought to re define film, the young turks believed that film no longer represented the angst and existentialism that the post war generation was defined by, for them, film represented a false idealism, an art form un damaged by the horrors of the war.

 The pioneers of the new wave chose to completely re invigorate the technical and narrative aspects of there films, rejecting the tried and true methods of films previous, using techniques that were previously un used and shunned by there predecessors, some would say that these abstract techniques are representative of the young turks and the generation they spoke for, imperfect and damaged, disillusioned by the idealism of the medium. 

the environment and social climate of 50’s paris also played a major role in the new wave, budget restraints and technical restrictions were reflected upon in the film of the turks, films were shot on location, in the grime and dirt of the streets rather than extravagant studios, cameras were cheap and hand held due to budget restrictions, actors and subjects within the films were close friends of the directors, as hiring actors was to expensive, all these little characteristics and technical choices culminate in a style utterly unique to the French New wave. 

this essay will not only be a study into the characteristics of the french new wave films, but also an in depth study of the films of jean luck Godard, his existentialist views and unique visual aesthetic, and whether or not he can be considered an auteur

perhaps the most notable figure from the new wave is Jean Luc Godard, A visionary in the medium both nationally and internationally. Admired for his inventive and unique approach to cinema, his works resonated with a generation of bitter and jaded individuals.

 in this video essay i will be comparing and contrasting three of his works, namely; 1960’s breathless, 1963’s le petit soldat and 1962’s my life to live, to identify any reoccurring motif’s and thematic styles that solidify Godard as an auteur 

but first, what is an auteur, according to francois truffaut; "a true film auteur is someone who brings something genuinely personal to his subject instead of producing a tasteful, accurate but lifeless rendering  of the original material’. this essentially means a filmmaker who has full creative control over his or her work, controlling all aspects of the film that makes it so.

 this ranges across everything, the cinematography, the editing, the direction, the mise en scene, every aspect should be tightly controlled by the director in order for them to be considered an auteur 

Breathless 

breathless is considered Godards magnus opus, not only his first feature film, but his first response or attack against the medium. the film deals with existentialism and love and betrayal in a refreshing light compared to similar films, drenched with a film noir esque style, and characters who are representitive of the bridge between the hollywood film scene and the traditional french film scene. To identify re occurring themes throughout godards work, we first need to identify them, and what better place to start than his first feature film, breathless 

lets start by explaining the synopsis of the film, the narrative revolves around Michel, a criminal and murderer who is obsessed with film persona of humphrey bogart, michal murders a policeman on a country road and is subsequently hunted by the police, michal penniless and wanted turns to an american paper seller for security, The ambivalent Patricia unwittingly hides him in her apartment as he simultaneously tries to seduce her and call in a loan to fund their escape to Italy. 

Patricia says she is pregnant, probably with Michel's child. She learns that Michel is on the run when questioned by the police. Eventually she betrays him, but before the police arrive she tells Michel what she has done. He accepts his fate and awaits the police, he steps out into the street to greet them, but is shot, he runs down the street, stumbling, but falls, he dies breathless and alone. 

the entire film is drenched in cynicism and existential metaphors and symbolism, almost every scene has an element of this theme, but for the sake of convenience ill pick out a few key scenes that truly embody this motiff. 

bedroom scene 

The impossibility of love, another central Godardian theme, is played out in the relationship between Michel and Patricia. In the long hotel room scene, which takes up nearly a third of the screen time, the two lovers talk, joke, argue and fool about, but frequently fail to completely understand each other.

 during this scene we can clearly see that patricia is romantically interested in michal, he is a perfect opposite to her personality, patricia is adventurous and competent, respectable but ultimately, frightened by the world around her, whilst michal is an ameteur anarchist, jaded and disillusioned by the society and culture around him.

 this easily represents the context of the new wave, especially Godards personal ideology’s and beliefs regarding the state of cultural decay him and his generation found himself in. 

however, patricia isn’t truly in love with michal, she is in love with the aura of mysteriousness around him, his power as a character. , but she knew that this power doesn’t correspond to the society in which she planned to live and succeed in. She learned to love Michel’s dedication to an unknown alternative to the reality they both known, but ultimately, couldn’t make herself fall for this alternative. 

death scene 

the final scene of the film involves michals final stand against all odds, his desperate attempt at an escape and his fall. though wounded Michel is not trying to run away from the police or resist.

 Betrayed by desperate Patricia (whose love for him was forcing her to make too radical change in her life and priorities), whom he gave the chance to abandon him, Michel is running somewhere in the direction of his uncertain existentialist dream. 

whilst this scene is rather distressing, at its essence it can be considered a love letter to Godards generation, though wounded and broken, they continue to follow there uncertain dreams, with no set destination or plan the people still rebel against the conformity and denial of the post war years. and this, to godard is beautiful 

the final shot of the film is also worth mentioning, the camera pans down to michals face on the floor, wishing in agony and pain, he looks up at the camera and mimics patricas facial expressions from earlier in the bedroom scene. this is godard essentially laughing in the face of death, a final existential mockery before slipping into death. a commentary on how the people of post war france succumbed to greed to consume pleasures provided by society in exchange for obedience, a polite and happy smile though fake, in order to retain the normality of there lives.

opening scene. 

the film opens with a static close of michal staring out to the street, signalling his accomplice out of shot, his expression is completely uncaring, he appears to be almost bored by the crime he knows he is about to commit, in this scene michael is the embodiment of the cultural mindset of godard and his peers, he is almost an alien in the pseudo-happiness, quietly observing the oblivious and content around him.

Michel’s particular gesture of, as if, zipping up his mouth is a sign of refusing to talk in the way that be fits the time, unimportant personal achievements desperately exaggerated by the people, refusing to notice and address the crippling existential dread the war forced upon the people of france, blindly living there life as though nothing had happened. michals gesture of zipping his mouth shut, is a subtle, yet rebellious action. 

my life to live 

simmiraly to breathless, my life to live explores the concept of existentialism but this time coupled with the theory of hard determinism, the theory that even before we are born our path and actions throughout life are pre determined meaning that we have no free will, we are born and we die in a pre determined way. 

As is the New Wave way, there are many unconventional techniques used in the creation of Vivre sa vie. Filmed on the streets of Paris, it is sometimes possible to see non-actors looking at the camera, as if they are being drawn to the star, Anna Karina. Long takes are prevalent, and, according to an interview with Godard, were often accomplished in the first take. "If retakes were necessary, it was no good," he was quoted as saying. 

The storytelling method played with the film form. It is not a simple A to B narrative; pieces are missing, and it is impossible to fill them in given the information given in the film. The camera moves to follow the action; if it is possible not to have an edit, that is usually the decision made. 

There are many existential and philosophical questions raised -- some answered, some not -- but the film, too, as the youthful New Wave director began to question life itself. The fourth wall is broken, to a haunting effect. It is a rebellious piece that often plays with story structure and film technique, like many of the New Wave films. Likely done for both practical or artistic reasons, Vivre sa vie could be described as avant-garde quite easily and correctly.

We're introduced to Nana a girl who craves fame and wealth so badly that she is willing to prostitute herself and we track her through her descent into despair. The film; broken up into 13 chapters designed to take you out of and limit your engagement with the film, highlights the absurdity of Nana's existence. Nana is a mother, yet we never see a child or maternal moment. Nana is poor yet lives carefree. She is a prostitute yet even then she is turned down by a client. 

The mental toll this takes on her causes her to defiantly state in a cafe that she is herself and in total control, demonstrating by moving her body parts. Yet not long after this Nana is sold like she were a plaything and killed in the resulting struggle. She lived, she tried, she died

everything within this film relates directly to existentialism and the context of the new wave,  just as we did for breathless, we will analyses key scenes that show us the re occurring motifs of existentialism. 

philosopher 

the scene starts with a static shot of nana, with nana located in the bottom left section of the frame. the camera angle and nana positioning creates the impression  that nana is no longer vital to the story, and by extension, her world,  if not  even the frame and the film focusses on her, what chance does she have to be anything more than another body in the crowd, what is my purpose? she seems to ask herself, a classic existential question.

nana begins a dialogue with a philosopher out of shot,the two start to converse and discuss the novel the three musketeers, the philosopher tells nana a story about a character within the book, porthus. 

the philosopher tells nana that the second porthus started to think he was dead, this can easily be applied to nana herself, before her attempt to change her life she was content, she lived a life without fear and the possibility of failure. godard is essentially saying that ,with change comes a fall. even though she was brave enough to rebel against her conformity, she was destined to die.

another interpretation of this scene again analysies the dialogue between the two, we reach this point in the movie right after nana watches Carl Theodor Dryer’s 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc. the raw emotion and existential metaphors within leave a visible impact upon nana, she challenges herself to create her own philosophy of life, however upon meeting the phiosipher, her beliefs have been reduced to nothing. her attempt at forging a new way of life for herself, a new beginning. has been lost, she has no identity, no meaning, its at this point you can say that she has truly fallen. 

Godards intention with this could be a metaphor for how his generation were often punished for attempting to forge themselves any meaning out of there society. anything that wasn’t the norm or the controllable was shunned by there society. nana’s loss for words in this scene is exactly what godard experiencced himself 

another scene that clearly expresses nana’s existential mind set, and therefore godards is the passion of joan of ark scene. narratively very little happens, all the scene features is a shot from the movie, followed by the words 'the death, however, The emotional power of this profoundly silent scene deaply effects nana, the camera cute to a close up of nana. 

tears streaming down her face, the light from the cinema screen reflect off her tears, darting back and forth across the screen. this and unbroken close up of nan’s face tells us everything we need to know about her. just like joan of arc, nana whites to fight and die a martyr, to have purple in her life just as joan had however, unlike joan, nana has nothing to fight for. 

her tears aren’t in response to the movie she is watching, but a deep and existential sadness, a sadness that could only be created from the sudden realisation that you have nothing worth fighting for. 

its my belief that godard intended this to be a self reflection of himself rather than his generation. these tears are too specific, to raw and emotional to simply be a broad commentary on his times 

le petit soldat 

le petit soldat was godards second feature film, shot and released within the same year as breathless (1960), just as radical and controversial as the first, the film was met with a storm of controversy not only due to the film now infamous torture scene, but also due to its politically charged narrative.

this film has its existentialism rooted so deeply within it, that picking only two or three scenes and analysing them won’t show how crucial this motiff is to the story. instead i will be analysing characters and there actions through the film, rather than specific scenes 

Bruno is the films main protagonist, he is an agent of a tight wing terroist group who are locked in a battle with a counter far left terroist group. he eventually meets veronica, an agent of the far left terroist group. 

Bruno is a young man with a developed internal world and personal opinions and ideology, on his own he is able to act according to his personal ideals, not according to orders and expectations of his political bosses. 

Bruno often looks at the viewers without asking for advice or help nor pity. 

His gaze is already acknowledging that he is trapped within the confines of his political masters grasp, without dialogue we can still clearly see that he is desperate for a way out of this life style .

Godard wants to get at the bottom of Bruno’s failure as a human being. Is this failure that of the very revolutionary aspirations of the Western youth?

Bruno years for freedom to resist tge society he finds himself entrapped in, but he is controlled by very developed manipulative strategies his societiy are equipped with. 

 under a political establishment with a mighty arsenal of seducing, corrupting and intimidating tools. And now it is much more difficult, than in older times, to resist, i

bruno is obviously aware of this, yet still seeks an escape

from this, we can clearly see a link between bruno and his political ideology, his anger at the established government and his hatred for conformity and Godard and his generation. just as godard craved so much to rebel against the conformity and blind obedience of his society, so does bruno. we can also see the world itself as an exaggeration of 50’s paris. 

those with more defined and personal ideology’s and opinions were shunned or forced to inform to the established way of thinking. the far right and far left terror groups are jut an extension of the 50’s french government, no matter what point on the political spectrum you fall under, right or left, they are all the same 

vernoiqua is bruno equal in everyday, just as disillusioned and jaded as him.

they feel that they are equally trapped by their  political affiliations, but they see it as a problem of their individual intellect, they loath the fact that they are disillusioned by there realisation of the world around, how corrupt and imperfect it is, and they somehow feel ashamed to share it with one another. 

They are like a brother and sister separated by a political divide. And they unconsciously try to mask this fact of being existential equals by romanticising there attraction to a point of obscenity. 

the torture scene also houses deep existential and philosophical meaning in it. whilst the actions on screen are violent and distressing the message behind it just as distressing. Bruno up until this point has been devising away to escape from the political word he has created for himself, before he can fully commit to this plan he is captured and tortured brutally. what this stands for however, is more than abuse of a prisoner. 

it is a reflection on the social political climate of the 60’s. godard exaggerates how those with a difference of opinion, those who wished to challenge the  structure of the government, those who wished to question the ideologies of those in control were crushed. the existential search for a new identity, one different to the norm in his society was oppressed and shunned. although not literally tortured. godard felt that he and his generation was. 

what made godard this bitter and existential, why does his films rely so heavily on visual and metaphorical uses of existentialism. you could say that it was simply due to the cultural and social environment he was Moulded by. but it goes with saying that existentialism is a key re occurring theme throughout all his films, from the doomed existence of michael in breathless, the lack of free will within my life to live and the destruction of individual identity in le petit soldat. without a doubt jean luc godard is an auteur, a master of his class and a true spokesperson for his generation and beliefs.