Richard Linklater brought two films to the festival crowds this year. The first being Blue Moon, a drama about the tragic Lorenz Hart, whose professional relationship with Richard Rodgers has mostly been lost to history. The second is Nouvelle Vague, a loving ode to French New Wave cinema. Both are not films you make for financial reasons, they are films made out of love. Nouvelle Vague is a self-indulgent ode to New Wave cinema that is lovingly crafted with meticulous attention to detail.
Nouvelle Vague is the behind-the-scenes story at how French director Jean-Luc Godard broke filmmaking with his 1960 film, Breathless. Linklater’s film manages to capture the spirit of those involved without dwelling on the minute details. It’s also a film Godard would love to hate, which is a sign its job has been done.
A Charming Homage To Godard
We meet Jean-Luc Godard (played by newcomer Guillaume Marbeck) in 1959 at a crossroads in his life. The New Wave moment is already underway, and Godard feels like he is falling behind his peers. Breathless is Godard’s chance to get a deserved seat at the table and become more than a glorified film critic. While the movie is one of the most influential films in French cinema, the making of it was less than smooth.
Breathless was to be shot entirely on location on the streets of Paris and without a script, let alone a schedule or a budget. While he struggles to express his vision to his crew and cast, Godard internally knew exactly what he wanted to achieve with his seminal work.
Nouvelle Vague predominantly follows the 20 days of shooting, following the cast and crew as they battle the almost non-existent budget, frequent rewrites and a manchild of a director. Godard doesn’t believe in structure, encouraging the cast to improvise lines. His lax filmmaking style especially infuriates producer Georges de Beauregard (Bruno Dreyfürst) and its American star Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch).
A Behind The Scenes Look At Making Breathless
The making of sequences may feel superfluous, recreating scenes from a movie you have likely seen. At times, it’s like watching Breathless while a cinema aficionado whispers their opinion non-stop in your ear. Nouvelle Vague is much more interesting when exploring the behind-the-scenes drama and how Godard came to his final cut of the iconic movie. Scenes where the cast and crew wait around for the director to find inspiration are the highlight, letting the audience get to know the players better.
The film breezily unfolds, following a day-to-day account of the making of the film (or sometimes the lack of making the film). The writing never dives in too deep, letting moments play out on screen rather than explaining what is happening. Those not educated on the world of early 1960s French cinema may struggle to keep up with the world of Godard. If you’re looking for a point, you won’t find it here, but that is the point sometimes.
Aside from Gord and Seberg, Nouvelle Vague is full of appearances from the figureheads of the era. Claude Chabrol, François Truffaut, Robert Bresson, and Agnès Varda are some of the names that pop up in the movie. These characters are listed with Wes Andersonesque name tags, although those in the know will appreciate the casting of lesser-known actors who look a lot like their famous counterparts. Of course, this will earn the film comparisons to Midnight in Paris, both playing an art version of I Spy. Whether all these New Wave Easter Eggs annoy you is a matter of taste. It may be whimsical to some or eye-rollingly irritating to others.
Linklater pays homage to the French New Wave in the crafting of Nouvelle Vague without totally mimicking the style. He smartly nods to the genre and filmmaking style without delving into pastiche. The film is filmed entirely in black and white with a 4:3 ratio, complete with film grain for authenticity. Yet, the director is smart enough to eliminate the startling angles and jump cuts, not totally putting off a modern audience.
How To Pay Tribute Without Pastiche
Guillaume Marbeck’s Godard toes the line between caricature and homage, always sharply dressed and clutching a cigarette. Linklater has simplified Godard into a more palatable figure than he actually was. Most of his dialogue is a Frankenstein amalgamation of quotes from his writings and the work of artists he idolized. If audiences want to learn something new about Godard and his work, you won’t find it in Nouvelle Vague.
Zoey Deutch is well cast as Jean Seberg. While Seberg was fluent in French, Deutch speaks in a slightly stilted French accent. The film keeps Seberg in the moment, not succumbing to foreshadowing her early death after becoming an FBI target for her political views. Deutch plays Seberg with a lightness, as she dramatically chagrins her director and complains about the production. It’s a beautiful homage to an actress taken tragically too soon.
Nouvelle Vague feels like Richard Linklater geeking out over classic cinema. He started his career programming marathon screening nights, and his love of this era is clearly on display. The writing is full of deep-cut knowledge and energy for the era and the people. Even if you’re not a fan of the subject matter, you will likely be endeared by Linklater’s passion for the topic.
There is also a sense that Linklater misses this low-budget, auteur led type of filmmaking. He follows their chaotic brand of filmmaker with a longing for the time before big budgets, long press tours and studio interference. It’s not been more obvious that his own hang out movies were deeply inspired by Godard.
This won’t go down as one of Richard Linklater’s best films (nor is it his best of the year), but it’s a user-friendly entry into a specific era of film history that clearly means a lot to the director. Meticulously created but shallow, Nouvelle Vague is a fleeting glimpse at the making of Breathless that will please fan, and introduce a new audience to French New Wave cinema.
Nouvelle Vague recently played at the London Film Festival.
Learn more about the film at the IMDB site for the title.
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