Movie Review: ‘Nouvelle Vague’ is a meticulous ode to the French New Wave

Any time a notable figure of the French New Wave is introduced in Richard Linklater s Nouvelle Vague we re treated to a momentary straight-on shot of them with a nameplate Claude Chabrol Jacques Rivette ric Rohmer at the bottom of the screen It s a little like Linklater as he goes is cataloging different species of the same s genus or playing a grand event of New Wave Guess Who Nouvelle Vague is principally about Jean-Luc Godard Guillaume Marbeck and the making of his landmark feature debut Breathless But it is also a wider portrait of a moveable filmmaking feast of an entire generation of French filmmakers who were passionately engaged individually and as one in changing cinema In it s a movement that s on the move To a remarkable degree Linklater s film in French and boxed into the Academy ratio black-and-white style of Breathless has fully imbibed that spirit resurrecting one of the largest part hallowed eras of movies to capture an iconoclast in the making The conclusion is something endlessly stylish and almost absurdly uncanny even if Nouvelle Vague never adopts the brash daring of its subject Instead Nouvelle Vague is more of a straightforward though deeply affectionate ode to a singularly unconventional filmmaker The contrast makes Nouvelle Vague a curious thing a meticulous recreation of a rule-breaking cinematic revolution Godard would have hated it That doesn t make it any less enchanting At the outset of the film Godard and company have gathered for the premiere of Fran ois Truffaut s The Blows For Godard the last of the Cahiers du Cin ma crowd to transition from writing criticism to directing anxiety is mounting He s and beginning to fear he s missed the wave But confidence is not lacking in Godard Marbeck excellent doesn t take off his sunglasses for the duration of the movie including in movie screenings On the heels of the Cannes reception for The Blows the producer Georges de Beauregard Bruno Dreyf rst tremendous agrees to make Breathless Beauregard warily eyes Godard likely aware of the trouble he s making for himself He pleads for Godard to just make a sexy slice of film noir Godard though knows his chance has eventually come to transfer all his ideas into film Before production starts he visits the elder statesmen of European cinema at the time Jean-Pierre Melville Tom Novembre Roberto Rossellini Laurent Mothe for advice Shoot hurriedly Rossellini tells him Godard wants no lights no soundstages and no script He ll go into each day not knowing what he s going to shoot On the first day of production he announces Time to enter the pantheon The bulk of Nouvelle Vague is the day-to-day shooting of Breathless for which Godard cast Jean-Paul Belmondo Aubry Dullin as the small-time gangster lead and Jean Seberg Zoey Deutch as the Herald Tribune-selling American novice he wants to run off with These like so various of the a large number of roles of Nouvelle Vague are so well matched that casting director Catherine Schwartz deserves a shot at the inaugural Oscar The thrill of following the making of Breathless day by day is seeing just how brazenly Godard disregards the assumed conventions of moviemaking On the first day he wraps after two hours For Linklater Slacker Dazed and Confused Before Sunset these scenes have a special resonance Limited filmmakers believe more ardently in the benefits of a leisurely hangout But Godard s methods have a purpose I m trying to seize reality at random he explains Nouvelle Vague captures Godard stealing from his influences Ingmar Bergman Duke Ellington Humphrey Bogart while striving to realize his own voice as an artist Breathless is a movie poised between movie eras a deconstructionist bebop riff on a Hollywood genre film Nouvelle Vague more than anything is about how becoming an artist requires both reverence for the past and a stubborn insistence on developing ground on the future Nouvelle Vague which opens in theaters Friday and streams Nov on Netflix is one of two artist portraits by Linklater this fall the other being Blue Moon with Ethan Hawke as the tragic lyricist Lorenz Hart Both as it happens have their Bogart quotes And both are stirring cigarette-smoking musings on what makes a great lyric a memorable song or a movie that will live on forever In Nouvelle Vague you wouldn t say that it takes a village It s Godard s force of will that propels Breathless Each filmmaker gets a Wes Anderson-style close-up in Linklater s film perhaps because each is pursuing a uniquely personal vision of cinema In in the modern day s movie world where threat aversion and brand management carry the day such a moviemaking spirit often feels extinct or at least elusive Nouvelle Vague with a young Godard making things up off the cuff and on the fly is a reminder how less can be so so much more And how it s nice as a young filmmaker with big ambitions to have particular company Nouvelle Vague a Netflix release is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for particular language Running time minutes Three stars out of four Source