The French New Wave

The French New Wave The term French New Wave or La Nouvelle Vague refers to the work of a group of French film-makers between the years 1958 to 1964. The film directors who formed the core of this group, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer, were once all film critics for the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. Other French directors, including Agnés Varda and Louis Malle, soon became associated with …

…while A Bout de Souffle was a big European box office hit. This contributed to the growing influence of these directors. After 1964 the experimentation elements of the French New Wave were already starting to become assimilated into mainstream cinema. The directors meanwhile diverged in style and developed their own distinct cinematic voices. Truffaut incorporated more traditional elements in his films, for example, while Godard became increasingly political and radical in his film-making during the 1960s.