History of the French New Wave

In 1959- early 1960 five directors released debut feature length films that are widely regarded as heralding the start of the French nouvelle vague or French New Wave. Claude Chabrols Le Beau Serge (The Good Serge, 1959) and Les Cousins (The Cousins, 1959) were released, along with Francois Truffauts Les Quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows, 1959), Jean-Luc Godards A bout de souffle (Breathless, 1960) and Alain Resnais Hiroshima mon amour (Hiroshima my love, 1959). These films were the beginning of a …

…youth class that created a new market with leisure time and money to spend that so embraced this revolution in Film. It was also in this climate that this new generation of directors emerged from to fill the spaces of the old and out dated. They had an empathy with their audience which is demonstrated by the fact that the term nouvelle vague was so quickly attributed to this movement in film style and form.