Choice Reviews Online · 2003 · 109 citations · 0 references
HumanitiesFilm StudiesFrenchFilm AestheticsFilm CriticismFilm HistoryAvant-garde CinemaDirectorial StyleEarly CinemaFilm GenresFrench New WaveAvant-garde Film HistoryAvant-garde Film TheoryNew Wave Aesthetics
The French New Wave is a celebrated film movement noted for its exuberance, daring, and avant‑garde techniques. The book examines the social, economic, and aesthetic forces that shaped 1950s French cinema and provides detailed studies of key New Wave films, including a new focus on the Left Bank Group of directors. Neupert traces the precursors of the New Wave, illustrating how earlier works served as blueprints for its pioneers, and later examines the Left Bank Group’s contributions. Neupert finds that a core group of Cahiers du Cinema critics—Truffaut, Chabrol, and Godard—driven the revolutionary shift in filmmaking, with their peers Rohmer, Rivette, Doniol‑Valcroze, and Kast further expanding the movement, culminating in a comprehensive review of its diverse films.
The French New Wave cinema is arguably the most fascinating of all film movements, famous for its exuberance, daring, and avant-garde techniques. A History of the French New Wave Cinema offers a fresh look at the social, economic, and aesthetic mechanisms that shaped French film in the 1950s, as well as detailed studies of the most important New Wave movies of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Richard Neupert first tracks the precursors to New Wave cinema, showing how they provided blueprints for those who would follow. He demonstrates that it was a core group of critics-turned-directors from the magazine, Cahiers du Cinema - especially Francois Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, and Jean-Luc Godard - who really revealed that filmmaking was changing forever. Later, their cohorts Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Pierre Kast continued in their own unique ways to expand the range and depth of the New Wave. In an exciting new chapter, Neupert explores the subgroup of French film practice known as the Left Bank Group, which included directors such as Alain Resnais and Agnes Varda. With the addition of this new material and an updated conclusion, Neupert presents a comprehensive review of the stunning variety of movies to come out of this important era in filmmaking.