Catch a (new) wave with exquisite ‘Nouvelle Vague’
As a journalist, I’d kill to have had a seat at the writers’ desk for the French movie magazine, Cahiers du Cinéma, rubbing elbows with the likes of Eric Rohmer, Francois Truffaut, Claude Chabrol and, of course, Jean-Luc Godard. One can only imagine what it must have been like to be surrounded by visionaries who would soon become the foundation of film’s French New Wave.
Imagine no more. Thanks to Richard Linklater and his magnificent “Nouvelle Vague,” we can now relive those halcyon days through the experiences of Godard (Guillaume Marbeck), making his transition from film critic to filmmaker with his groundbreaking 1960 classic, “Breathless.” And you will, indeed, be gasping as you’re enveloped in the rare air of Godard’s make-it-up-as-you-go technique in creating a noir crime picture that’s not just an eye-popping original but transcends time.
There’s an unmistakable reverence to it. As the great Jean Cocteau once remarked to Truffaut, and recreated here, “Art is not a pastime, it’s a priesthood.” Don’t, however, let that sway you into believing that “Nouvelle Vague” (“New Wave”), making its debut on Netflix this week, is stuffy and academic. To the contrary, it’s free and breezy, brimming with humor as well as insight into what was not just a movement, but a never-ending party in which some of the finest filmmakers of the 1960s and 70s emerged. They are all represented here, largely through drop-ins and cameos, both on the set and at the many sidewalk cafes and nightly soirees where the likes of Truffaut, Rohmer, Chabrol and Godard would hang out, sipping wine, talking shop and lending each other support in addition to exchanging good-natured jabs. Can you picture waiting for the Metro with Truffaut and Godard sitting on a bench directly behind you, hammering out the storyline for “Breathless”?
Yes, that really happened. And it’s indicative of the anything-goes spirit that flourished in the wake of the triumphant debut of Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. Seeing it is all the motivation Godard needs to aspire to become the last of the Cahiers du Cinéma staff, at age 29, to take the plunge into directing, backed by his close friend, the legendary producer Georges de Beauregard (Bruno Dreyfürst).
Thanks to Linklater’s meticulous attention to detail, he succeeds in resurrecting to a T the sights, sounds and camaraderie of the Paris film scene. That includes a distinctive “you are there” feel, courtesy of a setting so sumptuous you’d swear Linklater spared no expense. Shot in the same boxy, black-and-white motif as the film to which he’s paying homage, “Nouvelle Vague” is not just a feast for the eyes, but an evocative chronicle of a moment in which cinema forever changed, breaking free from the confines of a slavish studio system that had run its course.
Like his peers, Godard, always in search of the “instantaneous and unexpected,” sought to make organic films that were absent of pretense and marked by simplicity. “All you need is a girl and a gun,” he quips. What you don’t need, according to his mentor, Roberto Rossellini (Laurent Mothe), is a script, synced sound, artificial lighting, and makeup. The latter particularly galls Godard’s most bankable star, Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch). After working under the authoritarian-like efficiency (and bullying) of Otto Preminger on 1958’s “Bonjour Tristesse,” Godard throws the persnickety ingenue a complete 180. She loves the freedom he offers in her portrayal of the pixieish American student, Patricia Franchini, but hates the lack of structure inherent in Godard’s laissez-faire approach.
Deutch, a dead-ringer for the real thing, is fabulous at capturing Seberg’s apprehension and frustration, certain that the film and her performance are doomed from the start. There’s no thought to this becoming her signature role, not to mention triggering a worldwide trend in fashion, with women rushing to salons to duplicate her boyishly chic, short-cropped blonde coif.
Like Seberg, Deutch looks fab in a variety of striped ensembles, as well as the sexy white short shorts Patricia barely wears in those iconic post-coital scenes in her cramped hotel room opposite John-Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin) as the smitten small-time gangster, Michel Poiccard. Dullin pretty much takes a backseat to his French-speaking American co-star for most of the picture, as it should be. But, like Belmondo, he exudes the unlikely charm of a cash-poor bad boy (he’s wanted for murder, no less) who is always looking out for himself.
His Michel is essentially a stand-in for Godard, an enigmatic troublemaker who never removes his sunglasses, even indoors. And Marbeck wears those ever-present shades well, projecting both Godard’s arrogance and brilliance with his unwavering cocky demeanor. With his cigarette artfully in hand, he’s the epitome of cool, as Marbeck is well aware. In fact, the entire ensemble is perfectly cast, including Adrien Rouyard as Truffaut, Antoine Besson as Chabrol, Cõme Thieulin as Rohmer, and Tom Novembra as Godard’s other famed mentor, Jean-Pierre Melville, fabulous in “Breathless” as the pompous ass Patricia is sent to interview at Orly Airport.
Oh, and special kudos to Matthieu Penchinat as “Breathless’” put-upon cinematographer, Raoul Coutard, a war veteran whose experiences in battle could not have prepared him for working with a director as demanding and unpredictable as Godard. But how thrilling it is to watch the two conceive those kinetic shots of the living, breathing streets of Paris, as well as the unkempt bedrooms of Patricia and Michel’s other damsel, Liliane (Lea Luce Busato).
Even better is how they conspire to devise increasingly clever ways to use their hand-held 35 mm Caméflex camera in effecting an impromptu, guerrilla style. Such as stuffing the lanky Courard and his camera inside a tiny postal cart to shoot that memorable scene of Michel and Patricia (clad in her iconic New York Herald-Tribune T-shirt) walking and talking along the bustling Champs Élysées. And whenever possible, Linklater impeccably reconstructs those scenes – many in the same locations with his actors outfitted in exact replicas of the original attire.
Great look, great performances and many laughs, so what’s there to complain about? Nothing, unless you are not a cinephile well-acquainted with both the French New Wave and “Breathless” itself. Those folks may be left scratching their heads. Even if you are, like Linklater, an aficionado of the era, you may be a tad disappointed that the movie is mostly surface and not much depth. But don’t let that stop you from taking in “Nouvelle Vague.”
Much like Truffaut’s wonderful “Day for Night,” it delivers a juicy behind-the-scenes glimpse of a medium where it’s a wonder any film gets made, given the battles over budget, methods and deadlines. Not to mention the clashing personalities, as exemplified by the very public brawl Godard and Beauregard wage over the former’s erratic shooting schedule.
Beau Beau, as he is affectionately called, needn’t have fretted, because his investment more than paid off with a film that rivals “The 400 Blows” as the finest example of the French New Wave. And like Linklater’s other current biopic, “Blue Moon,” chronicling a seminal stage in the life of Broadway composer Lorenz Hart, “Nouvelle Vague” is a treasure trove of personalities and ideas, as it nostalgically whisks you back to a time and place when audacity and creativity ingeniously walked hand in hand.
Movie review
Nouvelle Vague
Rated: R for some language
Cast: Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch, Aubry Dullin, Bruno Dreyfürst, Matthieu Penchinat, Adrien Rouyard, Antoine Besson, Cõme Thieulin and Tom Novembra
Director: Richard Linklater
Writers: Holly Gent and Vincent Palmo Jr.
Runtime: 104 minutes
Where: Currently in theaters (limited) before coming to Netflix on Nov. 14
Grade: A-
