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Mint
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Cannes 2025: ‘Nouvelle Vague' is a winsome homage to Godard
'Reality is not continuity!" exclaims Jean-Luc Godard during the making of À Bout de Souffle, as a script supervisor attempts to remove a coffee cup that hadn't been there in the previous shot. Correction: exclaims the actor playing Godard in Nouvelle Vague, Richard Linklater's film about the making of the 1959 French New Wave classic. (As if all this wasn't meta enough, try watching it at the Cannes Film Festival in a theatre full of critics and filmmakers.) It's a bold move to tell a story about the making of one of the most influential—and most studied—films in cinema history, particularly one whose place in the canon marks a disruption of all the filmmaking conventions that came before it. Add to that the notion of an American director assembling this homage to one of France's biggest icons and things could go horribly wrong… if it weren't for the fact that it was Linklater behind the camera. Over the last 30 years he has challenged the conventions of filmmaking in his own ways, most notably with his Before trilogy of films, all shot nine years apart to allow for the story (co-written with his actors) to naturally age and mature with time. His other speciality is capturing the bravado and insouciance of youth, which we see here in the form of a 29-year-old film-critic-turned-filmmaker who made his very first film in a span of 20 days without much of a plan. Experimental and unstructured as Godard's style may have been, Linklater's Nouvelle Vague is not. But it's also not trying to be. 'You can't imitate Godard. You'd fail," he said at a press conference at Cannes. Meticulously plotted and rehearsed, the film has a beginning, middle and end—in that order. (Another deviation from the Godard school of action.) It opens with Godard bemoaning how his fellow film critics (such as Claude Chabrol and Francois Truffaut) at Cahiers du Cinema made their directorial forays before him. Spurred into action by the fear of being left behind, Godard gets producer Georges de Beauregard to fund his debut feature based on a rough story outline written by Truffaut, and casts Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg as the leads. Most of Nouvelle Vague is dedicated to the production process of the film, and how Godard bucked convention at every turn. Take for example: showing up to shoot without a script, avoiding rehearsals so as to capture his actors' instincts, choosing to have key action sequences take place off-screen. Though much of this is already well known and documented, what sells this particular peek behind the scenes is the cast, made up almost entirely of unfamiliar faces. Guillaume Marbeck is an incredible find; the unknown French actor is the spitting image of Godard, aided by the signature dark sunglasses that don't come off for even a moment. Hollywood actress Zoey Deutch nails Seberg's off-kilter American-accented French, and another unknown French actor Aubry Dullin rounds out the trio with his playful (and equally charismatic) Belmondo. Shot on 35mm film in 1:37 Academy ratio, the black-and-white film was shot to look like the films of that era, meaning it also does not feature any camera movements or stylistic choices that didn't exist prior to when Breathless (as it's known to English-speaking audiences) was made. 'In making this film, I felt like I had erased my own history," said Linklater. 'I was going back to being in my late 20s making my first film. I also had to erase cinema history after 1959. So I was going back in time personally and cinematically." The film keeps up a zippy pace throughout, though its periodic pauses to introduce seminal characters of that time—Agnes Varda, Jean-Pierre Melville, Robert Bresson and the like—start to wear thin after a while. Some of the strongest moments are when Godard butts heads with his producer, who is becoming increasingly worried that his director seems to be eschewing a formal narrative in favour of creating an improvisational rhythm all his own, and also has a penchant for shooting only when inspiration strikes (even if that's just two hours a day). Nothing about Linklater's film is as audacious as Godard's debut but it has a winsome exuberance that's quite infectious. Perhaps where the film will be most successful is among young audiences unfamiliar with these French New Wave pioneers, and with cinephiles for whom films about films have always been catnip. It may not matter that Nouvelle Vague isn't doing anything novel. It's made with such sincerity and such a reverence for not just the craft of filmmaking but for the leap of faith required to undertake such a thing that it's impossible not to be won over. Back to the forest Exactly 56 years after Satyajit Ray made Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest), his beautifully observed film about complex social dynamics between a group of young friends and strangers, a restoration of the classic was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. The process of its meticulous 4K restoration was initiated by Wes Anderson, an avowed Ray fan, in his capacity as a board member on Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation. In his opening speech at the Cannes screening, Anderson said, 'Days and Nights in the Forest is one of the special gems among (Ray's) many treasures. I first saw it 25 years ago on a very strangely translated, blurry, scratchy, pirated DVD from a little Bollywood shop in New Jersey. And I hope you'll enjoy it tonight, perfectly restored, as much as I did then." The film's stars Sharmila Tagore and Simi Garewal were in attendance at the screening alongside Shivendra Singh Dungarpur from India's Film Heritage Foundation, which supported the restoration process in collaboration with Janus Films, The Criterion Collection and the Golden Globe Foundation. Recalling the sweltering summertime shoot, Tagore shares, 'It was so hot we could only shoot from 5.30-9am and then again from 3-6pm. The rest of the time was just adda, it's a Bengali word which means bonding and making friends…Sadly, Simi and I are the only survivors (from the cast); everybody else has passed on. So I will see my old friends on the screen and relive those lovely moments." And in her closing words of thanks, Garewal said to Anderson and Dungarpur: 'You've not only restored this film, you've made it immortal." Pahull Bains is a freelance film critic and culture writer. Also read: India's bars get creative with zero-proof drinks
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Nouvelle Vague' Review: Richard Linklater's Splendid Love Letter To French New Wave And Godard Will Make You Fall In Love With Movies All Over Again
In 1983, Jim McBride attempted an English-language remake of Jean-Luc Godard's 1959 cinema landmark, Breathless with Richard Gere. It broke one of Godard's cardinal rules: It was in color. Although not as terrible an idea as Gus Van Sant's disastrous shot-by-shot 1998 color remake of Hitchcock's 1960 Psycho — which, like Godard's forever-influential movie the year before, also broke all the rules of its genre — it is dismissed today with the original still finding new life with young audiences each generation, as France's New Wave also continues to do. With the truly wonderful Nouvelle Vague (New Wave), premiering today in Competition at Cannes (where else?), Richard Linklater smartly has not attempted a remake of Breathless but rather a certain regard and respect for the wildly creative cinematic period Godard and his contemporaries achieved with the French New Wave. A cinema revolutionary in spirit and deed himself — just watch his masterful Boyhood that was shot over 12 years or his currently in-production 20-year shoot of Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along — Linklater, working from a great and witty script by Holly Gent and Vince Palmo, instead has made a film about the making of Breathless in the exact style the original was made: in black and white with a 1:37 aspect ratio and completely in French. It succeeds beyond my wildest dreams and with great love and respect for this era and its giants in every way. More from Deadline Cannes Film Festival 2025: Read All Of Deadline's Movie Reviews Deadline Studio At Cannes Film Festival 2025: Photos Of Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Imogen Poots, Thora Birch & More 'Renoir' Review: A Young Girl Seeks Connection In Touching & Haunting '80s-Set Drama - Cannes Film Festival One of those New Wave pioneers, Francois Truffaut, made a movie about making a movie, 1973's Oscar-winning Day for Night, that remains the litmus test for this sub-genre, a movie that can't be topped. Linklater might not have topped it, but he matches it for sheer joy and pure delight as a movie to remind us why we love movies in the first place. Near the beginning we see a crowded theater with Godard, Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, and Suzanne Schiffman just as a premiere is ending. 'Your movie is a piece of sh*t, ' states Godard to the producer, to which Schiffman comments that at least there is free food at the afterparty. This group along with others all began as film critics for the bible of French movie criticism, Cahiers du Cinema, each going on to great success as filmmakers themselves. Godard (a pitch-perfect Guillaume Marbeck), however, feels he is running behind, especially jealous of Truffaut, whose seminal The 400 Blows is getting a Cannes Film Festival premiere, and he has yet to make a feature (shorts don't count as cinema in his book). At the Cannes premiere he becomes more determined than ever to make his first feature, enlisting jaded producer Georges de Beauregard (a wonderful Bruno Dreyfursft) to put up the money. But this is going to be a film done like no other since Godard's rules of no script only notes, no color, no scope, no sync sound so he can shout out directions, and dialogue he writes in a café each morning before the day's shoot. He signs on American star Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch, terrific) who made an early splash as Joan of Arc in Otto Preminger's Hollywood take on the French icon, as well as that director's Bonjour Tristesse. Godard tells her he wants her to be just like she was in that movie, no need to act. He also cast rising star Jean-Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin), a friend, against Belmondo's manager's advice that this crazy movie could torpedo his career before it gets going. Nevertheless, the shoot proceeds with Belmondo assuring the manager it will never get released. Watch the trailer: Linklater shoots all over Paris on the same locations Godard used, setting up familiar scenes from the movie but showing the freedom and lust for cinema that defined the New Wave and Godard's assured but revolutionary style. He won't allow actors to see any script pages (there aren't any anyway) for fear they actually would prepare and create their own take on the dialogue and scenes instead of what he envisions. Seberg cries to her husband Raoul Coutard (Matthieu Penchinat), who is a protector on the set, that she wants to quit and doesn't know why she is in this film. No wonder. Her wardrobe is not exactly glamorous, and when her make up artist arrives, Godard tries to send her away, saying, 'No one wears makeup in my film.' Belmondo, on the other hand, seems endlessly amused by the whole improvisational process. Weaved in and out are other soon-to-be famous directors like Truffaut (an uncanny Adrien Rouyard), Chabrol (Antoine Besson), Jean-Pierre Melville (Tom Novembre), who gives tips when Godard visits his set, and on and on including a wonderful scene where Italian Roberto Rossellini arrives as guest speaker to a room full of eager 'New Wave' hopefuls who fill the place with enthusiasm for this 'godfather' of Nouvelle Vague. Clearly Linklater and his team have done their homework and research. All the names (and there are so many flashed on screen throughout) are authentic, nothing appears made up — or at least we hope so. You feel like you somehow got in a time machine and have been taken back to what seems like a magical place where movies are everything. It has been re-created stunningly, with special shout-outs to cinematographer David Chambille, production designer Katia Wyszkop, costume designer Pascaline Chavanne and editor Catherine Schwartz. The scenes at the end when Godard finally gets into the editing room, assuring producer Beauregard it will come in at the contractual 90 minutes, are priceless. His mantra is this is where the film will be made, no scenes will be cut, just parts of them until it all becomes a whole. The casting here is exquisite with Marbeck, in dark glasses at all times, just sensational capturing every nuance that we know is Godard, and snapping off one great line or quote. As he says, 'We control our thoughts, which mean nothing, but not our emotions, which mean everything.' This Godard never stops quoting others too. 'Art is never finished, only abandoned' is a Da Vinci saying he lives by. It is an unforgettable performance. Deutch is especially impressive as Seberg. There wasn't a moment I thought I was watching anyone else but Seberg. On down the line, not a false not from anyone. This is that rare bird, a movie about movies that doesn't miss a beat. Whether you have seen Breathless or not doesn't really matter. If you love film, cinema, and the dreamers who create it this one will simply take your breath away. Producers are Michele and Laurent Petin. Title: Nouvelle Vague (New Wave)Festival: Cannes Film Festival (Competition)Sales agent: ARP SelectionDirector: Richard LinklaterScreenwriters: Holly Gent and Vince PalmoCast: Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch, Aubry Dullin, Adrien Rouyard, Antoine Besson, Jodie Ruth Forest, Bruno Dreyfurst, Benjamin Clery, Matthieu PenchinatRunning time: 1 hr 45 min Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? Everything We Know About Ari Aster's 'Eddington' So Far
Indian Express
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Cannes review: Nouvelle Vague, a warm homage to the pioneers of French New Wave
A film about cinephiles for cinephiles is one way to describe 'Nouvelle Vague' (New Wave), Richard Linklater's love letter to movies. You could also say that it is about the making of 'Breathless', which it is. But it's truly, gloriously more. It's about being young and alive, broke and audacious, lucking into friends who make you come alive, having each other's backs — all while changing the world. In the 50s, a bunch of French film critics were busy discovering the joys of 'middlebrow Hollywood commercial' cinema, which was treated with disdain by a high-minded earlier generation. Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer, Chaude Chabrol, Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard were among those who contributed to Cahiers du Cinema, a journal which published these rebels-with-a-righteous-cause. But writing trenchant prose and tearing into fresh releases for their scrappy journal wasn't enough after a time, and many of these turned to making their films. Thus was born the 'French New Wave', which changed the way movies were made. How this particular group of film critics-turned-filmmakers became so influential — they may have been the 'OG influencers' — has been the subject of weighty tomes, but those who saw the films when they came out, and the scholars who came after were unanimous that Godard's debut A Bout de Souffle ('Breathless', 1960) was an instant classic. Linklater's film will make those who adore Breathless nostalgic. Set in 1969, it is black and white, but it's not the luscious-lambent period black-and-white which could have distanced us; the matter-of-fact palette makes it all very life-like. The actors who play Godard (Guillaume Marbeck), Jean-Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin) and Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch), Truffaut (Adrien Rouyard), Chanrol (Antoine Besson), could practically be doppelgangers, so amazingly alike are they. All the familiar markers are in here. Belmondo's lips (the New Wavers loved Brando), Seberg's uber-stylish striped dresses, thin cigarettes, long tail-finned cars, cobbled Parisian streets, stubby handguns, and the catchy score take you right back to your first encounter with Breathless, when you were instantly smitten with French petty thieves and their pert American girl-friends while waiting for 'that' shot that made movie history. But while 'Nouvelle Vague' is a homage, it isn't reverential. You can see Godard being annoying and obdurate. Early on, Seberg demands make-up and the former refuses it; in another instance, the director dismisses the person in charge of continuity, saying that's not what life is about. One of the pleasures of the film is how he uses famous quotes, as do several other characters: it's all very self-aware and a lot of fun. Both Dullin, who captures Belmondo's sunny sexiness, and Deutch, all radiance even when she is irritated, are terrific: did Belmondo and Seberg have a moment in real life? We see a distinct, momentary spark. Also Read | Express at Cannes: Sergei Lozintsa's brooding, atmospheric Two Prosecutors and hard-hitting police procedural Dossier 137 Marbeck's Godard is impeccable. His trademark dark glasses do not come off anywhere in the film, even when he somersaults. His whims ( pack up, the shoot is over, or no shoot today because not-in-the-mood), the producer's panicky rants, and the baffled faces of the cast and crew do become a tad repetitive, and I did become a bit restive in those bits. But perhaps it was important to recount just how shambolic, and learning-on-the-job the making of 'Breathless' was, not just for the mercurial, brilliant Godard, but for the rest of the cast too, who had no idea that they were at work on something that would turn iconic in its first run itself. 'Breathless' rewrote the rules of the game. Godard jumped. So did the movies.
Indian Express
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Nouvelle Vague, a warm homage to the pioneers of French New Wave
A film about cinephiles for cinephiles is one way to describe 'Nouvelle Vague' ( New Wave), Richard Linklater's love letter to movies. You could also say that it is about the making of 'Breathless', which it is. But it's truly, gloriously more. It's about being young and alive, broke and audacious, lucking into friends who make you come alive, having each other's backs — all while changing the world. In the 50s, a bunch of French film critics were busy discovering the joys of 'middlebrow Hollywood commercial' cinema, which was treated with disdain by a high-minded earlier generation. Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer, Chaude Chabrol, Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard were among those who contributed to Cahiers du Cinema, a journal which published these rebels-with-a-righteous-cause. But writing trenchant prose and tearing into fresh releases for their scrappy journal wasn't enough after a time, and many of these turned to making their films. Thus was born the 'French New Wave', which changed the way movies were made. How this particular group of film critics-turned-filmmakers became so influential — they may have been the 'OG influencers' — has been the subject of weighty tomes, but those who saw the films when they came out, and the scholars who came after were unanimous that Godard's debut A Bout de Souffle ( 'Breathless', 1960) was an instant classic. Linklater's film will make those who adore Breathless nostalgic. Set in 1969, it is black and white, but it's not the luscious-lambent period black-and-white which could have distanced us; the matter-of-fact palette makes it all very life-like. The actors who play Godard ( Guillaume Marbeck), Jean-Paul Belmondo ( Aubry Dullin) and Jean Seberg ( Zoey Deutch), Truffaut ( Adrien Rouyard), Chanrol ( Antoine Besson), could practically be doppelgangers, so amazingly alike are they. All the familiar markers are in here. Belmondo's lips (the New Wavers loved Brando), Seberg's uber-stylish striped dresses, thin cigarettes, long tail-finned cars, cobbled Parisian streets, stubby handguns, and the catchy score take you right back to your first encounter with Breathless, when you were instantly smitten with French petty thieves and their pert American girl-friends while waiting for 'that' shot that made movie history. But while 'Nouvelle Vague' is a homage, it isn't reverential. You can see Godard being annoying and obdurate. Early on, Seberg demands make-up and the former refuses it; in another instance, the director dismisses the person in charge of continuity, saying that's not what life is about. One of the pleasures of the film is how he uses famous quotes, as do several other characters: it's all very self-aware and a lot of fun. Both Dullin, who captures Belmondo's sunny sexiness, and Deutch, all radiance even when she is irritated, are terrific: did Belmondo and Seberg have a moment in real life? We see a distinct, momentary spark. Marbeck's Godard is impeccable. His trademark dark glasses do not come off anywhere in the film, even when he somersaults. His whims ( pack up, the shoot is over, or no shoot today because not-in-the-mood), the producer's panicky rants, and the baffled faces of the cast and crew do become a tad repetitive, and I did become a bit restive in those bits. But perhaps it was important to recount just how shambolic, and learning-on-the-job the making of 'Breathless' was, not just for the mercurial, brilliant Godard, but for the rest of the cast too, who had no idea that they were at work on something that would turn iconic in its first run itself. 'Breathless' rewrote the rules of the game. Godard jumped. So did the movies.
