Characteristics of the French New Wave:

• Themes about modern topics
• Simple story
• Innovative style
• Break the rules of editing
• Stylish cinematography techniques
• Reflexivity
• Manifestation of love for cinema
• Improvisation in acting
• Filming in real locations

Now, let’s take a look at these characteristics:

Theme: Events take place in the present day and the movies tackle topics relevant to modern issues (modern of the 1950s) and about modern young people.

Story: The stories of the New Wave films were fairly simple. The directors rejected the complicated plots and replaced it with character driven stories. Godard described the movies of the French New Wave as having a very well written dumb story.

Style: The style of the film is more important than the story. Meaning that HOW the story of the film is told became far more important than ever and even became more important that WHAT the story is. What is meant by the style or “how the movie is told” is that the narration of the films was unique. So the three act structure would not be present in chronological order. The visual language of the film is intended to communicate new ideas and meanings beside the dialogue: Show Don’t Tell

Editing: Films heavily used jump cuts (a cut in the editing the literally jumps from one point in time to another). The editing was used to break the spacial and temporal continuity that was a main foundation of Classic movies.

Stylish Techniques: Unfamiliar camera angles, and unconventional cinematography. Films also broke many filming rules so we can watch many scenes with no establishing shots (many start the scene with a close up), and a dialogue scene with no over-the-shoulder shots or the shot reverse shot technique.

French New Wave

Love of Cinema: New Wave films are known for manifesting the love for the cinema. So in almost all the movies belonging to this era we can find scenes where characters are going to the movies, or expressing their love for movies. Famous movie posters can be regularly seen in the background. Even, many films were about directors making movies.

Reflexivity: The directors of the New Wave made sure to always remind the audience that they are watching a movie. This was achieved through having actors breaking the forth wall (they spoke and looked directly to the camera). The films were filled with references to other movies where characters would talk about older movies, or re-act a scene from another film. The fact that many films were about a director making a movie also reminds the audience that they are watching a film.

Auteur: The directors of the new wave usually wrote and directed their films and expressed their ideologies and philosophies through their films. So they were the authors of their movies or what came to be known as “Camera Stylo” which means that the directors could use their camera the same way authors use their pens. Every director had her/his unique style.

Filming: Movies were shot on real locations, and often using natural light (when possible). The filming crew was minimal (due to low budget) and usually the same crew worked on different movies. The filming was basically independent and freed itself from the studio system.

Acting: The cast was encouraged to improvise.

If you are interested in the French New Wave, Here are some of the most influential films belonging to this wave:

List of The Best French New Wave Movies