The directors of the French New Wave were the original film geeks - a collection of celluloid-crazed cinephiles with a background in film criticism and a love for American auteurs. Having spent countless hours slumped in Parisian cinematheques, they armed themselves with handheld cameras, rejected conventions, and successfully moved movies out of the studios and on to the streets at the end of the 1950s. By the mid-1960s, the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and Claude Chabrol had changed the rules of film-making forever, but the movement as such was over.

During these key years, the New Wave directors employed experimental techniques to achieve a fresh and invigorating new style of cinema. Borrowing liberally from the varied traditions of film noir, musicals and science fiction, they released a string of innovative and influential pictures, including the classics Le Beau Serge, Jules et Jim and A Bout de Souffle.

This Guide reviews and analyses all of the major films in the movement and offers profiles of its principal stars, such as Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina and Brigitte Bardot. An introductory essay, Making Waves, examines the social context of the movement in France as well as the directors' considerable influence on later generations of filmmakers across the globe. A handy multi-media reference guide at the end of the book points the way towards further NewWave resources.

About the Author
Chris Wiegand writes for Boxoffice Magazine, Film Threat, Crime Time and bbc.co.uk. He is also the author of Federico Fellini: The Complete Films (Taschen).

Reviews
Chris Wiegand talks about the very best of French New Wave * Kilburn Times *



Book Information
ISBN 9781842439463
Author Chris Wiegand
Format Paperback
Page Count 144
Imprint Pocket Essentials
Publisher Oldcastle Books Ltd