A History of the French New Wave Cinema (Wisconsin Studies in Film)

About this book

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 then demonstrates that it was a core group of critics-turned-directors from the magazine Cahiers du Cinmaespecially Franois Truffaut Claude Chabrol and Jean-Luc Godardwho 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 Agns 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.