The French New Wave thread

[King Kamala 0]

So to expand the breadth of my film knowledge, I'm taking a class on French Film Directors once a week this semester. I know virtually nothing about French films. The course is mostly focused on the French New Wave, though there has been one exception so far and there'll probably be a couple more. I also plan on adding some essentials that aren't on the curriculum to my Netflix queue. Right now I've got Breathless and Shoot The Piano Player plus a couple more French movies that pre-date the era.

 

So far we've watched; Cleo From 5 to 7, Vivre Sa Vie, Jules and Jim, and My Night At Maud's (plus Fat Girl) . I enjoyed all of these to some extent except Jules and Jim (had its moments but wasn't my cup of tea).

 

So TSM, recommend me some French New Wave. Some other French movies would be neat to but I figured I'd narrow the scope.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Of what's not on your list, the following:

 

The 400 Blows

Band of Outsiders

Chloe in the Afternoon

 

I mentioned Jean-Pierre Melville in the other thread. Never officially a part of the movement, he's generally considered the godfather of it, anyway. Check out Bob Le Flambeur; Truffaut, Godard, et al, took a lot of cues from that one. Le Samouri is also along those lines, though it came along a few years after the initial New Wave explosion.

 

EDIT: http://www.avclub.com/articles/gateways-to...new-wave,24185/

 

The AV Club is usually lame, but that's a good article.

[Ravenbomb 0]

If you can tolerate weirdness, "Alphaville" is an excellent movie. Other than that, the best ones have already been mentioned.

 

As for films that pre-date the era, "Diabolique" is an outstanding Hitchcockian thriller. Personally I'd steer clear of the pre-WW II Poetic Realism era, though. Stuff like "Rules of the Game" and such. Vastly overrated, in my opinion.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I've not seen Fat Girl, but the few Catherine Breillat films I've seen either bored me senseless or filled me with rage.

[Gary Floyd 0]

As for films that pre-date the era, "Diabolique" is an outstanding Hitchcockian thriller.

Oh God yes. Also, I love "Les Yeux Sans Visage."

[Ravenbomb 0]

Yeah, "Eyes Without a Face" is another great one.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Vivre Sa Vie is an excellent film, I'm sure you'll enjoy it quite a bit. Breathless is pretty decent, too.

 

You'll learn to love how sexy Anna Karina is, too.

[Ravenbomb 0]

"Breathless" is way more than pretty decent.

 

 

Also, while they were never a part of the New Wave movement, Luis Bunuel made some great French movies. For newer French movies, go with the Decalogue and the Three Colours Trilogy.

[King Kamala 0]

The Decalogue is Polish, Ravenbomb. Nevertheless, I do have it on my queue thanks to the write up of it in one of the Great Movies books.

 

Watched Vivra Sa Vie two weeks ago I think. It was a film I appreciated more than outright enjoyed but it was good nonetheless. And yes that Anna Karina was quite the babe.

[Ravenbomb 0]

Really? Man, why the hell did I think it was French? Ok, scrap the Decalogue and devote more time to the Three Colours Trilogy and Bunuel.

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

As for films that pre-date the era, "Diabolique" is an outstanding Hitchcockian thriller.

Oh God yes. Also, I love "Les Yeux Sans Visage."

 

I just got a copy of that last week. Have to make time for it now.

 

Also, the image in my signature is inspired by a New Wave classic. Can anybody guess what it is?

[Ravenbomb 0]

"Masculin, féminin"?

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

You probably won't be able to tell from just looking at it.

[Ravenbomb 0]

"Week End?"

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

You got it.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

No one's said Pierrot le fou yet, but they should have. It's a little more toward the avant-garde end of the spectrum than, like, Breathless or The 400 Blows, but it's still really fun and accessible (esp. compared to what came after). Really, just about everything Godard made between Breathless and Week End is worth your time. He made some interesting stuff after that point (Tout va bien, his collabo with Jane Fonda, is particularly notable), but most of it is extraordinarily difficult and none of it is especially New Wave-y.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Fact: I watched Alphaville and Terry Gilliam's Brazil, both of them first viewings, together on the same night. I think I went to bed tripping on movies.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I first watched Sweet Movie 24 hours before seeing Salo for the first time. The latter seemed tame in comparison.

[godthedog 0]

this dove pretty quickly from "french new wave" into "movies with directors who are european."

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

It ceased being about the French New Wave in the first post.

[King Kamala 0]

Eh, I figured I'd try to narrow the scope rather than just call it The French Film thread.

[Ravenbomb 0]

Salo is vastly overrated in terms of deviance.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

this dove pretty quickly from "french new wave" into "movies with directors who are european."

 

I tried to color between the lines.