French New Wave

The French New Wave

The French New Wave, also called La Nouvelle Vague in French, refers to the work of a group of French film-makers between the years 1958 and 1964. This core group of directors included Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer. All of them had been film critics for the magazine Cahiers du Cinema. This group was very critical of the glitzy films made for the studios in France and Hollywood in the 1950’s and 1960’s; however, they admired the work of earlier French directors such as Vigo and Renoir, and certain Hollywood directors like Alfred Hitchcock. They also praised the work of Italian neo-realists such as Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica (Nowell-Smith 16). They called these directors auteurs because of the distinctive themes that could be seen throughout the body of their work. Because of their backgrounds in film theory and criticism, this group of directors was able to change the notion of how a...