The very American Linklater (whose credits include Dazed And Confused, the Before trilogy, School Of Rock, Boyhood, Last Flag Flying, and Hit Man) is obviously a huge fan of all the filmmakers depicted here, but this isn’t some hushed, reverential drama but, instead, a very funny, sweetly melancholic, and very French character piece.
Back in 1959, Jean-Luc Godard (Guillaume Marbeck), François Truffaut (Adrien Rouyard), and Claude Chabrol (Antoine Besson), three critics from the Parisian mag Cahiers du Cinéma, attend a screening of La Passe Du Diable, a movie they and friend Suzanne Schiffman (Jodie Ruth-Forest) all hate. Godard yearns to make Breathless (À Bout De Souffle), a movie that rejects all the needless nonsense behind bloated French and US blockbusters and, after watching Truffaut’s The 400 Blows and an encouraging visit from Italian filmmaker Roberto Rossellini (Laurent Mothe), he finally sets about doing just that.
Using an idea supplied by Truffaut (based upon some sort of fact), Godard turns to his friend, actor/boxer Jean-Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin), to play the lead, and then ambitiously seeks out American star Jean Seberg (American star Zoey Deutch). She’s in town to promote her latest pic, Bonjour Tristesse, and Godard assures her that this will be a production unlike her disappointing previous outings. And she’s certainly intrigued – and a little wary.
Zoey is the best-known player here, and she’s fabulous as the tragic Jean, with her stilted French, restless energy, and not-so-hidden sadness. When she recreates the famed ‘New York Herald Tribune!!!’ scene it causes quite the frisson.
Dispensing with continuity, make-up, proper lighting, permits and, of course, anything like a script, Godard makes the movie fast, with primitive cameras sometimes installed in a stolen postal trolley. And when the editing begins, he and his team allow all manner of jump cuts, wobbly cinematography, bad sound, and more, thus inspiring every low-budget and indie-scene auteur for generations to come.
Using a 4:3 screen ratio, black and white, and even mock scratches and ‘cigarette burns’ to convince you that you’re watching an old film, Linklater’s labour-of-love should please Nouvelle Vague expert and novice alike.
Trés cool indeed.
Nouvelle Vague is in cinemas now.
Nouvelle Vague (M)
(3.5 stars out of 5)
