THE FRENCH
The WWII Experience in
From
Famine to Feast (flood of withheld American films)
1951 Cahiers du Cinema (Cinema
Journal) created by André Bazin and
Alexandre Astruc – Le Caméra-Stylo (The
Camera Pen)
Young Critics:
François Truffaut
Jean-Luc Godard
Claude Chabrol
Eric Roehmer
Jacques Rivette
Admired Directors:
Hitchcock
John Ford
Howard Hawks
Jean Renoir and Jean-Pierre Melville (rare French
exceptions)
1954 Truffaut Critiques “The
Tradition of
Quality”
and calls for “La Politique des Auteurs”
(the Auteur Policy/Strategy) in “Une Certaine Tendance du Cinéma Française”
The Chief Tenets of the Auteur Strategy:
Film as
an Expressive Medium
Style as World View
Theme and World-View
The “Curve” of a Body of Work
The Intersection of Auteur and Genre
Mid-50s: Cahiers critics begin making short films
1959: La Nouvelle Vague/The New Wave Arrives at
The
400 Blows (François Truffaut)
Le
Beau Serge (Claude Chabrol)
Sign
of the Lion (Eric Roehmer)
Cléo de 5 à 6 (Agnès Varda)
Typical Elements (though varying from film to film):
Quirky,
idiosyncratic style on a Neo-Realist base
Subverting
narrative conventions (breaking the illusion)
No
adaptations
Low
budget
Urban
(love affair with
Social
analysis
Absurdity
of modern life
Frank
sexuality
Love of
Film (esp. genre film)/Film References
INFLUENCE ON
Andrew Sarris: “The Auteur Theory”
The American Cinema – The
Pantheon
The New American Cinema
Cassavetes
Rafelson
Penn
Coppola
DePalma
Scorsese
Altman
Spielberg
Lucas
INFLUENCE ON OTHER WORLD CINEMAS:
Denmark
(The Dogma Filmmakers)
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