{"id":257343,"date":"2025-11-02T20:12:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T20:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/257343\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T20:12:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T20:12:18","slug":"nouvelle-vague-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/257343\/","title":{"rendered":"Nouvelle Vague review"},"content":{"rendered":"

PLOT:\u00a0A young Jean-Luc Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) attempts to make his feature directorial debut with a pulpy crime drama he intends to innovate by breaking every cinema rule he can.<\/p>\n

REVIEW:\u00a0Richard Linklater<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0Nouvelle Vague\u00a0is clearly a passion project for the veteran director, and it\u2019s easy to see why. Godard was one of filmdom\u2019s biggest outlaws, shaking up the craft of moviemaking so profoundly that his work actually changed what had previously been a pretty narrow definition of film. In his own way, Linklater did the same with\u00a0Slacker, so it\u2019s not hard to view them as kindred spirits. As a result,\u00a0Nouvelle Vague\u00a0(French for \u201cNew Wave,\u201d as in the French New Wave) is an affectionate, warm, funny film that isn\u2019t afraid to poke fun at its protagonist\u2019s habits.<\/p>\n

The movie has a terrific introduction to Godard, showing him and his fellow auteurs (including Claude Chabrol and Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut) at a film premiere, puffing cigarettes, while he adds to his arrogance by wearing sunglasses he never removes throughout the film (a trademark of the real-life Godard). A critic for\u00a0Les Cahiers du Cin\u00e9ma, he\u2019s frustrated that his collaborators, Truffaut and Chabrol, have become celebrated while he has yet to make a film. The story charts him making\u00a0Breathless, which, of course, has become perhaps the art film to end all art films.<\/p>\n

\"nouvelle<\/p>\n

Now, if you\u2019re unfamiliar with the ins and outs of French cinema in the fifties and sixties, don\u2019t expect too much handholding. Each character is introduced in a very Godardian way, posing for the camera as their names appear beneath them. If you don\u2019t know who Jean-Pierre Melville is, or why Robert Bresson is hanging around with a pickpocket, the movie won\u2019t spell it out. That obviously limits its audience, but I could also see\u00a0Nouvelle Vague\u00a0being essential for a film studies class or for anyone trying to get a handle on Godard\u2019s work\u2014which I personally find nearly impossible to watch (with the exception of\u00a0Breathless).<\/p>\n

Godard is an arrogant hero, prone to rattling off quotes by Sartre and da Vinci as he explains his grand vision for cinema. Yet, knowing how\u00a0Breathless\u00a0turned out, you can\u2019t help but root for him. The film does a terrific job of evoking this period of French film creativity, which truly was one of a kind.<\/p>\n

Linklater has assembled a great French cast, led by Guillaume Marbeck, who perfectly captures the iconoclastic auteur. Zoey Deutch is the only Hollywood star in the cast, fittingly playing Jean Seberg\u2014the lone American star of\u00a0Breathless\u2014who bristled at her director\u2019s free-form style after suffering under the tyrannical Otto Preminger. Aubry Dullin is an uncanny Jean-Paul Belmondo, who went on to become one of the biggest international stars of the era (influencing none other than Jackie Chan when he began doing his own stunts later in his career).<\/p>\n

While\u00a0Nouvelle Vague\u00a0may not mean much to people who aren\u2019t serious aficionados of the French New Wave, it\u2019s still an entertaining, fresh take on the making of a film that broke so many rules. There\u2019s something gloriously perverse about the fact that a movie about Godard\u2014a champion of cinema\u2014is premiering on Netflix<\/a>. Then again, he loved irony, so maybe it\u2019s perfect.<\/p>\n

Nouvelle Vague is now playing in theaters and hits Netflix on November 14th.<\/p>\n

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