A History of the French New Wave Cinema (Wisconsin Studies in Film)

Neupert's Nouvelle Vague: Like having been there at the timeMy cinema education was parallel to the French nouvelle vague, from 1959 onwards I saw whatever had come out. Zurich (or Basle or occasionally even Paris) was close enough to get the new films quite fast, sometimes even without subtitles (yet). Neupert's brilliant history is like he had been present also - which he wasn't; but I, as an eye witness, can vouch for his authenticity. His amount of detail is well documented, complete and correct, like of Pierre Kast's Le bel age (1960), in an opus hardly found elsewhere.Having, after nearly fifty years, gone through literally all the nouvelle vague movies again at least once last year, I am very happy to have updated my memory. Dvd is simply wonderful compared to the various old systems of wheels and celluloid, so it needs to be a very poor copy to remind me of scratches, missing sound track and unevenly fixed torn or cut out pieces of film - very common occurrences in the past - to ever complain today. Another question are the extras, which were normally totally insignificant in the past.The chronological approach has its advantages: What is or is not really nouvelle vague is not a conceptual problem, but judgment quickly made: So Malle's L'ascenseur and Les amants (both 1958) were clearly NV, as was Jacques Demy's Lola (1961) and Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour (1959), despite most appearing before the classic firsts of the Cahiers-Groupe, notably Truffaut and Godard. And what was really Chabrol's first? Whether it had ended by 1963 was an academic question as long as the right type of films, eg Rohmer's, were still forthcoming.Which does not mean that, as a contemporary, you did not feel that things were changing. The breakneck speed at which Godard produced two movies a year, Truffaut and Chabrol hardly behind, with increasingly diversified topics and variable budgets and sophistication - it seemed like new directors just needed a minimum team, which on demand could be expanded to considerably larger and more complex plots, and had no problem picking up the skills. Pola'ski, though living in France, but not NV, is also a later classic case for that.To what extent the notions of films d'auteur and mise en scène were really key motors, to me, is also still undecided. Thatthere is much existentialist philosophy embedded, especially in the earlier productions, is perhaps best shown by one of themost comprehensive love stories cum sociological analysis, Demy's still very touching Lola. It had, like Truffaut's Tirez sur le Pianiste (1960) and La peau douce (1964), another set of gems, very bad box office showings - one more reasons to follow Neupert's list and see them all again!fbus 7 - 5 January 2012

After becoming a fan of film noir and film more generally, I kept seeing references to French New Wave so I decided to pick this up as an introduction. Perhaps a bit deep for a raw introduction, the text goes into considerable detail on key films and directors. The book makes you want to see the film, which I consider a good thing, although it may be a bit hard to find all the films (on Amazon) at a decent price, so far that hasn't been a problem. I'm enjoying my initiation into New Wave cinema.

Very well written overview of the films that defined the french New Wave. The first chapter explains the historical, economic, political and cultural context (post-war France) and explains why there was a demand for a new kind of cinema. Remaining chapters presents directors like Melville, Truffaut, Godard, Varda, Resnais, Malle and some more with biographical info and film analysis. Each film analysis is excellent and made me go and buy the movies on DVD. Fortunately, almost every movie presented in the book has been released on high quality DVD from labels like Criterion, Masters of Cinema and BFI. Even early films like Melvilles Silence de la Mer is now available. To sum up: I can really recommend the book to everyone who wants to know more about French Cinema, and understand the New Wave in particular. It's very well written and very clear on a subject that in other cases has been presented in an over-theorized way. Great job!

Very good book outlining the New WVe in a very pleasing way. With an additional section written about left bank directors. Only director I wish it added was Jacques Demy.

I am a huge fan of French new wave so this book was like the icing on the cake, a perfect companion to all my dvds. Did I mention I do NOT speak French? Despite that little complication (I read subtitles very well) I love the movies and I love this book.

Excellent study of French New Wave! Highly recommend it!

Extremely well written, I really enjoy reading this book very much. The subject matter is no doubt fascinating, and the author, Mr. Neupert has done a wonderful job in presenting the history of the French New Wave Cinema. Not only does the author include a comprehensive political, cultural and commercial development that lead to the phenomenon, he also manages to present each influential New Wave directors, actors/actresses along with their important works in great detail. The book includes movie story lines in such detail that even if you have not seen the movie, you will appreciate and understand what the author is trying to convey. The author discusses issues on techniques, budgets and distributorship in French cinemas. Most interestingly, pictures from films discussed are liberally peppered throughout the book.Mr. Neupert's writing style is greatly commendable. The words are straightforward and full of good information it's such a pleasure to read his book. I especially enjoy the title description Mr. Neupert gives for each of the directors. I feel that he's very accurate in describing Chabrol as "the one launching the wave", Varda's success for her "elegance realism" and my favorite Truffaut as "the wave's ringleader".For a long time, I have always been in love with movies by Rohmer, Godard, Truffaut among others without exactly knowing the reason why. After reading this book, I understand why. The French New Wave Cinema is a complex phenomenon that is impossible to be understood without understanding the political, cultural, commercial as well as psychological (personality) landscapes of Europe/people during that era. If you love watching films by great directors like Truffaut, Rohmer, Chabrol and others, you should read this book. It's highly recommended.

Written too much from an academic viewpoint for my liking. The author is good on the cultural context (a rapidly changing France post-WWII in the 1950's) but fails to capture the excitement of the New Wave.

Superb account of the French New Wave. Suitable for students and the general reader.