Nouvelle Vague

In the 1950s, a new generation of film theorists and filmmakers began to stir in France through the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. They wanted nothing more to do with classic French cinema, which consisted largely of book adaptations. They felt that this did not do justice to literature and certainly not to the potential of film. Among the most important critics were François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. To show how it should be done, the latter decided to make a film himself in 1959. The result was À bout de souffle, a low-budget film shot in twenty days about a gangster couple, written by Truffaut. The cast and crew had their doubts about Godard's idiosyncratic approach, but the film was a huge success. The nouvelle vague had definitively broken through.

American director Richard Linklater, best known for Boyhood, pays a stylish tribute to the French nouvelle vague in this film, shot in black and white, of course. With a great deal of humour, he shows how À bout de souffle came about, with Guillaume Marbeck as Jean-Luc Godard.