A History of the French New Wave Cinema / Edition 2

by Richard Neupert

Overview

The French New Wave cinema is arguably the most fascinating of all film movements, famous for its exuberance, daring, and avant-garde techniques. A History of the French New Wave Cinema offers a fresh look at the social, economic, and aesthetic mechanisms that shaped French film in the 1950s, as well as detailed studies of the most important New Wave movies of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Richard Neupert first tracks the precursors to New Wave cinema, showing how they provided blueprints for those who would follow. He then demonstrates that it was a core group of critics-turned-directors from the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma—especially François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, and Jean-Luc Godard—who really revealed that filmmaking was changing forever. Later, their cohorts Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Pierre Kast continued in their own unique ways to expand the range and depth of the New Wave. 

In an exciting new chapter, Neupert explores the subgroup of French film practice known as the Left Bank Group, which included directors such as Alain Resnais and Agnès Varda. With the addition of this new material and an updated conclusion, Neupert presents a comprehensive review of the stunning variety of movies to come out of this important era in filmmaking.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299217044
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	02/19/2007
Series:	Wisconsin Studies in Film
Edition description:	2
Pages:	440
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Richard Neupert is Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of Film Studies at the University of Georgia. He is the author of The End: Closure and Narration in the Cinema and his translations include Aesthetics of Film and French New Wave: An Artistic School.

Table of Contents

	Illustrations	ix
	Acknowledgments	xiii
	Introduction	xv
1	Cultural Contexts: Where Did the Wave Begin?	3
2	Testing the Water: Alexandre Astruc, Agnes Varda, and Jean-Pierre Melville	45
3	New Stories, New Sex: Roger Vadim and Louis Malle	73
4	Claude Chabrol: Launching a Wave	125
5	Francois Truffaut: The New Wave's Ringleader	161
6	Jean-Luc Godard: Le Petit Soldat	207
7	The Cahiers du cinema Cohort: Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Pierre Kast	247
	Conclusion: A Network of Carrier Waves	299
	Notes	307
	Bibliography	320
	Index	331

Editorial Reviews

"Neupert offers brilliant analyses, whether of familiar or neglected films . . . [giving] a masterful sense of the movement, its sources, character, and its continuing influence. Essential."—Choice


"Refreshingly jargon-free and full of interesting details and anecdotes, this book is a pleasure to read."—Library Journal

From the Publisher

In this first history of the French New Wave to be written in English, Neupert (film studies, Univ. of Georgia) traces the development and maturation of the movement through the social, economic, and artistic atmosphere of the 1950s and 1960s and its numerous directors and supporters. He begins with forerunners like Agnes Varda and Jean-Pierre Melville and then moves on to early leaders like Roger Vadim and Louis Malle. Finally, he focuses on the critical group of Fran ois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and Claude Chabrol-onetime critics for the leading film journal Cahiers du Cinema who created some of the most innovative and exhilarating European films of the last century. Refreshingly jargon-free and full of interesting details and anecdotes, this book is a pleasure to read. Since most works treat individual directors rather than the movement as a whole, Neupert's book is highly recommended for academic libraries and large public libraries with strong film studies collections.-Andrea Slonosky, Long Island Univ. Lib., Brooklyn, NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal