French New Wave Research Assignment: Bout De Souffle

FRENCH NEW WAVE
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Introduction
One of the most influential film movements to have ever take place after the world war was the French New Wave. The change focused on overturning the traditional path of cinemas and exploration of how far technical and stylistic boundaries could be pushed. Many movie directors supported the movement, and one of them was Jean-Luc Godard who immediately produced a movie called ‘A Bout de Souffle' which reflected most of the anticipated innovations, touchstones, and experimentation of the French New Wave. The movie spurred so many people to enter in the industry and began producing movies since Godard demonstrated that movie production was no expensive and did not require very famous actors. He inspired many young people who began producing their own movies.
A Bout De Souffle was an intellectual and innovative movement, which captivated many youths in the movies industry. It broke the conventions and codes of traditional movie production and set the base for what are now the modern cinematic practices (Ostrowska, 2015). The film was in line with the then emerging auteur Hollywood cinema which confronted the traditional movie production system. Auteur style is what stands out in Godard's work as a result of steady traits found in the film. These encompass the manipulation of the genre, sound, and flow of the film. In film noir, the most important aspect is the visual style. The visual style stresses on the notion of night-time photography characterized with high contrasting lighting, deep shadows, low-key lighting and oblique angles which altogether create a sense of anxiety coupled with dread (Ostrowska, 2015). It is founded on dual oppositions, for example, dark versus light or evil versus good. This scenario offers a cynical and gloomy atmosphere that reflects an atrocious side of human nature.
In the A Bout de Souffle, the author does not bother to establish the film in consistency with the film noir. It runs short of black and white. However, it uses a natural lighting that goes an extra mile into establishing a sense of immediacy in the play. The naturalistic application of light indicates a representation of reality that obeys the rules in the documentary genre. Moreover, the lighting system used in the film does not yield a chiaroscuro, contrastive style which again rules out the establishment of the straight bottomless shadows (Ostrowska, 2015). As a rule of thumb, most of the crime genre and the film noir narratives occur at night which is typically a vital factor in the ensuing of the atmosphere and the mood of the film. These night-by-night sequences are replaced with narratives that take place on daytime (Fotiade, 2013). This challenges the viewers' expectation of the common convention, uprooting the anxieties and replacing them with the character's personality as a means of casing the frenzied and vibrant action of life in the city.
A large portion of the A Bout de Souffle is captured on a setting in the urban city of Paris. The purpose of the urban location is a trademark of the French New Wave movies which went against the constraints of a studio. It goes conventional with the film noir movement by perpetrating the actors to a space of modernity (Fotiade, 2013). As a common rule, film noir occurs in city setting which is characterized by the presence of rain-washed streets which are dimly lit. This is significant in establishing a corrupt and dangerous atmosphere. Nevertheless, this kind of atmosphere is not established in the film since an urban setting cannot be short in a fictional way. Instead, the city is captured objectively. For instance, there are specific monuments from the film such as the Eiffel Tower. This is a contrast with the film noir and instead conforms to the documentary genre.
A Bout de Souffle breaks and interrogates the conventional narrative style and editing of Hollywood cinema. The all new technology of lightweight camera paved the way for on-location shooting and encourage both improvisation and experimentation (Fotiade, 2013). This further aided the establishment of reality which is a reflection of the documentary files. A good depiction of this in the film is where Patricia and Michel are track shot as they down the Champs-Elysees. The actors are shot from in the rear unlike the usual way of shot-reverse-shot. This challenges the viewer's expectation and stimulating curiosity and actively absorbing the audience into the film unfolding. Again, the film producer uses this technology to manipulate the locations through rapid shifts from close-up shots into long shots which further disorientate the audience (Fotiade, 2013). The disorientation agrees with the film noir movement, however, applies contrasting techniques such as t...