french new wave Flashcards
(15 cards)
Cultural and political roots of the ‘New Wave’
⦁ Not strictly a type of realism, but incorporates realist and neorealist elements
⦁ Post WWII consumer culture critiques and questions
⦁ Loss of three wars – redemption of reality in the wake of massive destruction
Why the word “wave”?
⦁ Well, what happens after the war?
⦁ People have babies
⦁ Youth explosion: new ways of noticing that young people are an important demographic to make change, effect economy…
⦁ Desire to measure and harness youth culture as a marketing force
⦁ Defined by exuberance
Cleo 5 to 7
⦁ Interested in daily life; interested in explaining an individual’s relationship to the world
⦁ Makes a certain claim/establish a relationship to reality (similar to documentary film, only with an explicitly fictional plotline)
⦁ Advocates for a “cinema of reality”
⦁ Emphasizes authenticity, minimal manipulation, focus on everyday life
⦁ Documentary eye to film on location to show things as they exist even if they exist in the context of fictional narratives
⦁ Believes telling stories about the real world redeems the real world (remember context!)
⦁ French New Wave: negotiation between real-life events and stylization
Influence of Neorealism
⦁ Neorealism: started in Italy, late 1940s
⦁ Shows devastated landscapes after the war; reflects politics
⦁ Depicts stories of ordinary people dealing with forces “greater” than them
⦁ Struggles happen at the ground level with the masses
⦁ Collapses the personal and the political
⦁ A mirror to reality
⦁ Not an escape from reality
Modernism (as opposed to Realism, Postmodernism)
⦁ Cleo 5 to 7 is often considered an example of modernism, distinguishing it from both realism and postmodernism
⦁ Subjectivity and Self-Reflection: Cléo from 5 to 7 explores the protagonist’s internal world and existential anxiety, emphasizing subjective experience over external events, a hallmark of modernism
⦁ Formal Experimentation: Varda employs real-time storytelling and blends documentary-style realism with poetic elements, pushing traditional narrative boundaries
⦁ Awareness of Artifice: The film highlights its own constructed nature through Cléo’s dual role as performer and individual, using mirrors and framing to explore themes of identity and perception
⦁ Existential Themes: The story grapples with mortality and personal transformation, reflecting modernism’s focus on philosophical and emotional depth
⦁ Open-Ended Narrative: Rejecting clear resolutions, the film focuses on Cléo’s emotional awakening, leaving her fate uncertain and prioritizing internal growth
Cahiers du Cinéma
⦁ Cahiers du Cinéma - film journal started by Andre Bazin
⦁ Writing about film becomes a way for someone to become a filmmaker
⦁ Writers become filmmakers
Auteur ‘Policy’
⦁ Auteur Policy – film directors are now understood as a source of the creative vision for film
⦁ Now, like artists, filmmakers (as artists) have a style that can be tracked over their careers
⦁ Reframed filmmakers as artists and film as an art form
⦁ Film is now elevated to art
⦁ This policy is a call to artists and filmmakers to pick up film and employ its capacity as an expressive model/media
⦁ Critiques of Auteurism
⦁ Individualism v. communal ways of thinking/making
⦁ Director is the single creative source of film vision
⦁ Reinforces hierarchical ways of making film (who gets paid the most)
⦁ Favored white male makers
⦁ Making films for the masses v. making films for one’s individual community
⦁ Fear of return to First Cinema
Gender Politics (within the New Wave and Cleo from 5-7)
⦁ Varda brings a feminist perspective to a movement dominated by male voices
List the different types of gender politics
critique of male gaze, subversion of female roles, gendered power dynamics, performance of societal expectations, A Feminist’s lens, and redefining representation.
Critique of Male Gaze
⦁ Varda centers Cléo’s subjective experience, challenging the male gaze and reclaiming her narrative agency within a patriarchal society
Subversion of Female Roles
⦁ Portrays Cléo’s evolution from a superficial, objectified figure to a self-aware, complex individual, subverting traditional depictions of women in cinema
Gendered Power Dynamics
⦁ Through Cléo’s interactions with men—who often dismiss or objectify her—the film critiques societal imbalances, contrasting these with her supportive relationships with women
Performance of Societal Expectations
⦁ Cléo’s role as a singer underscores the societal demand for women to “perform,” both publicly and privately, a role she begins to reject over the course of the story.
A Feminist Lens
⦁ Varda’s feminist perspective distinguishes the film within the New Wave, blending its stylistic innovation with a critique of the commodification of women
Redefining Representation
⦁ By interrogating gender politics, Cléo from 5 to 7 redefines representations of women in both cinema and society, offering a nuanced exploration of female autonomy
