Director Richard Linklater has one of the most unusual resumés of any American filmmaker. He has defined slacker culture—while discovering bright young talent—with his debut feature Dazed and Confused, explored three stages of a relationship (in Before Sunset, Before Sunrise and Before Midnight), watched an adolescent grow up over twelve years’ time (Boyhood), and experimented with animation built on live-action footage (Waking Life), just for starters.
This year he has delivered a one-two punch with Blue Moon (set in 1943 NYC) and Nouvelle Vague. The latter film was shot in the French language on the streets of Paris, like the movie it depicts and emulates, Breathless. It is in black & white and shown in the old aspect ratio of approximately 3×4. Here are all the players who used their passion for film to create an exciting new way of utilizing the medium, including Francois Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette, and longtime observer and gadfly Pierre Rissient. Collectively they fashioned the French New Wave, and no one pushed that envelope more assiduously than Jean-Luc Godard, the headstrong black sheep of the group. He wasn’t afraid of being disliked, in the short or long term.
You don’t have to know or love Breathless (A Bout de Souffle) to enjoy this inside look at its creation, but some knowledge of the period and its key players would help. As we learn, Godard is one of the last critics writing for Cahiers du Cinema to put his reputation on the line by crafting a film of his own. He demands spontaneity from all of his collaborators, from cinematographer Raoul Coutard (who went on to shoot such classic films as Jules et Jim, The Bride Wore Black and Z) to his leading actors, Jean-Paul Belmondo (played here by an astonishing lookalike, Aubrey Dullin), and American Jean Seberg (persuasively portrayed by Zoey Deutch).
This re-creation of a defining moment in film history comes across like a souped-up version of a promotional behind-the-scenes documentary. But unlike most of those, which have a certain arm’s-length quality, Nouvelle Vague makes you feel as if this is all unfolding right in front of your eyes. It has immediacy and complete credibility.
Is it a truthful depiction of how Breathless was made? You’d have to grill screenwriters Holly Gent and Vincent Palmo, as well as Michèle Halberstadt and Laetitia Masson, who are credited with adaptation and dialogue. But I’m in favor of “printing the legend” and as a movie lover I was utterly enraptured by Nouvelle Vague. It is now playing on Netflix.
