Stills from the French "New Wave" film
The French Cinema New Wave movement originated in Italian neorealism. It is the third film movement with world influence after European avant-gardeism and Italian neorealism. Its emergence brought the modernist film movement in Western Europe to a climax. The movement had two parts, one was the author's film, the "New Wave"; the other was the writer's film, the "Left Bank"
Cover of the first issue of the French Magazine Film Handbook: Stills from sunset boulevard
< h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > the background of the birth of the "New Wave"</h1>
After the end of World War II, the collapse of historical traditions, the lack of basic understanding that dominates, and the uncertainty of the vast future seems to be depressed. In addition to the profound reflection on war, it is closely related to postmodern ideas. Postmodernism is the skepticism and secondary deconstruction of modernism, based on the venting after confusion and confusion, in a sense, it is liberating human nature.
The rigid social system has caused the disillusionment of man's ideals. The fall of fascism, the death of Stalin, the Algerian War, the Vietnam War... Young people are very disappointed in the political system, for example, Aren Renai once mentioned in his film "Love in Hiroshima": "Man's political talent is a hundred times worse than scientific intelligence!" ”
Stills from "Love in Hiroshima"
The literary and artistic works of this time depict these young people are a special phenomenon of the literary and artistic period of this period: in the United States they are called the "Beat Generation", in England they are called "angry youth", and in France they are called "the pain of the century" or "new wave".
A Generation of Novelists Who Crossed: Jack Kerouac, "On the Road"
The themes, plots, styles, and expressions of the "New Wave" films all contain more or less the imprint of this era.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > second, the origin of the "New Wave"</h1>
In 1958, the Film Handbook, edited by and edited by andré Bazin, a film theorist who graduated from the Higher Normal School of Saint-Cruzé, gathered a group of young editors, such as Claude Chabrol, Truffaut, Godard, etc., who were deeply influenced by the existential philosophical trend of the French philosopher Sartre, put forward the slogan of "subjective realism", opposed the "rigid state" in past films, and emphasized the shooting of films with the "personal style" of the director, also known as "film manual school" or "author film".
Andre. Bazin's book What is Cinema? 》
Andrea. Biography of Bazin
The other is the "writer's film", the Left Bank faction. Most of the left-bank film directors are knowledgeable and experienced directors. The makers of the "Left Bank" were a group of literati gathered around the left-wing writers' group "Gate Press" on the left bank of the Seine. Among them were the writers Dula and Robert-Grillet; the dramatists René and Henry Golby; the journalist Armand Kati; and the photographer Agnès Varda. And the only one who really did the movie was Chris, Mark. Different experiences determine their different levels of education. Generally speaking, the cultural attainment of "Left Bank" directors is higher than that of "New Wave" directors. They share a common love and hatred with the "New Wave" and are closer to what people understand as "writer's film"—that is, writers are directly involved in filmmaking. His representative works include Aaron René's "Love of Hiroshima", "Last Year in Marionbad", Henry Golby's "Long Parting" and so on. Later, almost all of the "New Wave" and "Left Bank" masters became professional directors, and people no longer called their works "writer's films".
Left Bank representative Aaron. René
"Hiroshima Love" Blu-ray cover
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > third, the expression of "New Wave" films</h1>
The "New Wave" proposed: "To make a film, the important thing is not to make it, but to become the producer of the film." Godard exclaimed, "To make a movie is to write." Truffaut declared: "Another thing should be photographed in a different spirit, expensive studios should be abandoned... It should be photographed on the streets or even in real houses...". When they got the camera themselves, they adopted a completely different production method from "high-quality film": relying on a small amount of money, choosing non-professional actors, based on the director's personal style of production, a large number of live-action shooting, relying on non-plot, non-story, breaking the concept of drama based on conflict laws, and the film production cycle was short. So people say: "The New Wave is first and foremost a revolution in production technology and production methods." It dealt a heavy blow to the "quality films" of the French Hollywood style.
Truffaut's "Four Hundred Down" Blu-ray cover
The New Wave is based on expressing individuality. Truffaut's Four Hundred Down (1959) is an early masterpiece. He recounts the tragic experiences of his childhood in a modernist way. With a strong semi-autobiographical nature, he believes in the so-called "philosophy of discontinuity", which believes that life is a combination of loose and non-continuous events, negates the traditional complete plot structure in film creation, and replaces the dramatic plot with trivial life plot. Godard is a representative of the "aesthetics of destruction" known for his contempt for traditional cinematic techniques, he is more experimental, his films go further than Truffaut in destroying traditional structures, and the famous Exhaustion (1959) is the best embodiment of his creative style.
Burnout movie poster
Left to right: Truffaut and Godard
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > fourth, "New Wave" film classic representatives</h1>
There was Claude Chabrol's "Cousin" and "Pretty Selch", the earliest works of the New Wave, followed by Truffaut's "Four Hundred Down", Alain René's "Love of Hiroshima", and later, in 1960 and beyond, Jean-Luc Godard's "Exhaustion", "Carmen", Eric Houmai's "Leo", and finally Jacques Levitte's "Paris Belongs to Us".
Godard Films: Stills from Carmen
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > five, the decline of "New Wave" cinema</h1>
In 1964, as the end of the French New Wave, the main idea is that the form and style of New Wave cinema have been widely infiltrated into various film productions. Their films deliberately depict the situation, psychology, love and gender relations of modern urban people, and differ from traditional films in that they are full of subjectivity and lyricism. This kind of film emphasizes the atmosphere of life, uses live-action shooting, and advocates improvisation; most of the films do not have a complete storyline; the expression methods are also more varied.
The "New Wave" gave birth to the second rise of modernist film ideas in European and American countries. Like the Swedish director Ingmar Bergmann, the Italian film masters Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and so on have been influenced to a certain extent.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > six, Chinese directors who are greatly affected by the "New Wave"</h1>
Hong Kong, China:
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" >1. Wong Kar Wai</h1>
Directed by Wong Kar Wai
Wong Kar-wai's films have a strong symbolism, he uses the jianghu world of martial artists, Ah Fei, and killers as a metaphorical base point for turbulent, accidental, and indifferent urban life, which supports the inner anxiety of modern people and the symbolic and stereotyped external survival. The second is the unique view of time that he exudes in his narrative, and his present is always carried out in a nostalgic feeling, so his films have a strong nihilism, very lonely and helpless to show the inner world of human beings
Representative works: "East Evil and West Poison", "Spring Breaks", "Ah Fei Zheng Biography", "Fancy Years", "Chongqing Forest"
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" >2</h1>
Directed by Xu Anhua
Hui Anhua has his maverick status in the Hong Kong film industry. Her mastery of genre film techniques has given her the freedom to shoot thrillers, ethics films, martial arts films, and documentaries. What is rare is that under the consideration of the commercial market, many of her works are still permeated with a strong and common author's message: obsession with past history, care and pity for the floating world, and emphasis on personal and urban changes, making her works an excellent demonstration of the Balance between personal speech and genre orientation in the Hong Kong film industry. Whether it is to express the sentiment of the end times through the legend of the fallen city, or to rarely operate the story background at the grassroots level, or even to rewrite the classics to write national feelings, or to write an autobiography indifferently and lowly, it can be handy and meaningful.
Representative works: "Visitor", "Run to the Fury Sea", "Hu Yue's Story", "Sister Tao", "Ketu Autumn Hate", "Golden Age"
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" >3</h1>
Directed by Tan Jiaming
Tam Ka Ming was an important figure in the Hong Kong Film New Wave Movement in the 1980s, one of the representatives of the Hong Kong Film New Wave Movement, whose films are highly stylized, known for his images, he is low-key, not ostentatious, and he is a photographer who is quite accomplished in screenwriting, directing, editing, art and music. At the same time, he is also a director who is good at discovering the temperament of stars, and in his early works, many familiar stars can be seen. Wong Kar-wai's editing of "The Legend of Ah Fei", "East Evil and West Poison" and "Mong Kok Carmen" are all written by Tam Ka Ming.
Representative works: "Famous Sword", "Father and Son", "Fire Youth"
Taiwan, China:
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" >1</h1>
Directed by Yang Dechang
Yang Dechang's films are known for their rational speculation, and he is good at using long lenses to show the distortion of human nature in extreme modernization and materialization. In the film, he shows the physical and mental alienation and spiritual crisis of modern people under material oppression, and captures and expresses these anti-hero acts in a rational and calm audiovisual language. He is a calm and calm observer, standing above the city overlooking all sentient beings, the lens is as sharp as a scalpel, reflecting a strong spirit of critical reality.
Representative works: "Juvenile Murder Incident on Muling Street", "Yiyi", "Mahjong"
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" >2</h1>
Directed by Hou Xiaoxian
As one of the leading figures in Taiwan's film industry, in the field of art film, Hou Xiaoxian's works present an artistic style like a world outside the peach blossom forest, both familiar and strange, both near and distant. Hou Xiaoxian's films always have a lot of ordinary details of life that can no longer be ordinary. These details are truly derived from life, and the infinity of life also gives Hou Xiaoxian the infinity of capturing details for the film, but the same details that appear on the screen screen constructed by countless filmmakers can exude the magic that makes independent thoughts outside the screen intoxicated and shaken under Hou Xiaoxian's pinching and illusion.
Representative works: "City of Sorrows", "Flowers on the Sea", "Assassin Nie Yinniang"
Chinese mainland
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" >1</h1>
Directed by Jia Zhangke
Jia Zhangke is extremely sensitive to the world in which he lives, is good at translating individual, private experiences and experiences into collective memory and common characteristics of the times, is good at capturing the decisive moment of the moment and considering it under the prism of history, often can translate a corner into the world or translate the world into a corner, he loves to gaze at ordinary faces that are often ignored, using non-professional actors, translating the lives of ordinary people into something vibrant, something more metaphysical, not material. He uses exquisite realism to truly present ordinary Chinese people, showing that they try to plan their lives in the context of rapid economic development and social change, especially reflecting the hopes and setbacks of the younger generation, and his work has been highly praised in China and even the world.
Representative works: "Children of jianghu", "Good People of the Three Gorges", "Xiao Wu"
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" >2</h1>
Directed by Wang Quan'an
Wang Quan'an's shooting style is maverick, and has a strong documentary and highly condensed drama. The films he directed have a more distinct hometown regional style, that is, there is a "Xi'an land" flavor in the details. He is more restrained than Zhang Yimou, and he is not so literary, and the whole tone of his film is dull yellow, a soft and warm color. In his films, women always seem to be the soul of the whole film.
Representative works: "White Deer Plain", "Reunion", "Tuya's Marriage"
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" >3</h1>
Directed by Wang Xiaoshuai
Wang Xiaoshuai is one of The Chinese directors born in the 1960s who has always insisted on making films according to his own pursuits. He doesn't like people who talk through the media about things outside of filmmaking. Wang Xiaoshuai's films are very intellectual. But that doesn't mean he separates himself from civilians. From his self-funded film debut "Winter and Spring Days" to his newly completed "Dream Pastoral", in just a decade, Wang Xiaoshuai began to form his own unique film style.
Masterpieces: "Long Days on Earth", "I 11", "Intruder"