Yo, what’s up! Welcome to a great newsletter. I hope you’re having a great summer time. I have started to not like Summer so my entire goal is to have a great one this time around. At least to enjoy it, cause there’s a lot to enjoy. If you did not know, I am currently in Belgium but I was in France and I am going to go to some other countries and places in Europe and then go back to France. So next newsletter will be about my adventuring in Europe but mostly in relation to “Da Moviesh”.
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La première partie 🤟😈😉:
The French New Wave - Overview and My Previous Experience
Ohhh, look at me, I’m standing right atop the Eiffel Tower, how’d you get here? I like it though. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “Pourquoi?” “Why?” what’s the frickin’ deal? Well I think that’s what this wave of movements is asking as well, in some respects. The French New Wave movement a hugely essential piece of our complete, modern cinematic landscape - it also rules! I am not the master of this piece of film history, but cinema is all about revelation and discovery so let’s dip our toes into this steaming pool of fine artistry, learn about some all-time goats and maybe find something new to love!
I don’t know if people consider artsy, French cinema to be pretentious or boring but I think it is quite clearly the opposite. It is all about outsiders, the cool cats of the world, banding together to against the mainstream and experiment by pushing the boundaries of what people thought film could do. Apparently, a lot of this dissatisfaction with the current state of stale and repetitive mainstream films was expressed in the famous film magazine “Cahiers du Cinéma,” and a ton of the leading voices of criticism from that magazine like Jean-Luc Godard, Éric Rohmer, and Claude Chabrol got into filmmaking and became the leading forces of the movement. To me, that is very inspiring because I am someone who engages in and produces film criticism and feels similarly about the current state of large-scale American filmmaking.
I’ve always thought that critics and filmmakers should stick to one thing, but people need to be reminded that this is not the case. The greatest way of expressing one’s love for a medium of art is to join in and contribute their own self and expertise to creating said art. Cool! Me likey!
So the movement is basically split into two halves, on one side you’ve got those aforementioned film and then you have another group known as the “left bank.” These fellas are coming at filmmaking from a slightly different angle, less of the film-obsessed cinephile and more as established outsider artists who were still experimenting with the form of cinema but treating it as just another medium to expand their central artistic proclivities. But both groups were United and had each other’s backs. All they wanted to do was to put the art and the artist first, developing projects with no business or monetary considerations, only to further their visions and share their subversive ideas with a broader general populous.
Recently, I watched Agnès Varda’s 1962 film “Cléo from 5 to 7,” which, I appreciated especially for its simplicity and understated nature; aspects which eventually gave way to a remarkably profound experience regarding personal happiness and mortality. This movie is like a quiet explosion that hooks you right from the beginning as you follow Cléo along her freewheeling journey through Paris, up until it’s starkly abrupt ending that leaves you right in the dust of it’s astoundingly formidable wake.
So yeah, this movie rocks and it was what helped form the inspiration for me to dig deeper on The French New Wave and put together this newsletter! A great part about this and many art films, but also objects of the French New Wave, is that basically nothing happens or at least not a ton of crazy and substantive events play out. A lot of the movie is Cléo going around and she goes to a cafe and meets up with her friend and they drive around and then they watch a little movie. It’s kind of meditative every day stuff that does not sound very exciting to watch. But for sickos like me, it is very exciting to watch! I think this vein of movies lets filmmakers not only be artful, but to find the beauty in what is otherwise seen as dull, mundane, and monotonous. It makes life feel big and grand and you don’t need spaceships to live out a fantastical life! (The apex of this is probably Chantal Akerman’s film “Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles” which is just a woman doing chores and household tasks for 3 hours. It actually is a really good movie that topped the British Film Institute’s 2022 edition of the highly esteemed Sight and Sound Poll which proclaims to compile the top 100 movies of all time).
But yeah, that should give you a broad understanding of the movement and an example of a film that came out of it (it is worth noting that Agnès Varda is considered to be a part of the “Left Bank” group of filmmakers). But before we get to the two French New Wave shorts I wanted to mention a couple other fun movies adjacent to the same sphere.
The only other Agnès Varda film I have seen is her 1967 short film, “Uncle Yanco.” And I watched this very late at night and I really have no memory of what it was about but I don’t think I could’ve told you right after I watched it either. I know it ruled though. It’s kinda just, “Uncle Yanco.” I also watched that movie because the Criterion Channel Twitter page would give out recommendations based on a movie you already liked and I kept replying to them with the 1989 movie “Uncle Buck” as a joke for some reason, and I thought they would never respond but they did! What they recommended was “Uncle Yanco” and I think it was just because it had ‘uncle’ in the title but I’m not complaining! Normally, I would probably research some context for this movie but this is guerilla newslettering on my phone and it’s better to let the mystery of Uncle Yanco live on.
Now, as someone who has seen every film by director Jonathan Demme, there is one in particular that kinda confounded me when I saw it and still stands out to me today. And that is 2002’s “The Truth About Charlie,” a remake of the 1963 classic, “Charade.” Basically, “The Truth About Charlie” has a very confusing plot and some odd performances but one of its oddest elements is that it’s kind of an ode to the French New Wave in many subtle ways. Agnès Varda kinda shows up for 3 seconds while Thandiwe Newton wanders through a marketplace which was random. And then Charles Aznavour, this famous singer and actor who was in Francois Truffaut’s 1960 film “Shoot the Piano Player,” keeps showing up in the movie for no real reason and then at the end he just starts singing a song from that other movie into the camera and that’s how it ends. I think I might enjoy this movie a lot more if I watch it again. Oh and also I didn’t even know this but Anna Karina sings a song in one scene of the movie (she is a very big deal and very iconic, some of you may know her). But yes, I think it was my first real exposure to the French New Wave Movement was here. I would say that this is probably a great gateway for people but it is such an obscure deep-cut in a filmography I think most people who encounter it will already be total cinephiles.
Alright, one other thing. I keep mentioning Francois Truffaut, and you know where you might know him? He’s in Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” playing the French guy who gets brought in to investigate the UFOs. When I first saw “Close Encounters,” I thought this was interesting, just thought you should know! (That’s the only movie he’s ever acted in that he didn’t direct).
Un film du mouvement:
“Présentation ou Charlotte et son steak”
Okay, so first up we have this little Éric Rohmer film, and it is kind of barely anything at all but also pretty awesome. Rohmer is most famous for his series of movies known as the “six moral tales” but he made a lot of other stuff. This short film in particular is especially odd because it is actually technically not a French New Wave film since it was shot in 1951, but they finished it and added voice overdubs in 1961 which is pretty bananas. A movie sitting unfinished for an entire decade is crazy and shows that there is still time to finish things and still hope for Blush movie.
Regardless, that is definitely an interesting detail, and as the opening titles note, the fashion and furniture and many elements of life were kinda different a decade ago. So while I can’t really clock it because I never lived in France in the 50s, audiences probably found this a little strange. I think these discrepancies give this movie a cool touch, showing the resourcefulness of the movement’s leaders and how the seeds of artistry in the movement had been planted long before it really began.
So the other noteworthy thing about this movie is that the goat Jean-Luc Godard actually acts in it. And I believe since they use his voice for himself but they use other more famous French New Wave actresses Stéphane Audran and Anna Karina as voices for the non-famous onscreen actresses. So let’s get down to the details. Basically this movie is Jean-Luc Godard and these two girls Charlotte and Clara. And they’re walking through the winter time and Clara leaves and then Godard goes with Charlotte into her house. So then Godard kinda just stands next to the wall while Charlotte is making lunch, and pretty much the whole movie is that happening and then Godard says, “hey, wouldn’t it be great if we kissed?” And then Charlotte’s like, “but you don’t love me,” and Godard goes, “yeah, but it’d be pretty awesome if we kissed.” So that is most of the movie and then at the end Charlotte finishes eating her steak lunch and is like, “alright, I’ll kiss you.” And then they kiss and that’s cool. But they still don’t love each other. But sometimes you just wanna kiss somebody, right? So yeah, this was not the most incredible movie but I thought it was cool. They did end up kissing.
Un autre film du mouvement:
“Une histoire d'eau”
Next up, we got the great movie, “A Story of Water.” Every time I see the French word ‘histoire’ I think it means ‘history’ but I think it just means ‘story’ which throws me off. Yeah, so remember that guy who loved kissing so much from the last movie? Well, he actually directed this one. My boy Godard teamed up with Francois Truffaut to direct this little picture together about water and some other things I don’t know. Now you see that the French New Wave guys were always teaming up and collaborating which is cool.
This movie is from 1958 but wasn’t shown publicly until 1961 apparently. It’s all about water in some senses. Because this woman is trying to get to Paris and she meets this guy and he’s bad at crossing the water because everything is flooded and they do some kissing and some things happen. I think this movie had a coherent plot at some point, I read that Truffaut’s script kinda made sense and then Godard came in and edited it to make it very surreal and odd and obscure its more standard aspects. Because the lady is voicing over the entire movie and talking about philosophy and water and describing everything you’re seeing and I think that’s Godards doing. I thought this was cool because the movie feels like a lot even though it’s not that much. There’s this really disorienting music that keeps coming back going ‘bum ba da bum bum’ over and over that is pretty fun.
Anyways, I don’t know why there was so much flooding, I don’t think that happens all the time. So it was cool to see France with a lot of water and people navigating that. I don’t think I have much else to say. You get the gist. They shot this in two days which is cool. Lastly, I will say that apparently this movie’s title is a pun on the name of an erotic French novel called “Une Histoire d’O.” I don’t know, is that anything? Certainly weird.
Conclusion
Wow, I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into the French New Wave and a look at two crazy short films. I love movies I hope you love movies too and learned a bit about fun international ones. If you feel so inspired, check out some weird movies. And then tell me about them! BUH BUH BOUNCE. (Basketball) 🏀🏀🏀💰💰🤑🤑🤑🤑
Im saluting you through these dark corridors.
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Hello, this newsletter was supposed to come out earlier but I have been busy with the trip since we just walk around all day and I kinda got very dehydrated before (my fault) and that hampered my ability to write. I hope you enjoyed this newsletter, I think it was a great topic and you guys should pull up a picture of a funny monkey or orangutan and laugh at it for 8 minutes.
Bye bye!