A new era of cinema began on March 16, 1960! On this day, the first film by Jean-Luc Godard celebrated its premiere with “Except breath”. Hardly any film was shot as influential as that on paper banal gangster story, inspired by the American film Noir, with improvised guerrilla methods. In the middle of in the middle of two young stars and a film critic at the beginning of a large directorial career, which only ended in September 2022 with Godard's suicide.
Now Richard Linklater (“Blue Moon”) made a film about the creation of “Out of breath”, a tribute to the Nouvelle vague, peppered with quotations, references and references, filmed in black and white and in format 1: 1.37, as well as at Godard. That is of course violent Inside baseballbut even those who are not familiar with Godard, even who has not seen “out of breath”, could get great desire to make a film himself through “Nouvelle Vague”, to throw the rules over the pile of changing the world. Above all, “Nouvelle Vague” – whether with previous knowledge or without – is simply incredibly entertaining.
Jean-Luc Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) can be talked of nothing and no one, no matter how much they threaten to pull the plug.
Paris, 1959. While many of his colleagues in the legendary film magazine Cahiers du Cinema Have already made her first films, Jean-Luc Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) is waiting for his chance with increasing impatience. Only the great success that his friend François Truffaut (Adrien Rouyard) celebrates with “They kissed and they beat him” at the film festival in Cannes changes everything. Suddenly the producer Georges de Beauregard (Bruno Dreyfürst) agreed to produce Godard's first film, but only if he takes Truffaut's concept for a gangster film as a template.
But Godard doesn't like plans and certainly not a fixed script. Instead, he prefers to let his young stars Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutsch) and Jean-Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin) act spontaneously in front of Raoul Coutard's camera (Matthieu Penchinat). Like the other team members, it is irritated by Godard's unrestrictive desire for spontaneous and authentic, but can be carried away by the energy and self -confidence of the director …
Film -historical bon mots every minute
“Everything it needs for a film is a girl and a pistol”, Jean-Luc Godard is said to have said once, even if he himself attributed the quote DW Griffith. “Nouvelle Vague” is literally through such pointed statements. The Godard, which is 28 years old at the time of filming “Out of breath” – at least in this, certainly a little idealized, version – is almost exclusively expressed in sayings and sentences. So he quotes himself across the literature and film history and gives apodictic to understand that he knows exactly what the future of the film should look like.
The previously known Guillaume Marbeck plays Godard as a mixture of sovereign and (sympathetic) despot, who holds a script for its actors and drives his producers almost to despair when he once again incorporates a stylistic Ingmar-Bergman quote into his film. And he never actually stops his sunglasses, regardless of whether when turning, eating and even in the dark cinema room: Godard's eyes are hidden behind the dark glasses.
Great research – and seasoned with fine irony
This could be mannered and also a bit arrogant, but that would not fit Richard Linklater, who has been with films for decades – from “Confusion – Summer of the Ferred” to “A Killer Romance” – a very special non -ondity. Like class reunions, his ensemble films often seem to seem like a reunion of good, old friends-and so “Nouvelle Vague” works. The ensemble of deliberately unknown French actors takes Godard with a lot of irony, is not irritated by his quirks, and is increasingly making fun of his idiosyncrasies. Did the filming to “outside of breath” really expired? In the end it doesn't matter.
The script by Holly Gent and Vincent Palmo Jr. still looks excellent research and always works as an introduction to Jean-Luc Godards. Not every apodictically performed sentence has to be taken seriously, a lot has also thrown, revised, revised, thought about, thrown, revised. But what shows above all when looking behind the scenes of a revolutionary film project is how much Godard has intended and acted against all rules: Whether he really knew that during filming that you can confidently use follow-up errors, axis jumps or jump cuts? That you can break the rules of film grammar, maybe even have to?
Godard did this time of his career, but has always followed Jean-Pierre Melville: it does not depend on how to film or with which budget, but on what you have to say. Godard had a lot to say in his 60-year career, he started with “out of breath”, a great classic that Richard Linklater, with “Nouvelle Vague”, set a wonderful, merciless fun and fast-paced monument.
Conclusion: Even if a film about the filming of Jean-Luc Godards “Out of breath” like hard Cineasten-Kost sounds, Richard Linklater succeeds in “Nouvelle Vague”, the creation of one of the most influential films in film history that does not care about rules and dares to do something new. A worthy tribute to Godard and a great classic in the cinema. Guaranteed not only for insiders!
We saw “Nouvelle Vague” at the Cannes Film Festival 2025, where he celebrated its world premiere as part of the official competition.