Beginners' Marathon #4: French New Wave

[Basil]

There has been a lot of interest in a French New Wave marathon, but let's poll to make sure that's the best option. I've included most of the ideas that received serious consideration for past marathons.

400 Blows (1959)
Hiroshima, Mon Amour  (1959)
Breathless (1960)
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Jules and Jim (1962)
A Band of Outsiders (1964)

[oneaprilday]

Will you name some French New Wave titles that we might include?

[Basil]

pixote, faceboy, and a few others thought of a lineup one night in chat a while back, so maybe they can share that. I remember it had The 400 Blows, Breathless, and...

[duder]

Yeah, we postponed the French New Wave Filmspotter's Marathon because people wanted to see The 400 Blows, Breathless, etc. first (which we should do now ). The lineup was something like this:

2 Godard (Breathless and either A Woman is a Woman or Band of Outsiders)
2 Truffaut (The 400 Blows, Jules and Jim)
Hiroshima mon amour
Cleo from 5 to 7

[Wilson]

A 'beginning of French new wave' could go:

Le Beau Serge (1958) - Charbol
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958) - Malle
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) - Resnais
Les Quatre cents coups (1959) - Truffaut
À bout de souffle (1959) - Godard
Lola (1961) - Demy

Or you could go with Charbol/Truffaut/Godard and include

Les Bonnes femmes (1960) - Charbol
Jules et Jim (1962) - Truffaut
Bande à part (1964) - Godard

You could also include, depending on people's preferences

L'Année dernière à Marienbad (1961) - Resnais
Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962) - Varda (though not available in region 2 annoyingly).
Le Mépris (1963) - Godard
La Jetée (1962) - Marker

Personally, I'd go with the following..

Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958) - Malle
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) - Resnais
Les Quatre cents coups (1959) - Truffaut
À bout de souffle (1959) - Godard
Les Bonnes femmes (1960) - Charbol
La Jetée (1962) - Marker

[oneaprilday]

All of those look great to me - I've only seen 400 Blows and La Jetee. I had to wait for a while to get La Jetee from Netflix - apparently they don't have many copies of it, or at least, they didn't have a local copy for me.

[Basil]

I've only seen 400 Blows.

Me too!

[roujin]

A 'beginning of French new wave' could go:


Personally, I'd go with the following..

Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958) - Malle

I was always under the impression that Malle really had nothing to do with the New Wave. He just made his films around the same time.

I thought we had decided to do a Beginner's French New Wave marathon (so people can see a lot of the keystones) and then do a normal marathon for the more "advanced" or lesser-seen New Wave films.

[Wilson]

A 'beginning of French new wave' could go:


Personally, I'd go with the following..

Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958) - Malle

I was always under the impression that Malle really had nothing to do with the New Wave. He just made his films around the same time.

I thought we had decided to do a Beginner's French New Wave marathon (so people can see a lot of the keystones) and then do a normal marathon for the more "advanced" or lesser-seen New Wave films.

I wasn't sure, I've read both things saying his films are generally much the same as new wave and obviously others saying he's not because he wasn't part of the Cahiers Du Cinema.

[faceboy]

Malle is often called an outsider because he wasn't involved with either the Left or Right Bank filmmakers. Melville is more distinctly not a new wave filmmaker because he's of a different generation. He just happened to make one of the two blueprint films for the movement.

[Basil]

Ok, well there is little doubt we'll be doing French New Wave, so let's start finalizing the lineup.

The 400 Blows and Breathless for sure.
I'd like to include Hiroshima mon amour.

Other than that, I have no opinion.

[faceboy]

Ok, well there is little doubt we'll be doing French New Wave, so let's start finalizing the lineup.

The 400 Blows and Breathless for sure.
I'd like to include Hiroshima mon amour.

Other than that, I have no opinion.

You have to include some Varda, as she made the other blueprint film.

After that, you could do one Marker and one Chabrol. Or you could decide that you think the Right Bank has had more influence popularly and go with Chabrol and Rohmer or Rivette.

[roujin]

I thought we had agreed to leave those off for the regular marathon. Will this be a comprehensive overview of the major directors or just of the major films?

[ses593]

pixote, faceboy, and a few others thought of a lineup one night in chat a while back, so maybe they can share that. I remember it had The 400 Blows, Breathless, and...

Did I send you the list we came up with over chat?

[faceboy]

I thought we had agreed to leave those off for the regular marathon. Will this be a comprehensive overview of the major directors or just of the major films?

After The 400 Blows and Breathless, any argument for "major films" is going to be wildly inconclusive. Directors is just an easier route.