Late 1950s – 1960s
French New Wave
Cool, rebellious, self-aware, and endlessly stylish.
The Catalyst
Film critics rebelling against stagnant, literary studio cinema.
The Story
The Nouvelle Vague started with a group of fiercely opinionated, film-obsessed twenty-somethings writing for the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. Fed up with the polished, uninspired "Tradition of Quality" films dominating French cinema, these critics decided to pick up cameras and prove their own theories. They championed the idea that the director, not the screenwriter, is the true author of a film. They shattered the established rules of visual storytelling. Armed with newly developed, lightweight cameras, they shot rapidly and aggressively on the streets of Paris. They invented jump cuts, popularized handheld tracking shots, broke the fourth wall, and utilized improvised dialogue. Their films were intentionally self-reflexive—they constantly reminded the audience that they were watching a movie, mixing high-art philosophy with deep homages to American B-movie gangsters.
The Legacy
Birthed the "Auteur Theory" and modernized cinematic pacing.
French New Wave Films
No films in our catalog yet — coming soon.
Essential Viewing
- The 400 Blows (1959)
- Breathless (1960)
- Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)
- Jules and Jim (1962)
- Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
- Band of Outsiders (1964)
- Contempt (1963)
- Pierrot le Fou (1965)
- Vivre Sa Vie (1962)
- Shoot the Piano Player (1960)
- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
- Le Bonheur (1965)
- Paris Belongs to Us (1961)
- Le Beau Serge (1958)
- The Cousins (1959)
- Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
- Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)
- Day for Night (1973)
- Zazie dans le Métro (1960)
- La Collectionneuse (1967)