Welcome to issue number two on our journey into La Nouvelle Vague! This issue will focus on four more exciting French New Wave films–two more from François Truffaut, one from Jean-Luc Godard, and the final from René Clément.
In Tirez Sur le Pianist, or Shoot The Piano Player (1960), Truffaut applies a new technique of inner dialogue into the story and shows how the smallest choices can have the biggest impacts. René Clément’s stylish crime thriller Plein Soleil, or Purple Noon (1960) is a rollercoaster from start to finish and stars Alain Delon, a prominent sex symbol in the 1960’s. With his chiseled features and bright blue eyes, Delon makes it impossible to look away. Antoine et Colette, directed by François Truffaut in 1962, is a short story that’s part of the series The Adventures of Antoine Doinel and is the second film following The 400 Blows, which I covered in my first issue. Finally, Godard’s Masculin Féminin (1966) follows the everyday lives of a few teenagers in the Marx and Coca Cola generation. Masculin Féminin is so good that it’s why i always joke that there is a reason there is ‘God’ in “Godard”.
All four films go in their own stylistic direction and showcase different unique characters and their distinct lives. Even after sixty years, the messages in the films are timeless. I really enjoy Antoine and Colette and Masculin Féminin myself, and i hope you will all get the chance to watch both (and all) of them sometime soon!
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