Nouvelle Vague

Paris, 1959. The epicentre of cinephilia and the lunatics are taking over the asylum. The Young Turks of French film crit — Truffaut, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette — are making their own movies, and last in line, it seems to him, is arrogant Swiss intellectual Jean-Luc Godard. Trading on his friendship with Truffaut, he’s granted a low budget to shoot a noir-ish crime story with American starlet Jean Seberg and boxer Jean Paul Belmondo. He’ll write it as they make it. A bout de souffle… Breathless… will change everything.

“All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun.” Godard’s aphorism applies here, but implacable self-confidence helps. JLG (Guillaume Marbeck) infuriates his actors, his producer, and the whole crew with his cavalier and incomprehensible conceits, all of which is vastly amusing to watch. Richard Linklater plunges us into the scene with the giddy enthusiasm, and the spirit is infectious. You don’t have to be a cinephile going in — you will be one when you come out.

Charming and delightful…. suffused with intoxicating glamour — the glamour of youth, of beauty, of grand aesthetic pursuits, Paris at twilight and, bien sûr, cinema itself.

Manohla Dargis, New York Times

The most blissful time spent in the dark you can imagine.

David Fear, Rolling Stone

For devoted filmlovers, Nouvelle Vague is a must-see — a joyful homage to the art of cinema that’ll have you queuing at your local repertory cinema as soon as the credits roll.

Philip De Semlyen, Time Out