Directed by: Richard Linklater
Written by: Holly Gent & Vincent Palmo
Starring: Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch, Aubry Dullin, Bruno Dreyfürst, Benjamin Clery
Rating: [3/5]
The reason why I have this film review blog centers on my love of films and my belief that this art form represents magic. Every film existing is its own miracle and displays the greatest forms of collaboration that exists to piece together something for audiences to hopefully enjoy. Any film that seeks to highlight and document this process has my attention, such as Nouvelle Vague, as it serves as both a tribute to one of the most influential films of all time but also an ode to the individuals that led an artistic wave like no other.
While many of his colleagues at Cahiers du cinéma have made their own films, Jean-Luc Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) decides the time has come to sit in the director’s chair. This leads to the journey of enlisting the actors he wants in a film he hopes to make waves as he deals with all the issues one typically encounters in the filmmaking world.
Nouvelle Vague presents an interesting proposition to me as a film. Not only does it exist as a fictional retelling of an influential film I respect more than I like in Breathless, but it also seeks to highlight the rise of someone I find deeply unlikeable and arrogant in Jean-Luc Godard. Not the best recipe for me, as I decided to watch this film for no other reason than the fact Richard Linklater chose to direct this film. He places himself in an uphill battle in regard to my personal taste, which makes this film a strange mix of my appreciation of the craft involved but it constantly being hampered by my utter disdain for the subject at the center.
Now, this would not be the first time a film highlights an unlikeable individual but there’s something distinct about how we need to navigate this story where we can decide who we anchor ourselves to. If one seeks to relate to Godard, then all the power to you, but I found myself connecting much more to Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch), who had the best read on this whole circumstance. Right from the onset, Godard starts the narrative by lambasting a film he just watched and decides he can make something meaningful on his own, which then leads to his unorthodox way to craft his film that leaves all others aghast. It’s part of his process and ultimately serves as the central thesis of this film.
While much of the focus of the film centers on Godard and the making of Breathless, this feature also serves as an Avengers-style meet up of all the great minds behind the French New Wave film movement. This demonstrated the incredible casting done for this film, where we get to see the young version of so many visionary filmmakers that have made such an impact on how we see films today. Funnily enough, it made me wish the film shifted to focusing on much better filmmakers who were contemporaries of Godard, such as François Truffaut (Adrien Rouyard), Agnès Varda (Roxane Rivière), and Jacques Rivette (Jonas Marmy). The casting of these individuals even for their minimal parts was exceptional, which only further highlights how well they nailed the casting of Godard, Seberg, and Jean-Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin). Truly dead ringers for each of these figures, so brava to casting director Stéphane Batut.
My displeasure for the subject at the center of this remains evident, but Linklater does a tremendous job in capturing the exciting energy around this film. For as much as I criticize Godard, the man took so many risks in the creation of his feature film debut and what he introduced through his various techniques just in this first movie rightfully receives praise. This radical approach defines him as an artist but it also explains why he came off as prickly to others, including Jean Seberg, portrayed so well by Zoey Deutch. I did not know she could speak French so well and she mightily impresses as the famous American actor who does her best to hide her own displeasure in having to work this unproven and arrogant filmmaker. Again, I connected mostly with her throughout this whole experience.
Even when covering someone I do not care for, Richard Linklater proves once again what makes him such a tremendous filmmaker. Amongst his run of films, I love how he will just randomly throw in a film completely in French and shot in black-and-white. You can never pin this man down, and in Nouvelle Vague he actually made me like a film centered on Jean-Luc Godard. That alone deserves plenty of praise, along with the tremendous cast brought together to bring us back to a time when cinema was shaken and the voices of the French New Wave made their voices heard.
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