The most important source of the New Wave lay in the theoretical writings of Alexandre Astruc and, more prominently, of André Bazin, whose thought molded an entire generation of filmmakers, critics, and scholars. In 1948 Astruc formulated the concept of the caméra-stylo (“camera-pen”), in which film was regarded as a form of audiovisual language and

The auteur theory manifested in the both movies celebrated the movie director as "author," much in the manner that a novelist can be identified through recurring themes and stylistic techniques. It was an idea that downplayed the collaborative significance of screenwriters, producers, actors and editors. While it is commonplace today -- for better or worse -- to consider filmmaking a director’s medium, French New Wave movement went further with the concept. A true auteur director, according to the theory, is able to triumph over second-rate scripts or third-rate actors by sheer strength of personality.

The usual moviegoer to the 1930s Hollywood films would find a very strange thing about "Breathless". And that is, instead of being a character in a film, Michel keeps commenting upon himself as a character in a film, as if he were partly in the film partly outside of it. This is against the Classic Hollywood film principle of inventing stock characters to identify with, inventing something now called "spectator inscription," a character with whom to identify as a spectator, which Hollywood did to further glue the audience to the film.

As with “Breathless”, “The 400 Blows” new style was based on elliptical editing and location shooting with hand-held cameras. Its ultimate effect was to deconstruct the narrative language that had evolved over the previous 60 years and to create a reflexive cinema, whose techniques provided a continuous comment on its own making. Little is done in the film for pure effect. Everything adds to the impact of the final shot. Antoine is first seen when he is in his early teens, and living with his mother and stepfather. The mother is a blond who suffers from poverty and her troublesome son, and by an affair with a man from work. The stepfather although doesn’t have any real emotional ties to his stepson, treats the boy in a friendly fashion. Both parents are away from home a lot, and neither pays close attention to the boy: They judge h

Some topics in this essay:
French Wave, Sorbonne Michel's, , Françoise Truffaut's, Breathless Godard, André Bazin, Classic Hollywood, Foster Kane, Francois Truffaut, Poiccard French, french wave, 400 blows, jan 25 2002, 400 blows”, american movies, wave directors, hand-held cameras, film michel, character film, film partly, story michel, “the 400 blows”,