French New-Wave is a cinematic movement from late 50’s to late 60’s and it follows Italian neo-realism. This cinematic movement has no coherent style at all; it has a loose and eclectic expression and it is basically a combination of different influences which comes out of transformations of modern society, arts, literature, theatres, and popular culture. In this sense, Hollywood is one among major influences to French new-wave; Vertov and Italian neo-realism as well. It is interesting to see that both Italian neo-realism and French new-wave filmmakers were influenced by Vertov’s “realistic” style. There are some important aspects which reveal the relation of French new-wave to realism.
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First of all, we can put forth that French new-wave emerged as a result of social transformation of French society in post ww2 era. Ww2 had caused drastic increase in populations. In France, this may be considered as “baby-boom” era, in which there was immense increase in population. Secondly, in this period there was also increasing wealth and common growth: A new middle class and a consumer class have emerged. Additionally, two new consumer goods contributed to this transformation: TV’s and automobiles. There was also mass circulation of several popular magazines, such as Elle and Paris Match. These were propagating a new life style which included modern, consumer and new values. Furthermore popular culture was gaining recognition and prestige; the lines between high and popular culture were blurring. All these transformations gave rise to a new concept: Nouvelle Vogue. This was basically a new life style that was represented by young people in particular: Like wearing leather jackets, riding cars fast, having casual sex (The actions which Michel Poiccard exactly performs in A Bout de Soufflé (Breathless)). The new wave which was associated with youth culture was challenging conventional family values in general. This “coolness” of youth culture was depicted in A Bout de Soufflé: The charm and ambience of the film is similar to this look. French New-Wave is a cinematic movement that draws upon these cultural values. In this sense they have documentary look: What they represent is a sense of this emerging new culture. Additionally, after ww2 in France, there were new movements in literature. New Novel Movement with Alan Grillet and Francoise Sagan was conducting an experimental literary style in which there was construction and deconstruction of the story. The story was told, but it was also self-destructive, self-defeating. These popular novels absolutely influenced cinema. A Bout de Soufflé is depicting a “cool” young man, whose story is both constructed and at the end “self-defeated” by Godard. Actually in Truffaut’s scenario, Poiccard was escaping from the police, but Godard changed it by killing the protagonist, which associates the actions of construction and self-destruction in art. Another relation between A Bout de Soufflé and literature is that, in several scenes characters express quotations from novels and they talk about them. This kind of literary references may also be observed in Godard’s Alphaville, Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux and Une femme est une femme. Also in A Bout de Soufflé we see Patricia interviewing a novelist, whose “high and mighty” actions are critiques of contemporary elitist novel writers. On the other hand, after ww2 we see the rise of “theatre of absurd” in France. Samuel Beckett, with a total innovative style was entailing absurd elements and tragicomic situations of life with senses of irony. He was also depicting existential misery of human beings with no solutions offered.
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I think that “with no solutions offered” and the story depicted in A Bout de Soufflé are related to each other. While Godard depicts the loose and rambling life of Poiccard, he actually doesn’t intend to solve his problem; thus at the end he was dead. A Bout de Soufflé represents a story of a “cool” guy with lots of problems which has no solutions; crucial point is that Godard turns his story into “spectacle quality” which Bazin emphasises while talking about Umberto D. Umberto D. was one of elderly people in society, who was poor and ordinary, had problems which weren’t solved in the end. Poiccard is also an ordinary person, one of the loose and cool young people in France. He has no moral values: He steals money from his girl friend’s wallet without hesitation. He can kill a policeman without hesitation. He acts out of conventional family values. Umberto D. is surely no man of marginal character; but he represents the “elderly” in Italian post war society while Poiccard represents the “youth” of France post war society. Theatre of absurd’s notion of “no solution offered” is also related with intellectual movement which was born in France: Structuralism. Structuralism and later post-structuralism basically reveals certain kinds of structures which effect and form lives of individuals. Godard in A Bout de Soufflé, points at a similar kind of “structure” in which Poiccard is kind of trapped. In A Bout de Soufflé, we can see how relations among youth happen (Patricia-Poiccard, Poiccard and his friends), and their anxieties which was certain systems of structures (Patricia: An American woman living in France is a person between two cultural systems. Poiccard is a person who is chased by the police, thus “ideology”, and he is killed because of his conflict with ideology basically.) On the other hand, story of Umberto D., Zavattini points at the “lost generation” which is old, came out of ww2. Umberto D is a remainder of ww2 and he cannot integrate with the newly formed society. We know that Zavattini’s main concern is to connect different classes in society by telling the story of working and under-classes. Furthermore, Deleuze’s notion of “any-space-whatever” and his description of it which emphasizes that after ww2, new spaces have emerged in which people were not acting but seeing, is definitely a correct interpretation of Umberto D. Similar to Antonio Ricci of Ladri di Biciclette, Umberto D. is a seer, not an actor. He is the seer of his own loose and desperate situation and the post war Italy as well. Similarly, Poiccard is also a seer of France societal transformation. Moreover, Ivan Johnson in Godard’s Alphaville is a seer of ultimate-future fascism; he is a seer of a dystopian transformation of society. His action of constantly taking photos in Alphaville is a symbol for this act of seeing and capturing. This idea of “seeing” is also related with capturing a mood in the scene. In the long held bedroom scene in A Bout de Soufflé, we see Poiccard and Patricia chatting for long and possibly having sex later. For nearly thirty minutes, we see the events with a hand-held camera and jump-cuts which we constantly observe throughout the movie. In the beginning of the movie, the scene in which Poiccard committed a crime has only lasted one or two minutes but this scene which has nothing to do with rest of scenario last for nearly thirty minutes. Bedroom scene does not reveal a cause-effect relation, on the contrary it includes elements which has no relation with the general scenario whatsoever; similar to maid scene in Umberto D. However Umberto D. was accomplished with some kind of classical Hollywood style, and there was no element of “self-reflexivity” in the movie. Besides, in Alphaville, in the beginning of the movie when Ivan Johnson goes up to his hotel room with a young woman, a man comes out of bathroom and attracts protagonist. They involve in a fight, which we has nothing to do with the rest of scenario. It is a fight in itself: an action which stands for its own right.