Film: Two In The Wave Release date: 11th April 2011 Certificate: 12 Running time: 91 mins Director: Emmanuel Laurent Starring: Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard Genre: Documentary Studio: New Wave Format: DVD Country: France
The pioneering figures of French New Wave cinema, Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut are nothing short of legends in the world of film. Their idealistic, youthful cinema inspired generations of filmmakers, both in Europe and Hollywood. Now, director Emmanuel Laurent, once the editor of Cahiers du Cinema, brings together film archives and documents to reveal the turbulent relationship between the two men.
Grainy archive footage shows Truffaut’s seminal film, The 400 Blows, triumphing at the Cannes Film Festival. A present-day, nameless girl studies newspaper cuttings. Narrator Antoine de Baecque (also the writer) introduces, in a roundabout way, New Wave cinema and its protagonists, Truffaut and Godard. Told almost exclusively through the use of archive footage, both of the men and of their films, the documentary charts their family backgrounds, their work as critics for the Cahiers du Cinema and the relationship forged between them.
Interview clips reveal a typically French, philosophical approach to filmmaking – Godard explains how cinema blurs the lines between art and reality – and excerpts from their films, particularly The 400 Blows and Godard’s Breathless, show how their philosophy developed in their work. At this point, the two were great friends and worked closely together, often with the young actor Jean-Pierre Leaud as their muse, but de Baecque hints at the differences between them. While Godard sees cinema in a social sense, reconciling it with reality and all that goes with it, Truffaut is intent on producing a poetic narrative, a great piece of cinema, a work of art. More footage then introduces the riots which paralysed France in May 1968 and which reached to the heart of cinema, and reveals the events which led to that dramatic rupture in the New Wave movement...
The documentary aims to show the personal story behind one of the most interesting and exciting periods of French cinema. It is clear that Laurent and de Baecque (a film historian) know their subject intimately and have done their research. The sheer wealth of archive footage and the way it is woven together demonstrates this. However, the story is told so dispassionately that the viewer never feels like they get any real insight into Truffaut and Godard.
One of the problems is that the New Wave has been so well-documented, with so many books and films about it, that in order to add anything new to the subject, a documentary would have to be innovative and extraordinary. This is neither. The delivery is in a very straightforward, history-channel manner and it continues in that vein for the entire ninety minutes. This style might work in some contexts, but here, given the fact that it is discussing two non-conformist, pioneering, creative individuals, it is unintentionally ironic.
The inescapable fact is that this is a French film about French film, so has a slightly desperate air of nostalgia about it, rather than looking to be creative. Not all retrospectives feel like this, but here, although the story is about Truffaut and Godard, there is a real sense that it is looking wistfully back at the glory days of French cinema. To understand Godard’s philosophy or Truffaut’s narrative, how they worked together and what could have caused them to fall out, it would be far more powerful to watch one of their films. Their own work gives a far greater insight into them than this collection of archive footage does.
One completely baffling element of the film is the mute girl that the film cuts to every so often, with an arty close-up of her face, then of her hands turning over pages of newspaper cuttings about Truffaut and Godard. She then goes for a wander around Paris, pausing outside a cinema we later see in the archive footage. At first, her presence in the film looks like it’s taking us in a different direction, but actually she has no real purpose at all. Perhaps she is supposed to connect the viewer with the archives, therefore making them more immediate, as if her interest in the story will rub off on us. In fact, these scenes merely provoke puzzlement as to their inclusion, leaving the viewer more removed than ever.
The documentary gets some things right. The interview clips, particularly of Godard, are interesting and hook the viewer in momentarily. Equally, for viewers looking for an introduction to New Wave Cinema, the social background and its key figures, there is a lot of clearly presented, accurate information here. It just does not go that step further and add anything new or any perceptive ideas, and it lacks the lustre to make it really incisive and enjoyable. There are books which bring this movement and its personalities to life with more passion and zeal. Films about film are difficult to pull off and sadly this one does not manage it particularly well.
New Wave aficionados and die-hard fans of Truffaut and Godard will find delight in the wealth of archive footage, but as a film and a contribution to French cinema, Two In The Wave leaves a lot to be desired. KS
Two In The Wave is the story of a friendship and of a break-up. Jean-Luc Godard was born in 1930; Francois Truffaut two years later. Love of movies brings them together. They write in the same magazines, Cahiers du Cinema and Arts.
When the younger of the two becomes a filmmaker with Les 400 coups (The 400 Blows), which triumphs in Cannes in 1959, he helps his older friend shift to directing, offering him a screenplay which already has a title, A bout de souffle (Breathless). Through the 1960s, the two loyally support each other.
History and politics separate them in 1968, and afterwards - when Godard plunges into radical politics but Truffaut continues his career as before. Between the two of them, the actor Jean-Pierre Léaud is torn like a child caught between two separated and warring parents. Their friendship and their break-up embody the story of French cinema.
Exploring the letters, personal archives and films of the two New Wave directors, Two In The Wave takes us back to a prodigious decade that transformed the world of cinema.
Film: Two In The Wave Release date: 11th April 2011 Certificate: TBC Running time: 91 mins Director: Emmanuel Laurent Starring: Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard Genre: Documentary Studio: New Wave Format: DVD Country: France
Film: Two In The Wave Release date: 11th February 2011 Certificate: TBC Running time: 91 mins Director: Emmanuel Laurent Starring: Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard Genre: Documentary Studio: New Wave Format: Cinema Country: France
Two In The Wave documents the relationship between arguably the two most influential artists of the French New Wave movement, François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. The film principally focuses on the ideals celebrated by both, uniting them in friendship, and the point at which this friendship dissolves instigating the end of the Nouvelle Vague era. However, instead of a story of collaboration and teamwork, Emmanuel Laurent presents us with a film about two quite different forces running parallel for a while, until they inevitably go their separate ways. Cannes Film Festival, 1959, sees the success of a film called 400 Blows, the first of François Truffaut’s and France’s New Wave feature films. Despite a complete rejection of the old and respected cinematic ways, 400 Blows is received with enthusiastic salutations; the coming of a new, more real filming style is drawn in to the bosom of the French film world, changing cinema forever.
The documentary’s opening scenes show footage taken at the time of the festival, and from here, with our touring guide, Antoine de Baecque as narrator, we are taken on a general chronological journey of the beginnings of the New Wave period to the end of it.
Through interviews, film clips and newspaper snippets, we track the progression of Truffaut and Godard from boys enamoured with the big screen, sampling films in their hundreds, and starting film clubs and societies along the way. Their rapture in cinema leads them to jobs writing for film magazine Cahiers du Cinema, under Editor-in-Chief and mentor André Bazin, and from there, they formed alliances and gained respect, leading to everlasting careers in filmmaking.
Influenced and utilised by both artists, actor Jean-Pierre Leaud, star of 400 Blows (and Truffaut’s on-screen autobiographical representation), becomes torn between the two; and eventually, “his voyage with two fathers of the New Wave…ends on a sad note.”
The artists finally go their own separate ways after the May 1968 student and worker strikes in France, and depart on hostile terms. Via aggressive correspondence, Godard scolds Truffaut for his “lack of critique,” while he, on the other hand, becomes more and more politically motivated in the making of his films. The two never meet again...
By and large, the artists talk of the same ideals and principles behind New Wave cinema, however, although they may have come to the same conclusion, we are shown how their motivations were quite different, and how that caused a divide between them.
Godard came from a good, wealthy family, and we see him in photographs on the shores of Lake Leman in Switzerland where he grew up. Truffaut, however, had a lonely and unhappy youth, and having been through prison twice, was “saved by cinema” as a form of education. For Godard, it was more a “school of life,” of what could come from it and the reaction it could achieve. By comparing their backgrounds, Laurent affords the viewer to better understand what inevitably drove the two apart by what was rooted in their psyche; for one, cinema was above all a pure aesthetic medium – a way of life - and for the other, it was a platform for socio-political representation.
Laurent supplies us with old interview footage of Truffaut and Godard, of which we receive images of two very different people. Godard, a year older than Truffaut, spoke with a closed mouth, wore dark glasses, and had a grave countenance. Truffaut painted quite a different picture. A friendlier expression hosted a sense of enthusiasm and warmth. We see in selected clips he often fiddles with something in his hands whilst answering a question – a slight nervousness implying innocence. He has an altogether more welcoming character.
Consciously or not, these chosen clips suggest Laurent, certainly, has a more hospitable view of Truffaut, and this is also seen amongst other material included in the documentary. When Truffaut succeeds at Cannes with 400 Blows, Laurent includes a remark from Godard; “Truffaut’s a b**tard. No thought for me!” And it is Truffaut who has the last word of the two in the film. In Two in the Wave, a more sympathetic view of Truffaut is begot, and fans of Godard may find slight contention here.
The documentary itself is evidently made for those familiar with New Wave cinema; if you haven’t seen a film with ‘l’essence de Nouvelle Vague’, this film doesn’t provide a text book study. However, those familiar with the genre might appreciate Laurent’s subtle salutes of homage in the use of French actress Isild Le Besco. As she silently studies erstwhile newspapers and magazines, long, clean close ups of her face occupy the screen; and as she visits former New Wave points of interest, a hand-held camera accompanies her on the streets of Paris.
The chosen footage in the film leaves no gaps for concern. It helps that there are a lot of interviews with the two main men; first hand footage of the subjects allows for a better understanding of who they were, and the viewer doesn’t feel they are being dictated an essay. What may have been beneficial in making the documentary more complete would have been the inclusion of films pre-New Wave, or even some influential Italian Neorealist material, for example. There is also limited information on other New Wave artists and their work - it is obvious Laurent doesn’t want to detract too much from the relationship he sees as key in the dynamics of French New Wave cinema.
The story of Truffaut and Godard is respectfully told in this interesting and informative documentary, however, there is a pro-Truffaut feeling. Laurent allows us an insight in to the motivations that first sparked and then felled a friendship, giving energy to one of the most influential movements in film history. MI
Two In The Wave is the story of a friendship and of a break-up. Jean-Luc Godard was born in 1930; Francois Truffaut two years later. Love of movies brings them together. They write in the same magazines, Cahiers du Cinema and Arts.
When the younger of the two becomes a filmmaker with Les 400 coups (The 400 Blows), which triumphs in Cannes in 1959, he helps his older friend shift to directing, offering him a screenplay which already has a title, A bout de souffle (Breathless). Through the 1960s, the two loyally support each other.
History and politics separate them in 1968, and afterwards - when Godard plunges into radical politics but Truffaut continues his career as before. Between the two of them, the actor Jean-Pierre Léaud is torn like a child caught between two separated and warring parents. Their friendship and their break-up embody the story of French cinema.
Exploring the letters, personal archives and films of the two New Wave directors, Two In The Wave takes us back to a prodigious decade that transformed the world of cinema.
Film: Two In The Wave Release date: 11th February 2011 Certificate: TBC Running time: 91 mins Director: Emmanuel Laurent Starring: Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard Genre: Documentary Studio: New Wave Format: Cinema Country: France
