Anna KARINA returns to the New Wave movement, its posterity, its reception. She explains that the audience at the time was extremely divided, some singing Godard’s films, others rejecting them en bloc.
Philippe LABRO describes the origin of the Cahiers du Cinéma and receives several of its representatives: Claude CHABROL, Jean-Luc GODARD, Jacques RIVETTE and Jacques DONIOL VALCROZE.
Françoise Giroud revient sur l'usage du terme Nouvelle Vague, qu'elle a utilisé pour la première fois pour une enquête dans l'Express sur cette tranche d'âge.
Jean Claude BRIALY talks about his meeting with the directors of the Nouvelle Vague.He explains that he danced and played the comedy during an evening, in order to attract their attention. He then returns to his first films, such as "Le coup du berger" by Jacques Rivette.
The filmmaker Jean ROUCH evokes the origin of the New Wave. The new aesthetics, including outdoor filming and the presence of non-professional actors, were first guided by the lack of resources. According to him, it was a free cinema "a freedom that came out of poverty as always".
In the framework of a festival organized by the "Cahiers du cinéma", interview of Godard: for him the common denominator of these films, it is their independent character that implies a struggle, courage on the part of the directors.
Claude CHABROL revisits the production context of his first film, "Le beau Serge", which he financed with a legacy from his wife. He explains that he then produced the films of other members of the Nouvelle Vague like Éric Rohmer. He goes back to the creation of the term "New Wave" by Françoise Giroud and recalls that the directors of this movement were ultimately "very different from each other", their only real link being friendship.
Interviewed by Olivier LORSAC, Jean Louis TRINTIGNANT explains how Eric Rohmer directed him in the film "Ma nuit chez Maud". According to ROHMER’s written instructions, the actor must have hesitation at certain moments in his lines. "it is an obvious language, very elegant, very written, but at the same time very spoken...it is a great pleasure to say this text".
Interview with Jacques RIVETTE on the cinema "in the process of being made": instead of premeditated films we see films that invent themselves according to the very vision of the film on the screen; it is like the new novel: the reader is at the same time as the novelist; present, immediacy perpetual; idem with serial music; This is true for all current arts.
Claude CHABROL evokes the theories of the New Wave concerning cinematographic realization. He does not systematically condemn filming in the studio, "the truth is to use the means of cinema according to what one has to say".
Interviewed by Anne SINCLAIR, François TRUFFAUT speaks about The New Wave in the 1960s. According to him, "it was a group without a partisan program to rejuvenate the cinema". He points out that they wanted to make films more personal and shot in real sets.
Interview of Agnès VARDA who has just directed her first film "La Pointe courte". She recounts how this adventure was possible and talks about its creative process.