After his successful Hit Man, director Richard Linklater has teamed up again with Netflix, for Nouvelle Vague, though, oddly, it is getting a very limited cinema release here, with no current plans to put it on the streaming service.
It tells the behind the scenes story of the filming of Jean-Luc Goddard’s new wave classic, Breathless (A Bout de Souffle) in 1959. Guillame Marbeck stars as the director, with Adrien Rouyard and Antoine Besson as fellow new and acclaimed film makers Francois Truffaut and Claude Chabrol. The stars of Breathless, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg are played by Aubry Dullin and Zoey Deutch.
I think you need to have some knowledge and appreciation of the French New Wave (i.e., Nouvelle Vague) film movement in order to enjoy this movie. In the opening scenes, we are introduced to a large number of characters, so that could be hard to navigate. There are also moments, such as when Goddard encounters Robert Bresson filming his iconic Pickpocket that require a certain understanding of the time to enjoy. By that time, and the filming is underway, the movie had really clicked into gear. Seeing Goddard’s revolutionary methods is fascinating and Marbeck is excellent as the inspirational but infuriating auteur, with Deutch almost his match.
Even as someone who appreciates Breathless for its influence rather than as a great film in itself, and who does not care for the majority of Goddard’s output, I found this very entertaining.
Rating: 8 out of 10