French New Wave Movie Posters
IMAGINARIUM : An Alternate History of Art
Hello everyone, here is the transcript of the first ever episode of IMAGINARIUM, written years ago, when I started the podcast on a whim after being laid off (temporarily) from my museum job at the beginning of the pandemic. I feel like I have grown as a writer since, and it is lovely to notice and know this. Movie posters are a subject that fascinates me and that I will probably come back to, especially now that I feel like I am a better art historian and writer. But for now, I give you, again, this episode in which I explore the posters of the French New Wave.
TRANSCRIPT :
Welcome to Imaginarium: an alternate history of art. A podcast where we delve in to the most obscure parts of art history. Hello dear listeners, I’m your host Nadjah, and in this podcast, we try to shed light on less studied parts of the history of art and visual culture. In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about the posters for the movies of the french new wave. Let’s begin.
First of all, before we dive right in, i think it's important to really talk about what was the french new wave and what it meant for the world of cinema at large, and then we’ll get to discuss the actual posters that were created for these movies and learn more about the visual aesthetic of this movement in the second half of the episode. The french new wave, or La Nouvelle Vague, as it’s called in french, is a cinematic film genre that started at the end of the 1950s and throughout the 1960s in France. The french new wave movies were movies that wanted to break the old rules of filmmaking and challenge the norms of the film industry and storytelling through that medium. It was artistic and new. And a much needed breath of fresh air in an industry that really needed it.
Before we really get into it, I just need to set the context, mostly the historical context in the movie industry during that era. This period in history was a time where the movie industry, especially in Hollywood, was breaking with what used to be the traditional way of filmmaking. The Studio System of the golden age of Hollywood was falling down, and this eventually made way for newer and younger filmmakers with a new vision of what movies were meant to be. It’s possible to see a real break between the cinema that was produced in the first half of the 20th century vs the one that was created during its second half. As I said, the decline of what is known to us as the Hollywood studio system is what made possible for newer methods of filmmaking to see the day. But What Is The Studio System Nadjah ? you ask. The studio system is the main way movies used to be made during the first half of the 20th century. These big film studios, some of which are still around today, such as Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Warners Bros or Metro Goldwyn Mayer, were the ones who oversaw and controlled the entirety of the production of the movies. The studios oversaw everything from the actors (who were often tied in a very long contract to a specific studio) to the directing and the editing. The studio system made it so that the movies were really credited to a studio rather than to a specific director. You would go to see a MGM flick or a paramount movie, but it wasn't about the directors or the writers. It would be about the actors though, the star power of certain actors was incredibly important to draw people to the cinema, hence why the studios would tie them in very long exclusive contracts.
ANYWAY .. .If you want to know more about the history of cinema and of Hollywood during that era, I can recommend a few things. First of all. I can recommend a podcast I really adore from Karina Longworth called You Must Remember This. Which is an amazing podcast that focuses on the history of Hollywood during its first century, and it's fascinating and she has much more knowledge on the subject than I ever will so please do check it out. The second thing that I can recommend in terms of learning more about Cinema and Cinema History would be the youtube channel called : be kind, rewind. which focuses mainly on actresses, but is absolutely delightful. I follow so many more youtube channels and websites on the subject of cinema history, but this is a convo for another. The important thing to remember here is that the studio system is a way of making movies that was more about producing them very quickly and that didn’t really give the credit to a specific person but to the entire studio. The french new wave started during that period where the studio system was slowly but surely dying out. It all started with the cinema magazine called “cahiers du cinema” or notebooks of cinema, in 1951. Even though it was founded by Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, several future French New Wave directors such as Jean Luc Godard, Éric Rohmer and François Truffaud were writing for this cinema magazine. At that moment in time, They were only film critics and talked about their opinions about the movies that they watched and what cinema should be like in their opinions. Truffaud wrote an article that later ended up being the quote unquote manifesto for this younger generation of filmmakers. This article was titled “a certain tendency of the french cinema” and was published in 1954 . There was a definite climate of wanting to rethink the cinema as it was. To make it something that was more representative of the youth, of the lives they were leading. And then, they made those opinions and reflexions on cinema a reality in the shape of their own movies and thus... The French New Wave was born.
The movies that came out during the french new wave had a very specific style, and also a new set of stories the filmmakers wanted to tell. The french new wave, with its new form of storytelling, and its desire to really capture how people truly lived and experience emotions, had a different type of cinematic visuals. A more “realistic” and yet, somehow, in my very humble opinion, a more (fake/cinematic/theatrical) way of filming a movie. It was very modern and contemporary, dans l’air du temps as some might say.
Some of the points that characterizes a movie of this genre will be, and this is far from an exhaustive list and it’s neither an exclusive list either. Just some points that were often found in these movies.. so without any order or what not, there were often very long takes, the movies were shot directly w the light that was available as they often shot the movies on location instead of using lavish and highly produced extravagant sets , the camera was often handheld and the editing contained a lot of jump cuts and a choppy non linear editing instead of the accepted normalized chronological continuity.
This era was mainly a period of transition, there was a desire to take cinema in a new direction because people were bored of the old cinema. In a period of cultural transition and cultural change, it was logical that the way of making media would also change as well. With a revolutionary-inclined youth, came, of course, revolutionary cinema. They started to make the transition from film critics to filmmakers during the second half of the 1950s to finally become the well recognized film directors that we now know. Along with these iconic directors, were a lot of key actors of the genre, actors such as Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Their movies often referenced American films, especially gangster and noir movies, but also. often referenced each other. It would be possible to find a reference to a Truffaut movie in a Godard movie, and vice versa. Their movies were adding a level of intertextuality and layers upon layers of references from cinema history which shows that these movies were made by people who cared terribly much about films.
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One of the key components of the french new wave is that it’s the genre that effectively kickstarted the concept of the auteur when it comes to cinema. So this era is the first one that brought to the movie industry the concept of cinematic auteurs. A Concept that shaped radically the way we now view films and filmmaking. The theory of the auteur argues that there’s one specific vision, the one of the director, that is the guiding thread in the whole entire movie , meaning that the movie is no longer considered like an amalgam of the work and efforts of several people like it used to be, overseen by the all seeing eye of the studio. it instead becomes the apotheoses of the vision of one single person : the director of the movie.
It’s a theory and a way of seeing things that still permeates the way we think about cinema in today’s world. We can think about current filmmakers such as Guillermo Del Toro, Wes Anderson, Bong Joon Ho to name really juST A FEW… like there are so many filmmakers have such a distinct way of making films to the point where it's easily recognizable. You see a Wes Anderson movie, you know immediately that it’s a wes Anderson movie. You see a Quentin Tarantino movie…. well for better or for worse, you know that it’s a Tarantino movie. No do not ask me my opinions on this filmmaker, it won't end well for any of us.
Anyway This idea of the auteur truly shaped the way we think about filmmaking. We consider the director as the sole creative power behind a movie and while it’s a decisive one, as i said previously, it wasn’t always like this. This way of thinking also somewhat gives credit for the creation of an entire movie to a single entity : the director. and it was the french new wave who really solidified that way of seeing things, when it came to directing and creating movies. Auteur, or as it usually is pronounced in french, auteur, simply means the author. the writer, the creator, and it really does put a lot of creative power, and also. The credit. for making a movie, solely on the shoulders of one single person. The Auteurs of the french new wave and whom we will be talking very shortly are people like Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Jacques Demy, François Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, Agnes Varda) This new wave of rebellious filmmakers ended up completely changing the way cinema was approached.
The main directors of the genre all knew each other somehow, from Truffaut and Godard who were close friends to Agnes Varda and her husband Jacques Demy. The circle of french new wave filmmakers was a small one where everyone knew each other and whose movies were all in the general vibe of the era. And yet, somehow, the reverberations of these movies can still be felt today, even in mainstream Hollywood cinema.
There’s a lot of french new wave movies that I could talk about, but I think one of the most significant ones is the movie BREATHLESS / À BOUT DE SOUFFLE by the director Jean-Luc Godard. For me, all of his movies are the best example of what a french new wave movie is. With movies such a Pierrot le Fou, Alphaville, A Woman is A Woman, Contempt and Band of Outsiders he rapidly became one of the title directors of the movement .With movies such as those and his very unique style of directing, Godard very quickly became one of the most well-known cineast of the french new wave, both domestically and internationally.
So, Breathless (1960) from the director Jean-Luc Godard is the one movie that is really emblematic of the new wave and the changes that were starting to happen in the industry of filmmaking in France. Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, this movie follows a french criminal on the run and his American girlfriend, and more than the story it was telling, it was the way that story was told through the medium of film that really shook the public, the critics and film goers of the time. The movie was shot mostly with a hand-held camera and the way the editing was done, was against all the understood rules of editing and putting together a movie.
I mentioned Godard, but let me just talk v briefly about the movies that were made during that era, you had François truffaud w his autobiographical series w the movie The 400 blows, or Agnes Varda w her documentaries and movies that were so uniquely infused with her talent as a filmmaker (yes i would die for Agnes varda, no do not look at me) such as les demoiselles avaient vingt ans, du côté de la côte, le bonheur, the iconic movie cléo from 5 to 7, which plays in real time and is one of her most famous movies and one of the best of the genre. . There’s also her husband Jacques Démy who shot Lola (1960), Donkey’s Skin, The umbrellas of cherbourg, the young girls of Rochefort, etc. Eric Rohmer is also one of these filmmakers who made beautiful, interesting movies during that era such as Claire's knee and la collectionneuse. He also did the short movie Nadja à Paris which i love because she Almost has my name, but it's genuinely a beautiful short movie so if you can somehow manage to watch it, it's very lovely
When it comes to the visual aesthetics of the movies, the french new wave really did bring in a new way of thinking about cinematography and the actual act of filming and thinking the way the movies were also edited. It brought a distinct way of thinking about the visual elements of the movies as well as the way that medium is used to tell a story and Which story to tell. For that specific generation of filmmakers, they sought to experiment and push the boundaries of what it meant to make a movie. And while a lot has been written about the movies of the french new wave, there hasn't been as much that was written about the visual assets that accompanied the movies, namely the posters that advertised these films.
In the same logic of how the french new wave movies brought this newer, younger vision of cinema, the same thing happened when it came to the visual posters to advertise these movies. It makes sense that these posters would also be shocking and modern, to showcase what kind of movie you were going to see. It wouldn’t work to create a more traditional layout of a classic Hollywood poster, when the movies were so different from what people were used to. Maybe with the starlet of the movie, in the forefront, facing the camera, the title of the movie and the names of the actors. Despite also having these basic elements in their designs, the way they were graphically arranged was drastically different.
Visually, these new posters were very defined, with bright colors, a lot of primary colors and geometrical patterns and a lot of collage designs. This was also the beginning of the 1960s with the influence of the general change in culture and fashion also influencing the trends of graphic design. What is particular w the french new wave as well as the changes in the visual aesthetic, is that it wasn’t just centered in France/ within that french new wave movement, but more that the french new wave movement was something that was reflecting a bigger change in mentality that was happening during that era. The 1960s is known for being a period of change, of transition.
So this means, what was then created reflected the rapid changes that were happening, the creators, from the filmmakers to the graphic designers were pushing boundaries and generally accepted norms and conventions when it came to the medium they created in. They were very Very defined visually, which makes sense when we think about which movies they were supposed to represent and to sell. These posters also pushed boundaries when it came to visual arts and graphic design, with new layouts and shapes, with vibrant colors, these posters showed the beginning of a new film genre.
René Ferracci, was a french artistic director and poster designer. Born in 1927 and died in 1982, Ferracci was one of the most prolific poster designers of his time, mostly between the 1950s and 1980s, in which the French new wave is squarely in. He was one of those poster designers that ended up working several times with the same director for their movies. He did a lot of posters, 5 from what I could find, for Jean-Luc Godard, and 9 for the movies of François Truffaut. So even though he wasn’t the only poster designer working at the time and he was Of His time and within the general trend for graphic design, i think it’s fair to say that he probably was one of the cornerstones of how the visuals of the movie posters of that particular cinematic genre developed. From Belle de jour to Pierrot Le Fou, as well as Stolen Kisses and The Bride Wore Black, he designed the posters for some of the most eponymous movies of the era and really helped to create the visual identity of this era.
Visually, all of the posters from the french new wave are colorful, striking, they were the symbol of a new generation that was taking the world of cinema by storm. Some of the techniques used for these posters were the use of vibrant colors, it's possible to see that the use of primary colors such as blues, yellows and reds. These colors are bold, daring and are very much In Your Face. The work of Jouineau Bourduge for Shoot on the pianist (1960) shows the character over a solid bright yellow background. Sometimes, there’s a contrast of the images of the characters in black and white against the colorful background, as can be seen in one of the posters for Vivre Sa Vie (1962) by Vaissier. The use of geometrical shapes is very prevalent and is also the basis for the composition of a lot of these film posters. Stripes and circles and various shapes of all sorts. Collages and photomontages also take a prevalent part in the visual landscape of 1960s french new wave posters. As poster designers were trying to make more visually compelling, they really made a lot of effort to try new techniques and methods to push the boundaries of what is traditionally accepted in terms of poster design.
Before we go, I put a bunch of relevant resources on today’s subject in the show notes, you have some books as well as some theses and articles that you can read if you maybe want to further your knowledge and read more on the subject. I also linked a Letterboxd list with the must-see french new wave movies. As always, all the relevant images will also be on all of our social platforms @ imaginarium_pod on instagram as well as on twitter. If you want to support this podcast, you can do so on patreon @ patreon.com/nadjah. Reviewing and rating this show also helps tremendously.
and before i bid you goodbye, Today’s recommendation of the day is a book that i really adore and that has been adapted in a movie during the period of the french new wave, I haven't talked about it because it's an American adaptation of a french book which means it does not fall in line within the genre of french new wave, but i still think it's a marvelous book and movie , i am now recommending you both the book Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan (which literally translates to hi, sadness) as well as the cinematic adaptation of it in 1958. On this, my very dear listeners, I wish you all a very lovely day, evening or night. and hopefully i will see you again very soon.
twitter & ig : @imaginarium_pod
music: Dream Escape - The Tides
ADDITIONAL CONTENT:
-LIST OF FRENCH NEW WAVE MOVIES
NOURMAND, Tony. Film Posters of the 60s: The Essential Movies of the Decade, Overlook Books, 1998.
Not Just for the French—Why So Many Graphic Designers Took the ’60s New Wave Vibe and Ran With It