Essay on the term ‘national cinema’ in relation to the French New Wave or Italian Neo-Realism
The French New Wave branch of cinema defined a generation, a nation and an entire film industry with its originality and intense vision that would be admired and drawn on for inspiration until this very day. François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard amongst others, were rebuilding the very basis of filmmaking, and were driven as part of the French New Wave movement with a real desire to create a new cinema that could speak of more than the ‘safe and standard film industry’ could to its viewers. A cinema that, according to Peter Graham in his book, The New Wave, was a ‘revolution in production in the attitude of the public and in particular the producers.’
This was a cinema born of Frenchmen, women were no where to be seen as far as directors went during the new wave, who loved film. They were a group who had mostly been significant national critics in a magazine called ‘Cahiers du Cinéma,’ and more importantly a group who wanted to bring greatness to France in the movie industry.
This very unique brand of ‘national cinema’ is interesting in that while these films indeed followed a pattern and were very French in form, they could not be said to have been over derivative and were ‘nationally based’ very much within the directors wishes to be ‘auters’ or original individuals. Bazin claimed that If the cinema is an art, it is an art created in the face of every restriction imposed on art.
Certainly art is a pathway to transcendence, but it owes it to itself to lead the way there, rather than just to reproduce it and to lead the way via immanence and liberty. Only free cinema can do this, for its prime element is life itself! Indeed, the very term ‘auter’ refers to the…
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Tags: cinema, film auter, film industry, French New Wave, Italian Neo-Realism, national cinema
